Professional Practice for Interior Designers. Christine M. Piotrowski
us, they likely will be fulfilled. It takes time to reach goals. Just as Rome was not built in a day, obtaining the credentials to create designs that are purchased by custom furniture manufacturers, or presented awards by magazines and associations, or perhaps work for a major manufacturer does not come overnight.
We also discuss career options and specialties in this chapter. These brief descriptions will assist readers in understanding that the interior design field encompasses substantially more than designing homes. Commercial interior design has taken on increasing importance over the past 60 years with the planning and design of hotels, restaurants, medical facilities, and offices of every kind.
Regardless of where you start in the profession, 5, 10, or 15 years later, you might find yourself doing something totally different in the field. To many designers, this is just one more exciting aspect of this profession.
After completing this chapter you should be able to:
Explain why it is important to set goals.
Discuss factors that make goal setting difficult for some people.
Define and explain what a personal mission statement is and why it is a helpful tool for students and professionals.
List and define three characteristics that will define your personal brand.
Complete the personal goals exercise and the professional goals exercise.
Discuss the factors that should be considered when making a decision concerning an initial career path.
Discuss the pros and cons of a career path as a generalist versus a specialist in an area of design.
A PERSONAL MISSION STATEMENT
Many readers have heard of Steven Covey and his very popular book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. To Covey, a personal mission statement helps a person set a direction for what that person wants to do in his or her personal and professional life. Much like a business mission statement, “it focuses on what you want to be (character) and to do (contributions and achievements) and on the values or principles upon which being and doing are based.”1
A personal mission statement will help you define your focus, which, in turn, will help you determine on what you most wish to spend your emotional, psychological, and financial resources. According to Covey, a personal mission statement will help you more effectively handle the changes that will constantly affect your life.
Creating a personal mission statement starts with allowing your innermost self to make you aware of what you most want in life—not just today, but in the future. It starts by determining the end you most desire, such as to own a successful design practice, to be the principal project designer at one of the top five design firms in the country, to have both a satisfying family and professional life, or anything else you can imagine.
Here is a brief example of a personal mission statement:
To believe in myself and allow myself to try, to experiment, to experience, thus to learn.
To strive each day to be willing to pay the price to achieve greater happiness, confidence, and spiritual growth.
To do some work that benefits others and that is enjoyable to me.
To treat others based on the principles that I hold as important.
It is a good idea to draft a personal mission statement before you continue reading this chapter. Think of what you want to be known for at the end of your career, or even your life. Consider the roles that you now play within your family, in your career (or potential career), with friends, and in the community at large. Determine your values—what makes you the person that you are. Make notes about the things, words, places, and activities that inspire or excite you. Then take some time away from the hustle and bustle of your daily life to write down a personal mission statement. It doesn't have to be structured like the example. Any format or length will do.
After reading this chapter, you might want to revise your statement, or you may find that it's fine as it is. Then again, nothing says that you can't rewrite your personal mission statement in a year or more. In fact, it is perfectly natural that it might change as the years go by. This is because new opportunities you can't envision today will possibly present themselves.
PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL GOALS
Our world certainly has grown more complex, challenging, and stressful. It can be filled with opportunities for anyone who is willing to seek and achieve success in the interior design profession. When the economy is good, there are many opportunities; when there is an economic downturn, opportunities might evaporate in any particular geographic area.
Whether the general economy in your area is doing very well or in a decline, the interior design profession offers students and professionals numerous options and directions for career opportunities. An effective way of helping to determine career options is through determining and setting personal goals.
Goal success does not just suddenly materialize. It is achieved through hard work, determination, and planning. Yet for many, sometimes these goals are never reached because many individuals do not actually set their own goals for the future. Sometimes family, friends, children—all of these and others—may enter the picture and delay or prevent an individual from reaching personal and professional goals. But in most cases, the inability to achieve a goal or a dream is not due to other individuals or job responsibilities; rather, it is usually due to a lack of planning and failure to set goals—or maybe setting the wrong goals.
Why Are Goals Important?
Without some kind of direction, your personal and professional life can be very frustrating and unfulfilling. There is nothing wrong with just experiencing life—letting it happen. However, according to Brian Tracy, “Success is goals, and all else is commentary. All successful people are intensely goal oriented.”2 Setting goals may seem tedious. There are numerous applications available to help you set goals. However, it will be far easier to achieve success—however you wish to define that—by taking the time to set goals.
Let's start by defining goals. Goals are broad statements that help a person define what it is she wishes to achieve. They are concrete ideas that represent something a person wants to achieve. Philosophically, goals are brief stops along the way of life that mark achievement in an individual's personal and professional life. Owning your own studio someday is not an end in itself, even though it may have been the goal. Once you achieve that milestone, you must be ready to create new goals related to the success and growth of the studio. “A goal is the ongoing pursuit of a worthy objective until accomplished.”3
Whether an individual is a student who is still negotiating his or her way through design classes or a professional who has been actively practicing in interior design for several years, personal and professional goal setting is important. When tighter job markets limit choices, students must have a clearer idea of the types of jobs they are interested in pursuing, while remaining open to any reasonable opportunity. The professional who feels unfulfilled needs to take stock of what he has accomplished and the skills that he possesses.
Even though you may have some general idea about what you want out of your personal and professional life, without some kind of concrete plan, you will find yourself reacting to what happens to you rather than having some control over events in your life. Take control. Develop goals that are meaningful for your professional and personal life and watch those goals help you achieve the vision of what you want for your life!
Risks in Goal Setting
Setting a goal requires commitment of time, energy,