Another Architect’s opinion
I chose architecture because I was rightly guided by my father who saw the creative talent in me at sketching and figured I would be imaginative enough to interpret my ideas very well.
I was lucky enough to gather a varied set of opinions as I got the opportunity to approach and interact with several architects because my father worked with many of them for his business.
Most of them however explained to me how the profession required resilience, hard work, and sleepless nights.
Although this is very true, I don't see how any other profession doesn't expect the same of you. Be it a doctor, a nurse, a businessman, a coder, or even a shop vendor, all of them work hard, but it takes sleepless nights in particular to achieve greater heights.
Therefore, the statement is rather fitting to work-life in general, and all will be well as long as you're able to find your muse, even if it is in a specialized area of architecture; but only you can find it by giving yourself time to indulge and explore.
Peer pressure
Formulating an opinion from other people's opinions is normal. However, following the crowd because you are too lazy to do your own research, understand yourself, or find it hard to astray from your crowd may turn out to be problematic in the long run.
Say you did it anyway because all of us make mistakes, and all of us fall prey to our momentary emotions, fears, and desires, but now you find yourself stuck and hard to move on because you feel obligated to prove yourself or to the timeline of age and societal norms.
When I find myself in such a position, I try to shut my mind off from the rest of the world and ask myself, 'If it was only up to me, leaving behind everyone else that I think my decision will affect, what would I feel and do about this situation.
Being selfish when making these life-changing decisions considering that in the end, it's only going to affect you will churn out the bad weed from your life.
Self-doubt
Comparison is one of the biggest pitfalls to our growth and career. We are always looking over to the other side of the fence, probably because we were trained to do so right from school through to our careers.
Our parents compare us to our siblings, cousins, neighbors and we feel worthless because we are good at something they are not proud of, or the teachers call us out for being talkative or too silent; into sports and not into mathematics, and all of this has somehow embedded into a personality trait where we measure our worth based on someone else’s performance.
True confidence lies in doing what you do best, and building on that knowledge to then take an interest in other subjects that your interest leads you towards. Every time you are belittled or feel that way, it’s great to remind yourself that nobody knows it all and nobody has been through the same journey as you; so you will always have something new to offer that makes you special.
The Experienced Architects
I believe people management is one of the greatest skills you can have as a senior, a manager, a businessman, or any mentor.
A good manager will make us perform better while a bad one will make us feel worthless and push us to leave the organization to look for better opportunities.
I feel the trick lies in establishing a relationship that overcomes the power distance index to help collaborate better and avoids one to feel targeted when having those difficult conversations.
Take the Leap!
Imagine you are about to bungee jump off a skyscraper; moments before you plunge to the ground, you picture the fall, start to feel the chill in your bones, and feel your heart racing until you take the leap.
You do it and find that you either enjoyed the experience or hate it for how disturbed it made you feel, but you are now aware of your feelings.
I believe life choices are eventually about taking the leap, finding out your likes and dislikes, although you never know until you try, and finally feel all those doubts and fears were quite redundant.
It is however liberating to know that you were brave enough to take a chance and bear the consequences of your own decisions.
If you do afterall find that architecture isn’t for you, you are still qualified in one of the subjects on your journey towards mastery of many!
© 2022 Swati Nair All rights reserved
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