2024 Goals
Looking back on this time last year I had a few goals to achieve in 2024, and the three of them directly relating to my career were:
Become a Passive House Certified professional
Improve my communication skills
“Figure out” my career
Like many goals or resolutions taken up at the beginning of a new year, my progress on these goals was mixed, and I can say that I outright completely failed at one of them, but oddly enough the reason I did is tied directly to the reason why I had success on the other two goals!
Passive House is an international rating system that is meant lower the energy usage of buildings through a better understanding of building science and therefore reduce the impact the built environment has on the natural environment. I’ve witnessed confusion in the building community about the changes in the energy code and I came to believe that PH certification would help me be more of an asset to clients and builders when their projects come up against the energy code. So last January I started to look into it, but never got to committing to the three-day training that is required for certification. This is the goal that I didn’t achieve in 2024, I could’ve pushed hard in the first half of the year and had it done before the unexpected happened, but I didn’t.
The unexpected was that it came time to “figure out” my career. Note that I didn’t say “start a company” or “become an entrepreneur” or anything lofty like that, I just said that I should figure myself out. At the time I didn’t feel like I was taking enough of a lead in my own career. I liked where I was working and the projects that I was doing, but I could feel that I wasn’t using enough of my potential and I needed a change but in January 2024 I wasn’t ready to be specific about what that changed would be. The options were to do something to change the situation where I was working, go to another firm, or start my own, which can be said about any point in time in my career since it began (and is true for many people in many fields).
Then in June I had a conversation with the owner of the firm that forced the decision and I knew almost instantly that I’d be starting my own firm rather than heading to another one (To be clear, this was a positive conversations with the owner!) This lead to an immediate “figuring out” of my career, and that was that I am a leader rather than a mid- to senior level architect working for someone else. As such it was up to me how I presented myself and my work, which meant that if I wanted to try a new communication technique with a client I could just go ahead and do it whereas on the past I’ve had to follow the will of other leaders who weren’t always sure of trying something new - but now I get to decide and so far I think I’ve had some good success. I haven’t redefined the industry with my drawing style, but I think I’ve been able to make things my own.
And that’s one of the main benefits of being your own boss, that you don’t have to worry about someone above you second guessing what you’re doing and how you’re doing it. This can be a drawing/presentation technique, the business software that the firm uses or what kinds of projects that I take on. It feels really good to be in this new place right now.
So yeah, I didn’t get PH certified, but two out of three isn’t that bad and what I did do in 2024 is so much better. That’s a goal that will get moved to the 2025 list of goals.
