What projects do you prioritize with your free time?

Whether we spend the time on entertainment, home maintenance, or personal development, the choice of our personal projects impacts our lives. But do these projects end up shaping the nature of who we are?

Tiago Forte believes that our projects shape our identity. In a recent article on his website, Tiago looks at recent research into the topic, first by explaining exactly what a personal project is according to the researchers.

“Personal projects” by his definition include not just formal ones you might focus on at work, but informal ones as well. Toddlers are pursuing a project as they learn to walk. Lovers are pursuing a project as they fall in love. All the way to the highest reaches of human achievement, like landing on the moon.

The key factors in making them “personal” are that they are personally meaningful and that they are freely chosen, not imposed from the outside. Little’s research has shown that such “intrinsically regulated” projects tend to be more successful and lead to greater well-being than “externally regulated” projects.

In fact, Tiago believes that our choice of projects demonstrates who we are at our core.

This is a fundamentally different view of “personality”: We are not limited to a collection of traits fixed at birth, or shaped in childhood. We evolve over time through personally meaningful pursuits we decide to take on. This opens up the possibility that we can purposefully choose the ways we want to change, by choosing projects that give us new skills, perspectives, and ways of thinking.

In other words, by changing what you do, you can change who you are.

To learn more, please visit the Forte Labs website to read the rest of the article.