One of the goals I have for this blog is to gear it more towards general Architectural Design related conversation.  I have a passion for design, which is why I use Revit :P.  Another passion of mine is sports, not following them… no I don’t typically follow, I participate.  Recently I’ve found myself able to renew my passion in Fütball… yes that’s right, you call it Soccer because us Americans already had a sport designated as Football (which oddly enough has as much to do with feet as Squash has to do with the fruit…).

Currently I’m sitting here with an ice pack around my right quad, fingers shaking from exhaustion and mind filled with replays of all the plays from the past 2 hours of play.  I walked away from the field (we’ll leave the score out of it) bruised, sore and tired, but not defeated despite the loss.  Why?  How?  I’m banged up, feel older than my age (let’s face it, you can’t just jump back into a full speed round of soccer after 8 years away) and to boot we lost!  I would feel much worse if I was able to jog back to my car after the round.  That would mean I still had a lot left in me that I didn’t put forward during the match.  I did myself and my team a favor by walking away from the field exhausted.

What does this have to do with Architecture?  You started this post with this big to-do about how you wanted to gear it towards design!  Yeah, well how do you leave it all on the playing field in design?  It’s not like you can sprint around the office (ok so maybe you can if you’re an office linebacker (language)) and even if you could how would it help the team or your bottom line?  Well, here are some aspects of my soccer games that I feel attribute to those good feelings post game as I sit sore, broken and exhausted on the couch with a cold pack wrapped around my quad:

• Selflessness – The first key is your desire to give it your all.  Everyone is capable of giving it all, but that means nothing if you don’t want to.  If you don’t want to you may want to begin considering another job or even career (just saying).  Wanting to give it your all on the field means you respect your team, you respect your sponsors (clients?) and most importantly you respect yourself (or you get paid a lot to do it…).  This doesn’t mean just giving in and sacrificing your personal goals for the team.  Weigh the options, think on the outcomes and if you’re confident that you can make a difference then by all means let your skills shine.
• Passion – This ties in with Selflessness.  If you’re passionate about what you’re doing you’re going to be more willing to do everything it takes to complete your role in the game.  In design passion is noticeable in the final product.  You and your team may have done everything you can to win the match, but even if you win players without passion can be spotted a mile away.
• Delegation – Don’t be afraid to tell anyone how it should be done from your point of view.  You’re in your role because someone thought you would be best for that role.  This means you DO have SOME weight in telling people to help you out.  Telling someone to do something doesn’t make you a jerk.  Just be sure you can justify your request 🙂
• Pushing your Limits – If you have the passion, you won’t mind a little challenge.  Don’t give all your work away, but use the commission as a good reason to take your game to the next challenge!  We don’t get practice days in design, especially in today’s economy, so you have to use projects to try new things, step up to your line and look across. See something that fits the scenario? Take it and run with it.  It may end up at the feet of the other team.  Hoeve, if you don’t try it you’ll never know if it ends up as a hat trick.
• Focus – Mental discipline is an end-game training that all serious athletes obtain.  If you’re at the end of that design job and you are blinded by the light at the end of the tunnel, stay focused on the task at hand and meet the deliverable.
• Communication – Enough said.  Today’s technology has made this harder than ever (yes I said it…).  Set up a system that works for you and TALK TO YOUR TEAM.  Don’t get caught up in “Did you check your email?  Did you check your voicemail?”  Don’t call an audible in the middle of the game unless you really need a change in pace to make it through successfully.  Even you guys and gals at the bottom of the totem pole need to communicate, probably even more than your supervisors.  Someone seems frustrated at how much you communicate?  Don’t blame it on them, they probably never played sports before.

So there it is.  It turned out longer than I wanted it to be but these are the elements that I feel secure my personal success despite the outcome of a game.  I hope I made an understandable translation into the design realm and hopefully you can apply this to some aspect of your career!  Feel free to comment and give feedback.  Best of luck to you all!

-Carl