Architecture for Life as a Project

With most projects you need a way to structure and decompose your mission into various actionable parts. Portions of this decomposition are called architectures. A layered architecture for life is probably as good as any for a start. Here are some of the elements.

  1. Mission – Who am I? What impact do I want to make on the universe because I was here? What impact do I want to make on the universe because I am here? What mission will keep me engaged and compelled for as long as I’m here? How much is this a function of unaddressed framing created for me earlier in life? What do I want it to be? What is my purpose? Who gives it to me?
  2. Vision – Given my mission, what does my ideal life look like? How clear is this vision? How rigid is it? Is it achievable? If so, what if I did? Would I be ready to die or is it just a step along the path?
  3. Strategy – What are the principles that I’ll apply to achieving my vision? What families of tactics will I apply?
  4. Milestones – What intermediate milestones do I want to achieve along the path? What milestones are imposed upon me due to selected strategies? How much flexibility do I have or want to have? What assets will I have developed at each milestone? What course of future action does each milestone support?
  5. Plans – How do I get from where I’m at to the next milestone? What assets will I utilize? What technologies and techniques will I apply? How does this plan decompose into milestones and plans (aka tasks)? Plans need to be executed effectively and then efficiently (this may be a chosen strategic principle). How will I know when I’ve achieved the milestone? How will I know I’m on track? What is my delegation strategy (this is part of assets utilized)?
  6. Maintenance – What do I need to maintain while I’m working on my plans? Maintenance is support of assets that I’ll need to execute future plans. How do I maintain these assets most efficiently? Assets need to be maintained efficiently. How will I know that the asset is being adequately maintained?

It’s amazing how fractal this is. A vision is just a milestone. A task is just a plan in the small. Strategies, techniques, and technologies all come from the same bucket. Only mission or rather purpose stands alone.

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