Monday Motivation: 3 October

Got the Monday blues? Reclaim the day and set the tone for the entire week with these helpful, motivational tidbits:

“As an architect you design for the present, with an awareness of the past, for a future which is essentially unknown” – Norman Foster

In honour of World Architecture Day today, we’ve rustled up some quotes from famous architects for this week’s “Monday Motivation”, starting with this quote from British architect Norman Foster.

In developing (or building) yourself, you need to do so in such a way that serves both your present and future needs, as well as honours and appreciates your past. Your past is filled with successes and failures alike – learn from these so that you can make the best of your present and better prepare yourself for the future (the latter which, although may not be clear to you at this time, is certainly full of possibilities that will require prior preparation to be fulfilled).

“Less is more” – Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Don’t be fooled: even the biggest, most luxurious of homes can feel empty and lack substance.

Many yearn for simplicity in a fast-paced and chaotic world that demands perfection, success and opulence at every turn. Sometimes it means having to adopt a “fake it ‘til you make it” attitude; while this isn’t necessarily bad, it can mean having to hide your true self – at the cost of abandoning your happiness – behind a polished veneer tinged with superciliousness and arrogance, just to impress other people.

Living up to an ostentatious act can be draining and can burn you out. So, it’s okay to drop it and just take life at your own pace. There’s no need to overcompensate just to make other people happy – you come first in your happiness, after all. And even though you may feel like you have less, be assured that it’s enough for you to create something more from it.

“When I’m working on a problem, I never think about beauty. But when I’ve finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it’s wrong” – R. Buckminster Fuller

It’s simple to fix a crack on a wall, right? But if the outcome is unexpectedly different – the crack reappears after a couple of days – you’ve got to ask yourself: was there something wrong with the plaster mix? Is the wall structure too dry or too damp?

Oftentimes we have a vision of how our plans and projects will turn out, especially when we think we have solid, finite solutions to them. But when the solution goes wrong, we’re quick to examine all factors that were surely out of our control (or so we like to tell ourselves). We may also be quick to point fingers at others – maybe because we don’t want to admit that it’s probably our own fault.

Don’t be ashamed to own up to your failings. By doing so, you’re enabling yourself to learn from your mistakes and start anew. However, don’t pick on the next best solution just because it looks good in theory; go back to the drawing board and examine all your options carefully before proceeding with the next course of action.