How you can start changing your life RIGHT NOW

for the better, obviously

The end of the year always makes me reflective of how the year has been, what situation I am in and if I’m happy with that life or not. A few years ago I started writing down what I was reflective about. It’s great to read it a few years later and to see you either did something with it, or didn’t. In my situation I did lots with that information. In the post below I guide you through my reflection process and how you can do the same, and ideally change your own working circumstances.

The steps I took

As some of you may know I have a love-hatred kind of relationship with architecture. In January 2022 I was working temporarily in a supermarket. I had anxiety of what would come after the supermarket, even though I told myself it was okay if I couldn’t find the next step yet. It needed time.

I knew that going straight into architecture again wasn’t what I was looking for and probably needed something in between.
What I did was I took an A4 piece of paper, wrote down ARCHITECTURE above and made two columns: positive and negative. Shockingly easy, right?

I started writing down what I particularly liked about the job and what I didn’t like. Sometimes I tried to be a little bit more specific, sometimes a bit more vague so that it’s open for interpretation in a new field where you have the same negatives/ positives. Negative things like this came up:

• Didn’t like the 9-5 mentality. 9-5 is actually even wrong because we would work 8-5 or even later.

• long-term responsibility (until the project ends and another 10 years from the moment the project is finished)

• Anxiety of making mistakes

• Doing check-ups at construction sites and communicate that with the contractor

Some of my positives:

• Creating something

• Thinking about change/ improvement

• Measuring existing buildings and digitalizing it

Based on these things I tried to see if I could become a freelancer and mainly focus on the things I liked doing, leaving out the things I didn’t like or that I feared.

There is more to it

I looked up job openings in any field I could possibly be interested in and looked into courses/trainings to get another degree in. I wrote down the things that interested me and scribbled down why I would be interested in.

Another thing I did was looking back at my hobbies as a child and my first jobs as a teenager. You can do the same here: ask yourself what did you specifically like about this hobby and what didn’t you like?

For example when I was a teenager I was in this musical group where the children sang, danced and used their acting skills. I was in charge with another friend for one group of children. Together we created workshops to work towards a certain goal: our performance at the end of the school year. When reflecting, I wrote down that I enjoyed creating workshops, doing them and more specifically: I enjoyed guiding a group towards a certain goal.

Let that last phrase be the exact definition of a facilitator/ workshopper. Together with helping that team performing better, helping make big decisions and come up with creative solutions to a sticky problem.
I learned about this career in March 2022. When looking back at all the reflections of the past years, it just makes sense. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle coming together.

How this turned out for me

In August I quit my job in the supermarket and I combined the fun parts of architecture with facilitating/ workshopping. I am now a part time freelance architect, doing the things I like for clients. The other part time job is me building up my business around facilitating and workshopping.

Reflection on your current situation

You can take this bit a bit broader than just your career though. Write down on a piece of paper what is currently in your situation (finances, emotional, family, .. LIFE in general) going well and what is not going well. What would you like to change, what are things you can change in a few months and what is at least one thing you can start doing today or tomorrow. I promise I’ll be doing the same.

Take your time for it, and a binder

This wasn’t a process that I just did in a week. I started writing things down a few years ago. Everything that I wrote down I put it in a binder which said ‘INSPIRATION’. From courses I might be interested in to articles, pictures that inspired me, job openings, reflections of who I am, what I find important in a job,.. I combined everything in a binder and could look back on it whenever I wanted. It helped me refocus whenever I felt down in my ‘then-current-job’. I knew that times would change and that I would eventually find something that inspired me and that would energize me.

Tip: put a date to every piece of paper you write. It’s great to look back and see in what year you felt a certain thing about a certain topic.

I hope that you too will find something that energizes you, that makes you get excited to start the day. And hey! Maybe I don’t like facilitating/workshopping any more in a few years later, and that’s okay. We all keep changing!

Happy (reflecting) holidays!