If your future self could send you one sentence,
what do you hope it would say?
If my future self could send me one sentence, I hope it might say: “The people mattered more than the projects.”
My mother often told me that I took on too much and needed to do less. She was probably right. The trouble was that I loved ideas. I would see something that could be done, imagine what it might become, and before long passion had taken over.
I don’t regret that. Looking back, everything worthwhile I have done has created something beyond the project itself: relationships, learning, opportunities or structures that helped people grow. That is what mattered.
Sometimes it was simply the way people were treated. Sometimes it was a conversation, an encouragement, an opportunity or an act of trust. Sometimes it was creating a structure or environment in which people could discover things about themselves, develop their gifts, or become capable of things they had not imagined. And you never really know what fruit will come from that.
People move on. They form other relationships, lead organisations, raise families, teach, create, serve and shape communities. Something they learned, experienced or received along the way becomes part of what they then give to others. The influence keeps travelling, often far beyond anything we can see or measure.
That is why projects can be deceptive. They have beginnings and endings. They can be completed, evaluated and put in a report.
People cannot. They keep growing. They surprise us. They go on to do things we never expected and shape the world in ways we may never know about.
Perhaps that is what my future self would want to remind me. Keep having ideas. Keep building things. Keep pursuing worthwhile work. But remember what the work is really for.
The projects were worthwhile, but the people were the point.
The Afterword 
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