How I’m using my architecture skills to design my life
A human is like a building.
Your body is the structure: it’s complicated and works together properly to help you live and stand up.
Your mind and brain are the design. Architects design a building not based on technology but on function and beauty.
You are the architect of your mind and life, independently of your body. You design your beauty, which is based on your mindset.
Structurally, your body can be fine, but beauty comes from within, and you can design it.
So how does an architect create beautiful buildings, and what can we take from that for our lives?
Fit in the environment
One of the first things architects analyze is the surrounding area of the site.
- What is already there?
- What is missing?
- What are good things?
- What are bad things?
- How can we improve the area?
- What’s the style?
- How does the building fit in?
In our world, we are born into a specific environment, which shapes our lives.
- parents and family
- country
- neighborhood
- friends
- school
Just like an architect cannot choose the location of the building, we cannot change where we grew up.
What every one of us can change is how the environment affects us.
You have the opportunity to change your response to what happens around you. And the great thing about life: you can change your location.
If you don’t want to fit into the environment you are currently in, you can decide to move away.
- find a new place to live
- find new friends
- find a new job
- find a new passion
Specify the function
The next point on the path to designing a building is specifying the function.
The client usually decides this, but the architect can advise changes based on the previous analysis or experience.
Every building has the basic function of being a shelter for people.
This is unquestioned.
The next step is to know what kind of building it is:
- an office
- housing
- retail
- a factory
This definition defines most of the functions in the building.
What the architect is adding to this is the necessity of specific rooms and their sizes, the layout, and the connections of the spaces inside the building.
So what kind of human are you? What is your reason to live? What defines you?
The answer is defining a lot of your inner design already.
Knowing that you can change your inner world by:
- specifying values you live by
- deciding on goals
- removing unhelpful beliefs
- improving your skills
Make it pretty
The last step on the path of designing a building is making it pretty.
Usually, this is already part of the previous steps as the functions and the layout define the design.
Additionally, we can hire an interior architect to design every detail.
The building is unique based on the location and the layout, but it will change with the users, consumers and customers. The people inside and out will shape the identity of the building.
An architect can guide future users on how to use it, but cannot control it 100%.
For me, a great building is designed for the user and functions very well, but it also needs some flexibility to be able to change for different future functions.
Just like a building you need to build your inner world for future changes. If your view of your life is very narrow you will get disappointed because life is change and it will surprise you.
Conclusion
You can design your inner world based on designing a building.
But the great thing about a human being is the ability to move. It’s hard work to change yourself and your environment, but it’s possible.
Just like a building your body is pre-defined. There are some rules (organs, bones, genetics) you cannot change, but with food, exercise, and mindset you can embrace the rules.
It’s your choice what your inner world looks like.
Specify your values and what success means to you, and then live based on it.
But don’t forget life is change, and you need to change with it.
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