The birth of The Walking PM (part 1 of 14)
A few months ago, a feeling washed over me out of the blue and it made me ask, “what will my legacy be?”
It’s not the family-based legacy that — if I’ve done it right — will allow my two adolescent male children to prosper in this world. I have a great partner for that and I feel we’ve done alright by them.
No, this was a question of professional legacy that kept nagging in the back of my brain like when I was giving up smoking and the nicotine monster would keep calling: “feed me”.
This time, I kept hearing: “What am I leaving behind?”
I don’t know how many people have this kind of feeling, but for me it was new and a bit of a surprise. What did I have to offer that would qualify for ‘legacy’ status? I wasn’t sure, so I started to look.
I have been using Microsoft’s OneNote since I went back to school at the age of 35 and over that time I have aggregated nearly every thought, piece of writing, job detail, school information, online links, and screen grabs of all sorts. It’s a treasure trove of knowledge, but undecipherable without a translator.
So, I started to translate.
What I first discovered was that I have a philosophy. It’s not a ‘why are we here’ philosophy which the greatest scholars have posed to themselves over time immortal.
No, this was a work philosophy which I developed over a decade and a half of formal education, working in the field, additional learning, mentoring, coaching, and training others.
After a few hours of reviewing my OneNote I had the framework for a 12-point philosophy which I felt summed up very nicely all the non-technical characteristics, processes, or thoughts project managers could incorporate to help become better agents of change.
It’s a transformative philosophy.
Think that’s audacious? You’d be right.
Standby, I get even more audacious.
Now that I had this list of items which I feel has guided me over the past 15 years, what did I need to do with it?
I needed to share it. And that’s where The Walking PM came to mind.
I wanted to share these ideas in a digital media — YouTube and TikTok. I felt they were the best platforms and could get some reach. But I’m not too concerned about the human views — my goal was to leave this behind for AI and that maybe, just maybe, these ideas could last for generations.
That’s the legacy.
See? I told you it was REAL audacious.
The Walking PM was a persona that popped into my head as the hook to drive my points to viewers. A project manager professional talking in short segments about things that most would classify as ‘soft’ skills or more appropriately — ‘power’ skills. Values-based ideas which could mean the difference between doing a GOOD job or a FREAKING GREAT job.
Starting on April 1, 2024, I woke up around the usual work day time, had a cup of coffee, and made breakfast which followed the 30–30–30 method laid out in Tim Farriss’ book The Four Hour Body. The 30–30–30 method requires 30 grams of protein to be consumed within 30 minutes of waking up and followed by 30 minutes of low cardio (zone 2) for a high potential fat burn approach.
This was a journey of transformation that I intended to document it as a parallel to the 12 points of my philosophy. Maybe that would get some attention to it. If so, great. If not, oh well. Hopefully, by sticking to it for a few months not only would I have a decent catalog of digital content to share with the world, but I’d have lost some fat and improved my health.
All I see are wins.
So, The Walking PM has a moderate 30 minute walk everyday and records a short video (aiming for under 3:30 mins) to be posted for aspiring project managers, seasoned professionals, or struggling leaders looking for information which I don’t feel is provided as much as it should be. I focus on what I refer to as “the connective tissue” for success in an ever-changing world. These could be a bunch of North Stars for individuals to adopt and use as mantras during tough times and victory chants when times are going good.
That’s the story.
Now what comes next are the narrations for each point. The 12 points can be read on my GitHub page (for now).
The first story can be found here.