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This is the Successful Archi Student’s Podcast episode eight.

In today’s episode I want to talk about how you can be a better student in 2020. As you’d be fully aware of that, we’re coming to the end of 2019. And a lot has happened this year. And if we just move on without actually looking over 2019 we won’t be able to have a compelling future for 2020. Because, how often do you see people who set these new year’s resolutions for the next year. And they might follow this plan for their new year’s resolution. But it doesn’t usually stick in most cases anyway, usually towards the end of January or the start of February. They’re back to their old ways and the goals that they set themselves to achieve for 2020, or the following year. That motivation is then lost, and they won’t end up completing that achievement.

That’s why in today’s episode, I really want to talk about reviewing 2019 before we move on to the next year, because there’s so many lessons to be learned from our past. And if we just move forward without looking back on that, then we’re missing out on the golden opportunity of learning from our mistakes and our failures. So I encourage you to go over 2019 and think about what you did. Well, you know what went really well this year. And that can be to do with architecture that can be just to do with life. But if you can focus on the things that went really well for you, maybe you did well in a particular assignment or with a project you did or maybe you’ve been attending a couple of events for getting your name out there in the world of architecture, or maybe you applied at a new job, to do an internship or to work as a graduate, and you got that job.

It’s good to review over these things, because then you can realize what you’ve done well, and you can keep on doing these kinds of these kinds of things. However, it’s even more important to look over the things that didn’t go so well. Maybe you’re lacking in some organization skills, and you fell behind in the semester because of that, or maybe you didn’t get the grades you wanted in one of your projects, because a particular thing happened, which didn’t allow you to do that.

If you’ve been following the podcast for a little while, you know that I’m all about learning from your mistakes. And it’s great to make mistakes, because they are a learning curve. And it’s the way we progress in life. And you should not fear making mistakes, but you should fear not having the initiative to look at your mistakes and learn from them. And that’s why I think it’s extremely important to look over 2019 before looking forward to 2020 because quite often we can set all these high standards and these goals for ourselves for the next year. A lot of these new year’s resolutions that often don’t stick. And the reason they don’t stick is because we’re just looking forward. And we’re not learning from the past. But understanding what’s going well in 2019. And what hasn’t gone so well, you can start to change your habits to work for you for in 2020. And from these habits, you can start to create a plan.

To start reviewing your previous year of 2019, I suggest you make a list of the things that went really well for you. And then also another column of the things that didn’t go so well for you. And the more in depth you go with this, then the more you’ll be able to learn from what you’ve been doing. So you can do this for architecture and you’re life around architecture, or you can just do this for your personal life or your business life or anything that it might be. It’s really important you actually write these down in a list as that can help you learn. Once you’re finished reviewing 2019 It’s okay if you’ve made a lot of mistakes and it hasn’t been a year that’s been favorable to you. Maybe On the flip side, you’ve had a really good year and you’re wondering how 2020 it could be any better than that. But you’ve got to understand that every day you’re getting better as a person. And every day you’re learning from your mistakes and your experiences and your practice. And every day, you’re growing into someone better than who you were yesterday. And that’s the thing, even if you’ve had a terrible day, the previous day, that isn’t something that you can control now. So you may as well just move, learn from your mistakes, and then move forward to create a bigger future for yourself.

I do think it’s really important to create a compelling future for you something that drives you and motivates you to do well. And for that reason, now that you’ve reviewed 2019, you can start thinking about 2020 and creating that compelling future for you. So, for 2020, you can start to think about what you want from that year. What do you want to have achieved in 2020? Who do you want to have become in 2020? And again, I’d suggest you start to write these down because that way you can hold yourself accountable for the things you say and that involves discipline, and it will really help you make these goals become a reality.

Once you finish writing what you want from 2020, you can start thinking about and writing down how you’re going to actually achieve that. And once you figured out what and how, then it’s important to schedule it in. So get a diary or something that you can keep yourself accountable for where you can start writing out a plan for 2020. And you can flip through each month and write down what you want to have achieved and to review that diary every single day in 2020. And will really help you stay on track to achieving the things that you’ve set out for yourself to achieve.

In 2020, maybe you want higher grades for architecture. So you start to write down how you can get you can actually achieve that. And maybe you need to be more organized. So you know what and how you want to get higher grades. And you can do this by being more organized. So then you can start to schedule in when you’re going to achieve that. So you’ve got the what, how and when. And then you can put in your diary maybe in early January, you can print out all of your assessment sheets and start to review all the work that you have in the following semesters in 2020. Maybe you can start over Organized your desks and your folders on your computer to work for you. Maybe you need to upgrade your computer and you need to download all your new programs and stuff to help you create the work that is worthy of receiving a high grade. And so you can schedule that in maybe in early February, you’re going to get a new computer, and you’re going to download all the programs and install them. And by flicking through your diary every single day where you’ve written down goals for either weekly or monthly that you can actually hold yourself accountable for the things that you’ve said you’re going to do.

I really hope you found that helpful. It is important to review 2019 before you start setting goals for 2020 because then once you’ve reviewed 2019 you can realize what you did well and what you didn’t do so well and start replacing the habits you have now for the habits that you need to become who you want to be in 2020.

I hope you guys had a great Christmas and had a productive 2019. I will see you in 2020 in the next episode of the Successful Archi Student’s podcast.