Progress Comes From Patterns, Not Moments - Architects Instruction 003

Описание: Welcome to Architects Instruction issue number 003, a newsletter where I provide actionable ideas to help you build a happy, healthy & well-paid career in Architecture and the Built Environment.

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We seem to think about the changes to our careers in moments, a promotion, a pay rise or the starting of a new role.

That clear turning point, a moment amongst the mundanity.
These moments are easy to see.

But in reality, they’re the result, the visible outcome of hundreds of small things done consistently.

Patterns of behaviour, built over time.

This is an idea that has taken me a long time to properly understand, but now I see it everywhere I look.


Now, it's easy to understand why we are drawn to these moments. They are legible, easy to celebrate, helpful to explain after the fact, but by the time that moment arrives, most of the work has already been done.

And this is why most career advice can feel so unhelpful when you are stuck. It focuses on the outcome, giving you the magic pill for the result, without actually acknowledging that those results are rarely controllable in any direct sense.

That's the uncomfortable but somewhat liberating truth: you don’t actually control most career outcomes.
You can’t promote yourself.
You can’t decide when a client trusts you enough to hire you.
You can’t force your boss to see you as “ready”


But, we’re wired to focus on the outcomes. They’re tangible, measurable. They feel like proof.

So even when we know academically that we can’t control them, we still orient our entire sense of progress around whether they arrive or not.
So much frustration at work comes from focusing on things we can’t steer. Wanting the promotion. Wanting recognition. Wanting clarity about “what’s next”. And when those things don’t arrive, it’s easy to feel stuck or overlooked, even when you’re working hard and doing great work.

It’s a bit like focusing on losing three stone in weight. You can’t directly control your weight loss. You can only control your behaviours, going to the gym, eating differently, sleeping better, being mindful of becoming the kind of person who prioritises their health.

Your identity changes first; the results follow.

Your architectural career works in exactly the same way.

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