The Seventh Level

Designing Your Extraordinary Life

Joe Hefferon

Copyright © 2012 Joe Hefferon

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

The Architecture ofHuman Endeavor

“Architecture is man’s great sense of himself embodied in

a world of his own making.” – Frank Lloyd Wright

I will teach you a proven system that is all around us, even as you read these words. It is a strategic pathway to the place you aspire to be.It is an opportunity to be responsible for your own exhilaration, a chance to shine over your life and family.On The Seventh Level, we don’t carpe diem, we persequi cras (pursue tomorrow). We pursue tomorrow because today was great. Lucius Seneca said, “It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.”

Purpose“Optimism is what drives architecture forward.

Architecture is the only profession where you haveto believe in the future.” - Daniel Libeskind

Motivation is about reaching down to lift yourself up. Purpose is about reaching out to lift someone else up. Motivation is finally rebuilding that listing garage; purpose is building a tree house with your son.Purpose is powerful. Whatever it is that this book may help you design; it won’t be extraordinary without purpose. Purpose will make the process rewarding, not the goal. When you have purpose; it’s enough that you tried. It’s enough that you cared. It’s enough that you held out your hand. But like my father used to say, “Hey Joe, enough’s enough already.” So let’s build.

Why Architecture? Why You?“Architecture begins to matter when it brings delight

and sadness and perplexity and awe along witha roof over our head.” – Paul Goldberger

We are going to build something together. We will turn your daydreams into ideas, your ideas into concepts and your concepts into reality. You will identify exactly what you want after first identifying your starting points. We’ll begin with the source of my inspiration, architecture, and the functional beauty that wraps around our lives each day - comforting, protecting, enticing… without saying a word. We’ll lock arms with the architects and use their brain power as a force multiplier. They may not realize it, but they’re on our team. You haven’t noticed them, but they are with us every day.

Level OneRoom for Ideas

“The great thing about being an architect is you canwalk into your dreams.” – Harold E. Wagoner

Ideas need a place to optimize.The idea room is where it all begins. Stand in wonder before your first level, the starting point to a life less ordinary. How does it feel to be in the place where visions take shape? For most of your adult life you have wanted to do something, but didn’t know how to begin. So start by changing your frame of reference. Since this book is a big fat homage to architecture, let’s build something marvelous. Ideas need a place to evolve, a place to be wondrous.

Level TwoPrecision has Purpose

“Architecture arouses sentiments in man. Thearchitect’s task, therefore, is to make those

sentiments more precise.” – Adolf Loos

Clarity of purpose is energizing. Precision is the grail you seek in Level Two. It is a singular, life-altering, transformational decision. Whether you seek restoration or reincarnation, the final product requires transformation.It requires a change of thinking, a change of desire, a change from wishesto action and a change of standpoint. You must decide not merely to move with purpose, but to move on purpose.

Level ThreeThe Big Hairy Plans

“Make not little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s

blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make

big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that

a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but

long after we are gone will a living thing, asserting itself

with ever-growing insistency.” - Daniel H. Burnham

Your level of belief in your idea will determine the quality of action you take and the ferocity with which you will execute it. The intensity of your actions will determine your results. When you achieve those results, you will bolster your belief in your abilities. But you can’t just do a Haka and charge on to the rugby field of life; you need a plan.

Level FourYour Foundation

“Society needs a good image of itself. That’s thejob of the architect” -Walter Gropius

Level Four is bedrock. All things build up from this place, for you and forarchitecture. In order to construct a durable foundation that will support alarge building, the engineers must dig down. No structure is built from the roof. The core rises from the base. In order to discover the best character ofyour being, you must excavate the old one. In order to be the best person to complete your design, you too must dig down, before you can build up.You must cart away the rubble and start fresh, level, and solid.

Level FiveThe Structural Engineer

“Life is rich, always changing, always challenging, and we

architects have the task of transmitting into wood, concrete,

glass and steel, of transforming human aspirations into

habitable and meaningful space.” - Arthur Erickson

Sometimes the road will seem endless and you may lose site of the horizon, but take heart because you will look back on it with pride and exhilaration. During this phase you will learn the lessons that will guide you the next time around. You will learn efficiency, timing, flexibility and patience. These are the skills you will own, to use again and again. Theyare the ideals you will impart if you choose to be a mentor.It’s also time for a change in mindset. Until now you’ve been working like an architect, but now you need to work like an engineer.

Level SixSystems of Achievement

“Genius is personal, decided by fate, but itexpresses itself by means of system. There is no

work of art without system.” – Le Corbusier

The systems used to create architecture are not mechanical. They are fluid and organic. They express themselves over time as new solutions are proffered, tested and employed. The systems fit the needs of the project as envisioned by the architect and determined by the complexity of the program and its scale; by the skills of the architect and the aptitude of the firm. One universal system doesn’t apply to every project. Your systems are determined by your own needs, the drivers of your extraordinary mission, by their context in your life and your personal development milestones.

Level SevenThe Accidental Architect

“The idea drives the design, but the real test ofarchitecture is in the experience, the moving through

space, the overlapping perspectives.” - Steven Holl

Through imagination and effort you became an accidental architect. Not the kind who gets huge contracts for designing skyscrapers, but the kind who works a creative process, who acts on ideation. You stumbled across this book and developed a system that just might help you find a little greatness inside you. You get it now. You understand the true meaning of process, diligence and expertise. Robert Hull of the FAIA says, “It’s that process that almost becomes more of the craft than the finished product.”

Ultima Cogitatio

Something significant is within your reach. You have learned the value of process. You have worked on the habits of mastery that will make the next project even better. You will be the better person for it, and that my friends is extraordinary. What you have built will last into the next generation and be the inspiration for the ideas of those who follow you. It’s one, good, sustaining idea, followed by the conviction that acting on ideas is not wasted effort.Do you want to make a difference? Want to live north of the ordinary meridian? Grab a pencil and start planning. I’ll see you on The Seventh Level. http://amzn.to/Qc4i3U

Joe Hefferon July 26, 2012