2021 Goal Setting

A new year is here, and thank God for that. With it comes a chance to refocus and do some goal setting for the year. Like most of us, my 2020 started as a whirlwind and ended as a hurricane. I was thankfully able to stay safe and healthy, and I hope you were, too. I had family members fight (and some lose) their battle with COVID, slow work issues, general pandemic mental/emotional stress, and countless other things, but 2020 was also a year that brought moments of joy. I got engaged (!!!), we had time to focus on us, I completed more projects around #L2HQ, and I published The Little Architect’s Alphabet. Not bad, given a crazy year – but now we focus on 2021. Here we go.

Note – To read up on previous years’ goals, click the following links: 2016, 2017, 2018.

Goal setting after/in the middle of a pandemic looks a litter different, as it should. Time seems to have both slowed down and sped up, and an ability to focus on what really matters in life opens up. When there’s a concern you might get sick and possibly die from something as simple as going to the grocery store, you start to re-evaluate what’s actually important and necessary. What work matters. What your lasting impact will be.

I’ve written in the past about the fear of big dreams and goals, how to prioritize time to achieve your goals, and what happens when you burn out after not prioritizing well. So many of these lessons still apply today, so feel free to take a look and then come back. Sharing knowledge and continuous improvement are two of my driving forces, so it’s not surprising to me that so many of my goals, as well as roadblocks, in the past were aligned with goal setting ideas revolving around those themes: AREsketches, reading, speaking at conferences, volunteering in my profession, etc. But any driving force without balance causes the seesaw of life to get all out of whack. In 2021, my goal setting has a lot to do with this balance. Let’s take a look:

My life seesaw has a handful of priorities: Personal (improvement and learning), Interpersonal (B, family, friends), Work, Knowledge Sharing (blogs, published work, volunteering, etc), and L2HQ. And my BIGGEST goal setting measure for the year is to keep this seesaw in balance. Each of these priority buckets has goals, but let’s break down their locations first.

As you can see, work is the center of it: it’s stable, and it allows the other priorities to flourish – through pay, standard hours, and a healthy workplace. If any of those things weren’t true, it might not sit on the fulcrum, but instead somewhere closer to an end that affects the balance more.

Whereas…

Personal and L2HQ are at the ends. Why? Because if my self-care gets out of whack, or something happens to my home….everything else goes out of focus. Time and effort (the things that make the seesaw work) immediately slide to focus on that bucket until we’re back in balance. If I’m not sleeping or eating well, if there’s a hole in my roof, if I don’t get time to rest and feel as though I’m growing, if something springs a leak….you can bet that all of my attention goes to fixing this issue. To be honest, I’d probably add the health of my relationship with B in this personal mix, because our life affects my life. The point being, the priorities in these buckets weigh more and have more impact. You didn’t know you were going to get a structures lesson today, did you?

So if the primary goal setting focus for 2021 is balance, a working understanding of how these pieces of life weigh-in is key to a successful year. Now to climb out of that rabbit hole and focus on the specific goals for the year.

As it happens with anything in life, L2HQ has doled out lessons of balance every year. Some years are planning years (while saving up for future projects), some years are growth years (still saving, but also doing some work yourself), and some years are HoLy Sh!t It’S aBoUt To GeT rEaL years. This year, it’s that last one. Two big projects have or will soon start here that will take up a LOT of time and effort on that seesaw balance image.

1. She getting a new roof, honey.

Thanks to some hail, L2HQ is getting a new roof, gutters, downspouts, skylights – and for the first time IN HER LIFE she’s getting some ice and water shield, drip edges, and other things that generally make roofs happy. The contractor will hopefully start in the next few weeks, but let’s be honest: it’s January in Indiana. It might take longer. I’m just happy that insurance is paying for 3/4 of it.

2. L2HQ Kitchen and Bath renovation has begun.

If you asked me what project I might have most fantasized about when I bought L2HQ, I could have easily told you the kitchen. If you had asked me what project would take up the most worry and money, I could have easily told you the kitchen. Lolcry

6 years in and we’re finally at the Kitchen (and adjacent bath) project. After years of planning, dreaming, saving (I still don’t have enough – yay!), and planning some more, the first hammer has been swung and demo has begun. Like many of the other projects at L2HQ, this project will be a lot of personal physical labor/equity to make the money stretch as far as we possibly can. Thank God I’ve had 6 years of other home projects to learn and hone skills, but I won’t deny still being a bit scared at some of the tasks (nervously eyes “install waterproofing for new shower” and “tile work”) that come with a degree of difficulty and a high future-risk factor. All in all, though, when it comes to goal setting – this is a goal that’s been a long time coming and I’m so grateful to get started.

If you want to follow along, be sure to follow my Instagram so you can stay up to date as stories and updates occur.

I mean, I said knowledge sharing and continuous growth are driving forces for me, so you knew this was going to be a focused goal in this year’s goal setting plans, right? And as you can see above in the planned blog calendar, there are a lot of opportunities throughout the year for knowledge and lesson sharing. Here’s what it looks like specifically:

1. Start planning out the next book in “The Little Architect” series.
2. Make progress on AREsketches
3. Focus research and planning time to new AIA Strategic Council role
4. BLOG MORE. Share cool articles, books, and pictures that inspire me. Share lessons learned. Engage. Listen. Learn. Repeat.

This next year at RATIO promises to provide even more opportunities for growth and learning. I’m staring down my first Project Director role, learning more about how we navigate project management, and continuing to learn more about the world of multi-family and hospitality architecture. We’re also, when it’s safe to return to the office, transitioning to a new work week schedule and flex location schedule. From here on out, I will have Friday afternoons to devote to other passion projects (or simply relax), and have the flexibility to work from “x” up to two days each week, no questions asked. In this instance, X means literally anywhere I have the ability to connect and productively work. Want to go on a trip? You have two days per week that you can work remotely and then have a long weekend. You can bet I’ll be taking advantage of this ability to feed my creativity through travel when it’s safe to do so.

I mentioned earlier that the personal aspects of the priorities seesaw are important, and I haven’t always been good about paying attention to them. This year’s goal setting focuses back in a couple ways so as to continue my mental/emotional/physical improvement and bring my best self to my relationships and my work.

1. Read (at least) 26 books.
2. Work out at least 4x/week.
3. Continue to learn languages on Duolingo: Spanish, French, Italian.
4. Get at least 640z water/day.
5. Get good sleep.

On the interpersonal side – as an extroverted introvert, I have to admit that I haven’t minded the work-from-home situation that the pandemic brought last year. I’m grateful to work a job that allows me the flexibility to work remotely, and don’t have some of the productivity impacts that others do: like elder care, children at home, school from home, etc. Having said that, I do miss the small bursts of time with good friends and great conversation, whether at AIA meetings (though we did a good job transitioning to virtual gatherings), or simply over beers or wine on weekends. B and I have had a chance to focus on us, which is important to our own growth both personally and together, but we miss our friends. We’re looking forward to warmer weather and increased chances to get outside and safely see friends again.

As I mentioned earlier, the craziness of 2020 gave us increased time to focus on us. We moved in together (for all intents and purposes), grew together, got engaged, and we keep growing. My planner personality (im)perfectly matches with her spontaneous personality in ways both frustrating and wonderful, as do so many of our other traits. Sometimes harmony comes easy, sometimes we work at it. But we do it together. And we’re so excited for what this year, and this next chapter of life together, will bring. The image on the upper right is a sneak peek to our (likely) destination for our elopement in the fall. Italy here we come!

What about you? What goals do you have for the year? I can’t wait to hear them – let’s work together and make this an awesome year.