40: Meditation

The Project
I've now received the new templates from the publishers and started typesetting the first couple of chapters of "Project Program and Portfolio Management in easy steps". The new layout looks good. It's due for publication next March so I've plenty of time but it's a big subject to cover in easy steps. Working largely on my own these days I sometimes forget about taking a break when I'm in the middle of a interesting topic but I usually find a little time for meditation at least once a day.

Meditation requires peace and quiet but in the hurly-burly of project life there are very few moments like that.  We do need these moments of tranquility to slow down, take stock and re-charge our batteries.  But how does a project manager use them?  

The poor project manager worries about what is happening or not happening on their project, frets about what else might go wrong and gets angry at life and the world for their problems.  

The Way  
The wise project manager uses the time to meditate calmly, returning to his inner self and becoming silent.  Through meditation we can start to understand the process and through understanding the process we can begin to understand the principle.  This is the way things happen so we begin to understand what is happening on the project.  

Returning is the movement of the Tao.  
Yielding is the way of the Tao.  
The ten thousand things are born of being.  
Being is born of not being.