Places of Peril

 

The company I work for is based in the U.S. Midwest and the magazines around the office are different than those that may be found in my living room.  This was a magazine about the outdoors and hunting. One magazine cover caught my eye.  It was a picture of a man on a horse slowly climbing a mountainside only to have his horse rear back because of a ferocious looking, growling black bear creeping around the bend towards them.  The feature article was titled, “Places of Peril: How Sporting Art Made Us Fear the Outdoors”.  It got me thinking..  In Project Management, have we been steered away from chasing our goals because of places of peril?

About Ten years ago, I was coming to the realization that my career, no matter how many twists and turns I took and how often I thought I would feel comfortable in another role, I was geared towards having Project Management be a part of my full time profession.  It just felt comfortable to me.  So, like the man on the horse, I slowly began climbing the mountainside of Project Management.  I knew I needed to start somewhere.  I joined an organization that I thought would be the best to further my career and would give me the ability to meet people that were just like me; those colleagues that shared the same drive and it was at that time when I signed up for membership with the Project Management Institute (PMI).

As the journey began, I figured the best place to start was to attend a few local Chapter meetings.  I remember the first meetings I attended and that I was very intimidated.  As I entered the conference room I looked around and convinced myself that everyone there was already well versed in this Project Management profession, they all already had created close bonds within the membership, and they weren’t looking to meet anyone new.  This was all in my head of course, but at the time I was just plain scared to leap into the fray.  I now, more than ever, felt like that man on the horse where all of the members were the bears creeping towards me just getting ready to scare me away.  Ignoring those fears as best as I could I decided to take a seat at the first open table and began introducing myself.  To my surprise, everyone was very friendly and interested in meeting new people, and sharing their own project management knowledge and support.

Months passed and by now I had felt comfortable attending these meetings and even looked forward to meeting new people.  The members were awesome, inviting, and even wanted to help a young Project Manager with finding his way.  They knew that they, too, were once like me and were similarly afraid like the man on the horse.  I also found out that the best way to fight the fear was to get more involved.  I found that I had to ignore the feelings that I was “dinner” for the black bears creeping around the bend.  At times, I even forgot about that place of peril in my mind,

Within the first year of membership, I became an active member and chairperson of a small breakfast time roundtable group.  Within four years of being a member, I was voted in as the Executive Vice President of the local Chapter and stayed on as such for four years.  And, no places of peril along the way! The first year in the organization brought me to new places within and away from the Chapter.  Specific to the Chapter, I made numerous new friends and contacts. I remembered the fear that I once had and used it as motivation to approach members who looked lost as they entered the conference room.  I made sure I headed over to a table in the conference room where I didn’t know any of the attendees.  I wanted to make these people feel welcome, just like those who did that for me ten years ago.

What I learned in my years as a member is probably what the man on the horse learned pretty quickly.  The visions that are sometimes created in our minds aren’t necessarily the truth and should not be seen as places of peril.  Sure, the artwork created in our minds can be exciting and raise our heart rates a little bit, but it’s those visions in our head that can cause us to miss some great opportunities.  What amazes me now, being closer to black bears myself in my time working in the Midwest, is that while these animals are very large and scary looking creatures, they are actually more frightened of humans than we are of them.  Next time you head into a Chapter meeting or a new group or organization, I implore you to look past the corner on the mountainside and realize that there are rewarding experiences to be found.