Core Personal Projects

Professor Brian Little, a renowned Former Harvard University Lecturer, call the things we value and love the most our core personal projects. In Little’s #Free Trait Theory, it suggests that we are born with absolute cultural personality traits and were only able to act out of it if we work towards core personal projects.

Core personal projects, according to Little, dramatically improve our lives when we consider it meaningful, manageable, unduly stressful, and supported by others. Often times, we give great emotional weight to our core personal projects that when asked “How things are going?” we may respond with a rehearsed answer, but our true response relates to how well stand we it.

Professor Little, a high #self-monitor, a consummate introvert who loves his students dearly, is only able to break out of character and passionately lecture like a performer because of his core personal projects: opening students’ mind and attending to their well-being.

Finding your core personal projects can be quite difficult especially for introverts who have been living under extroverted ideals. Susan Cain, in her book¹, offers 3 steps on finding your own core personal projects:

1. Think back to what you loved doing as a child. How did you answer what you want to be when you grew up? Our unadulterated childhood whims may reveal our true desire.
2. Pay attention to the work you gravitate to. You may not like what you do with your current job, but we often do things as a means to our goal.
3. Finally, pay attention to what you envy. “Jealousy is an ugly emotion, but it tells the truth.” We desire the things we are envious of which may give away a hint to a suitable core personal project.