Where will I be in twenty years … what will my life look like? Have you ever asked yourself this question? Since I don’t know where I want to be, I don’t know how to answer. Every now and then – as I attempt to write this out – I need to SQUIRRELS distract myself so I don’t make my head explode or crawl under my bed and tuck into a fetal position.
I am remarkably immature and hilarious – yet delightfully knowledgeable – for a 43 year old architect. These traits have served me well in the past because I lack substantial body strength and if you are going to be a know-it-all, you’d better have a good sense of humor about it. I have chosen to believe that working with me is so much fun (while delivering a top-notch product) that I have escaped the swirly twirly stink-hole of death (AKA the last 3 years) relatively unscathed. I don’t need to tell most of you ICE CREAM SANDWICH that the economy has re-purposed umpteen thousands of architects into the role of meeter/greeter or coffee barista over the last few years. The idea that I am one (more) crazy House & Senate vote away from losing my job because nobody has any money to spend on luxury items (like hiring me) has kept me awake at night.
How will I provide for my family? Can I continue to make my mortgage payments? Jokes don’t pay the bills … unless you are really funny (which I am not) and can sell them to other people. (sigh) Carrot Top already has the bad jokes/ stupid look angle covered and working together with the stage name “Carrot Top and Whitey” just doesn’t sound right.
One thought that passed through my head was if I do get laid off, I would hang my shingle out and make a go at this myself. For most architects, this thought rattles around the noggin a lot. If you don’t like the piece of the pie you get where you work, (or there is no pie) go out on your own and make your own pie. HAMROX Most of my friends are reaching that stage in their lives where they could benefit from someone with my talents, I suppose if push came to shove, this would have to be something I’d consider.
In twenty years, what will the field of architecture look like and will that be something that I want to be a part of? The fun bits of my job are getting smaller and smaller every day and I have to look for new items of interests, some way to stay engaged. This post is getting BANANA HAMMOCK depressing but I suppose that is something that all architects are having to deal with. I can tell people my houses appreciate more than builder homes, I can point out that a large percentage of my architectural fee is normally recovered during the cost of construction by identifying issues before they’re built rather than solving the problem by pulling out the checkbook. How do I make the next 20 years better for me? I don’t have a clue … I can’t easily make people believe in doing something that they aren’t already inclined to believe.
What that means, to anyone who has stuck with me this far, is that I need to make the next twenty years about the journey and not the destination. I need to be a better father and husband. I need to wrestle with my daughter more often … I need to wrestle with my wife more often. I need to laugh a little harder, judge a little easier, drink by myself a little less and drink with friends a little more (not counting the 8 glasses of water a day since we’ll all be eating our food in capsule form).
In twenty years I’ll be 63 years old and just hitting my stride. I hope that things have gone well for me and my family, hopefully my daughter still loves me like she does right now, hopefully my wife still remembers why she married me, hopefully in twenty years…
.. I’ll still be hopeful.
Today’s topic was brought to you as part of a series called a “blog off” where several people are given a topic and subject title and they all write on that topic on the same day. It’s a fun exercise given the loose parameters that are established. Feel free to swing by any of these other participants web sites to see what spin they put on today’s topic. If you would like to hear what other people would do with their one day, you can go to their entries from the chart below (it will be populated throughout the day as posts get added)
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photos are from icultist’s photostream on Flickr (used under creative commons license)
I was having lunch with a friend of mine on Friday and we had a conversation that I thought would be a good topic for my blog: The importance of setting goals. There are a lot of talented and capable people out there that would be in far better off positions had they set goals and made their important life decisions based on achieving those goals rather than moving through their daily lives rudderless (even if they didn’t know it at the time).
I feel I am suited to speak on this topic because I am a walking case study in the results of not setting goals and the beneficiary of setting goals. I don’t use my blog for dishing out unsolicited advice too often so I hope you will indulge me on this. I am going to break this down into 3 sections and I will relate it my field (architecture) – but it works across any professional discipline.
Task Oriented Individual
The task oriented person generally has lower level responsibilities. They are given a specific task to do and that’s the extent of their responsibility. This does not mean that the task is simple or not important; it just means that the extent of responsibility is limited to accomplishing a part of the whole. In my field, some examples of tasks might be to draw the interior elevations, or dimension the floor plan, or fill out the window schedule. These are specific tasks that do not extend the responsibility upward.
Objectives/ Results Oriented Individual
The results oriented person has more responsibility than the task oriented person because they are in charge of achieving a set result and have the responsibility of determining how to get there. That means they are in charge of the tasks and the tasks oriented individuals. These are the project managers who are told the goal, “this project needs to be released for permitting in 6 weeks”. The project managers then go about the process of breaking the goal into tasks that can be distributed among team members. This group is good at executing a plan to achieve the objective.
Goal Oriented Individual
The goal oriented individual does not get distracted by the process but rather stays focused on the big picture – the goal. Determining the big picture is what the best leaders do but you have to go through the process of collecting the skills and abilities to effectively lead. You need to understand the tasks, how they come together in a plan that fulfills the objective, and how all the objectives together achieve a goal. There aren’t any shortcuts, you may have the ability to move through these categories more quickly than others, but make no mistake, you do need to go through the process. Everyone has experienced the boss who micro-manages things – is this ever brought up as a positive trait?
Finally, and here’s the rub for me when interfacing with people who are in leadership roles who don’t have the experience to be leaders; just because you want to be the leader (goal oriented individual), and think that you are the boss (goal oriented individual), this does not make you the leader. It takes time, you have to earn it, and you have to be recognized by your peers as someone who is capable of being the leader and the one determining the big picture. But that shouldn’t stop you from setting goals – otherwise how do you measure your course and development? You set goals to help chart you through the growth and development process. If your goal is to become a partner in your firm, are your current responsibilities pointing you in the right direction? If you work for a small firm and the only way you are going to become a partner is if someone dies, when do you determine it’s time to leave?
Goals can help you achieve many things by focusing your energies toward the objective. I decided that I wanted to become a Fellow in the American Institute of Architects (FAIA) so I went in to my local chapter, had a conversation with the executive director to find out what type of things I would need to do in order to accomplish this goal. This process put me on the path where I started off participating on a committee, and then the next year I chaired that committee, always escalating the responsibilities of my role. I chaired the Dallas Chapter’s Gala event – the chapters largest and most high profile fund-raising event where we set a new record high for the total amount of money ever raised. The next committee I was a part of was a committee of two where we helped prepare the governance for the new Dallas Center for Architecture (DCFA) which involved identifying and establishing a dialogue with the outside groups that would participate in the center, and determining that a full time program director for the DCFA was needed. The following year I chaired the AIA’s home tour committee – the chapter’s largest public outreach effort. Only in its third year, we were able to build upon the previous years’ momentum and increase the total number of visitors to the event while spending less money.
For my efforts, I was presented with the AIA’s Young Architect of the Year award – something that I am proud of receiving because it is an award presented to me from within my peer group. The next steps to my goal involve participating on a state level and then on a national level. By having a goal, the number of decisions to make is reduced and my energies are focused.
You can look at the procession of events that I just described and see how an established goal (become FAIA) was broken down into objectives (participate in the AIA at the Local, State, and National levels) and then tasks (participate and chair certain committee’s). I established this goal about 5 years ago and the process of achieving this goal has shaped several important decisions for me.
