It’s paranoia inducing, but every interaction is partially an interview for the next opportunity.
The best way to succeed is to carefully be yourself.
Hopefully you’ve prepped properly.
You could always start now.
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You don’t have to be right…
One of my inspectors came to me asking an accessibility question. He had caught something on site and was not satisfied with what he was hearing from the architect.
It wasn’t something as simple as a 60″ diameter turning radius, but it was still something where the architect was clearly incorrect after a short review of chapter 11 of the IBC.
Part of the art of this profession is being willing to say I’ll get back to you. Cause most of the time you don’t have to be right, but you can’t be wrong.
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This Present Moment, Gary Snyder, 2015
Recently, I connected with a former professor and he mentioned the poetry of Gary Snyder, so I trundled off to the library and picked up the one book of his work that they have in the Clark County system.
I’ve never been much of a poetry guy, but I have subscribed to the excellent American Life in Poetry email newsletter for a few years now.
I can see why he is such an acclaimed poet. The writing was so sharp, that it just sliced through the clutter of my mind. I could only read a couple poems at a time before doing something else.
I suspect it’s poking and prodding into the dark recesses of my brain that doesn’t want to be illuminated. I suspect that’s a reason I really need to keep reading.
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just a phase
When we had our daughter, a friend told me,
remember it’s all just a phase.
And so its been. This morning the boy was squawking as an infant often does. And his sister slept right through it.
She was never a good sleeper, until she became one.
Hopefully this one sticks around a little.
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Tasking versus working
I’ve been on one deadline after another for the past couple months, so its been a bit busy and stressful.
Technically, I should still be on deadline, but one of my colleagues rescued me and offered to review my last set of plans for a large project on Monday.
It’s taken me three days to slow down enough to be able to start thinking about my projects and what needs to be done for each of them on a holistic level.
Even yesterday, I’ve been in task mode, looking around to do anything that can be easily accomplished. That might be the correct adrenaline rush to get everything done before a deadline, but it’s not the right mindset to work a long term project.
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What to do with the opportunity
A lot of people say they just need that first opportunity. However, most of them will not excel once they get it, after all, about half of them will be below average.
In this modern information age, a lot of gatekeepers have become less relevant. However, this profession is not one of them. First job, next gig, first promotion, partnership, first project with a desired client. Gatekeepers abound.
So you caught your break. Celebrate, yes. Now what? And tomorrow, and the day after that? How do we avoid taking things for granted and continue to excel?
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A lovely morning
My coworker offered to help with the review of one of my projects, which took the worst of the office pressure off my shoulders.
As such, I was able to wake up yesterday and enjoy an ideal morning.
It wasn’t much, but I got up took my time writing a post, surfed for a moment, exercised for a little bit (nothing too strenuous, just the ba duan jin followed by pushups). It was still quite early so I started up sorting through my papers.
I have a massive “box of death” of random papers that all collect in that central location. Usually that box is cleared out via an epic organizing exercise that takes half a day.
This time I just pulled a couple sheets at a time and filed them away. I didn’t go through many of them, but I still got a sense of accomplishment by the time I ate some steamed bread and went off to work.
So nothing spectacular, but it was a lovely way to start my day, hitting my two main goals as well as one of my major auxiliary goals before going to the office.
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CNY ads, Petronas, 1997-present
Petronas, a Malaysian energy company, has been banging out a tearjerker for Chinese New Years video ad every year for the past two decades.
At this point, my mental clock knows to look up their youtube channel around this time every year.
I just burnt half an hour rewatching their catalog. Not every one is excellent, but they got a damn good hit rate.
Perfection is impossible but trying hard to meet your promise is always achievable.
People respect consistent effort. Showing up is its own virtue.
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Meeting Prep
When a meeting doesn’t result in a decision it means there wasn’t enough preparation conducted by one or more parties.
That’s not always bad, sometimes its better to have two short meetings instead of one overwrought session.
But if multiple people are gonna spend their time knocking their heads on a subject, it should come up with some results.
At the very least, we should come out with a clear goal for what needs to be studied before the next meeting and a gameplan for getting to a resolution.
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A little different
Our boy was a lot easier as an infant since he actually slept without being accompanied the whole time. A friend reminded me, it’s a phase, it’s all a phase.
Now that he’s mobile, he’s turned into a bit of a handful, crawling around, pulling drawers, and testing anything he could put into his mouth.
When our girl started moving around, we did the standard childproofing around the house, but a lot of it seemed like wasted effort. I suspect it won’t be with this fellow.