Principles are fascinating. They’re universal truths that guide our decision-making and approach to life. Figuring out the guiding principles within your work or passion forces you to think deeply about their core essence. Exploring how they might apply to life helps strip away excess complexity—revealing not just the unique value within the craft, but offering insight into how we might live better, differently. As a byproduct, it sharpens our ability to synthesize and get to the root of what truly matters.

I’ve previously attempted to do this with passions of mine, including chess, brewing, industrial engineering, reading, and writing. Now, I want to tackle civil engineering. I grew up watching my civil engineer dad build all sorts of buildings. My brother went on to become one and now avidly builds houses. I’ve worked at a large development company and I have been deeply involved in construction myself. Civil engineering is also a discipline I find universally applicable to life. My hope is that all these series inspire you to reflect on your own craft. Here are 9 civil engineering principles you can apply to your life:

1. Mind the Foundation.

Everyone talks about foundations, but rarely do they understand what they entail. Building a strong foundation means investing a lot of resources you bury. Foundations are costly, demanding, and hidden. However, they are paramount to the rest of the structure. Foundations may also be forward-looking. Perhaps one day, you’ll want to add to the structure—a roof garden, a larger water tank, or an extra room.

Isn’t that the case in life? We know we should prepare with intention, dedicate time to our goals, and only then expect some results. And yet, we have grown impatient. We want to see the results without putting in the work, endlessly craving more shortcuts, quick wins, faster money, immediate answers, and instant gratification. We consume information but rarely digest it. And there are entire industries built to exploit our impatience and impulse. Whether it be for building homes, a project, new habits, or a relationship, foundations are about the long-term view. They may seem costly, and the work is often hidden—but the truth is there are no shortcuts in life. Mind the foundation.

2. Think Structurally.   

Structures are fascinating! From molecular formations to the tallest buildings, structural stability depends on the integrity of their design and the resulting structure. A structure, as opposed to a system, is more concerned with providing form and stability. A system is more concerned with the function and interactions. The former wants to hold, while the latter operates. They both have interconnected components working toward stability and function. While systems are operationally alive, it is the structure that supports them and enables them to function.

Not to be confused with structured thinking—which breaks a problem into smaller parts for clarity—structural thinking is concerned with how components interact to create stability, not merely how they function within a system. It’s about understanding relationships of cause and effect, such as how forces are distributed across the structure.

For a structure to stand (and keep standing), it must balance the forces acting upon it. Thinking structurally means understanding how different elements may interact under stress and ensuring they’re designed with resilience and redundancy. Some questions that can help us think structurally include:

• How are the forces distributed across a system?
• What unexpected forces might the structure be subject to?
• How are the different elements contributing to the overall structure?
• What must the design acknowledge to ensure longevity of the structure?
• Can you identify the potential constraints?

These same structural questions apply when we’re learning, growing, and building something meaningful in our lives. Just as engineers get creative with structural calculations, we too can apply this same systematic approach to life’s unique challenges. We can preemptively identify potential risks and restrictions to improve our decisions.

In life, we make decisions based on the information we have available. Regardless of the outcome, we can focus on what’s within our control and release what isn’t. Like civil engineers, we can always factor in safety by incorporating redundancy, resilience, and tolerance into our lives. We want to remain standing after the inevitable shocks of life, just like a well-built structure.

3. Leverage Tools.

In civil engineering, leveraging the right tools is crucial to ensure the proper execution of the structure and its design. It’s also key to avoiding costly rework. For example, alignment issues like a faulty foundation, misaligned beams, or slanted and out-of-square walls can be easily avoided using tools like the plumb bob, string line, spirit level, and lately, alignment lasers.

Imagine a misaligned wall that wasn’t set plumb during framing, barely noticeable at first and often shrugged off. But as construction progresses, the small misalignment snowballs: joints turn uneven, nothing sits flush, and fixtures require custom adjustments. And worse, when tiling day arrives, that slant turns into a nightmare. Tiles misalign, grout lines grow uneven, and cuts become both visible and complicated, wasting materials and time. By skipping the right tools early on, the integrity of everything that follows is compromised. Leveraging tools helps us assure quality and minimize cost.

Just like all engineering fields rely on specific tools for their success, we too must find the right tools to help make our personal goals a reality. Our growth depends on our ability to identify and leverage these tools. Tools prevent problems, promote opportunities, and drive progress. Which stubborn goals do you think may be leaving you subtle clues, like misalignments we’re tempted to ignore? Which tools (or mindset) could help you achieve them?

4. Prioritize Order.

In civil engineering, sequence matters—but so do coordination, cleanliness, and timing. I’ve seen construction sites where everything is tidy, deliberate, and efficient, and others that aren’t. It’s no secret that the messy ones tend to move more slowly and usually result in more defects. As the project nears completion, the sequence of execution becomes especially important. With multiple contractors converging, multi-contractor execution often devolves into a free-for-all mindset, which quickly becomes one of the civil engineer’s biggest headaches.

Prioritizing order helps minimize risk, avoid rework, and allow each process to unfold without negatively affecting the next. It’s about harmonizing execution so that progress happens more efficiently and at lower cost. And isn’t that how we’d like to conduct our lives? A little planning goes a long way, whether financial, personal, or relational. The challenge lies in our impulse to act when we should slow down—and our tendency to hesitate when we should move forward. Whether it’s the sequencing of steps or the orderliness of space, they both reflect a mindset of care, and so should we.

5. Never Cut Corners.

In every major project with multiple interconnected areas and components, a plethora of interactions, and virtually an infinite number of executions, quality problems are bound to surface sooner or later. But the real questions are: how many will we face, and at what cost? Never cutting corners is about having the integrity to make things right throughout the whole process, and not just rushing to the finish. It’s about avoiding being penny wise and pound foolish.

We should be mindful of the quality of the materials, the skill of the workforce, and the precision of the tools. For instance, it’s not uncommon for seemingly minor details, like properly sizing PVC diameters or selecting the right AWG wire gauge, to be underestimated or improperly installed. If we fail to give these factors their proper weight, we risk compromising the longevity of whatever we build. At its core, never cutting corners is a belief in the value of building for durability, longevity, and resilience—even when the client knows no better, the contractor “forgets,” or the flaws are quietly swept away.

We all know that shortcuts almost always compromise quality in one way or another. Precision, patience, and diligence ensure integrity—whether you’re building a bridge, a home, or your life. Not cutting corners is a matter of character, a reflection of the idea that how we do the small things reflects how we do everything.

6. Seek the Right People.

Unfortunately, many workers and contractors in construction prioritize speed over quality. Time and again, I’ve encountered people rushing to finish quickly rather than focusing on doing the work right. These kinds of workers are always looking to make a quick buck, fooling themselves that they’ll always find new work.

Seeking the right people is an ongoing effort to build a team of workers who have a love for their craft—people who won’t cut corners and who take pride in their work. This is not about perfectionists, but about professionals who aim for excellence. Of course, pricing matters, but the right people will always be the key to a successful project. It’s up to the civil engineer to find them, to inspire them, and to teach them.

This challenge of finding committed craftspeople is key in any meaningful endeavor we take on. All engineering projects require collaboration, and so does everything else we do in life. Surrounding yourself with skilled, trustworthy individuals leads to work that’s well-executed, uplifting, and meaningful. More importantly, that kind of positive attitude has the power to spread and inspire others to do the same.

7. Uphold the Standards

Perhaps compliance is the least exciting part of a project, but it’s absolutely essential. Filing permits, getting insurance, managing liabilities, managing revisions, addressing legal requirements, and regulatory approvals required to properly begin construction are part of doing things right from the start. This often includes sign-offs from the local community, HOA, or other relevant bodies.

Upholding the standards demands meticulous attention to every requirement and reflects our own due diligence. How can we minimize environmental impact? How can we protect and support our workers? Are there unions we need to recognize and affiliate with? How can we ensure the safety of the public throughout construction and beyond? How can we minimize damage of neighboring structures and avoid neighbor annoyances? While often bureaucratic and tedious, managing the “paperwork” is critical to both the start and completion of any civil engineering project.

There’s always less glamorous work involved in anything worthwhile. This principle reminds us of the patience we need to practice when it comes to restrictions, boundaries, and the procedural steps that, while bureaucratic, help minimize harm and keep our society functioning in harmony.

8. Always Consider Environmental Factors.

Environmental factors are perhaps the most overlooked, and most problematic, over the long-term. When we fail to consider them seriously, we risk ongoing issues, costly repairs, and lingering (often permanent) annoyances.

A civil engineer must evaluate the orientation of the lot, conduct soil investigations, assess drainage and hydrological flow, and account for seismic, flooding, and fire hazards—all the interactions the building may have with the environment. Less obvious, seemingly harmless but equally critical, are the small vulnerabilities: interconnections with the exterior, such as cracks and gaps where water, pests, moisture, or dirt can come in or accumulate.

Civil engineers adapt to these external pressures, find creative solutions to mitigate them, and communicate the site-specific risks associated with the location—and we can learn to apply these same principles. The more aware we become of these unseen, often unregarded forces, the more resilience we build into our lives. Consider how you interact with your environment. What do you eat and drink? What do you consume physically, emotionally, and mentally? Who do you surround yourself with? What choices do you make every day? These are all key elements of our long-term well-being.

9. Make Things Beautiful.

Aren’t you tired of the monotony of serial homes? Or minimalism? Have you noticed how most suburban homes have mirrored facades to give us the illusion of variety? We have taken beauty for granted. Where are the cathedrals of today? Where is the architecture that inspires our soul? In his active years as a civil engineer, my dad always had an eye for beauty in what he built, and it showed in every project he touched including his current home.

We should all care about beauty and strive to make beautiful things. We owe much of the world’s most inspiring architecture to ancestors who worked over generations, knowing they’d never see the work finished—and yet, they still did it. They built for beauty and permanence, not for timeliness. Today, it’s hard to name projects designed to inspire future generations. Design shouldn’t be only about function, optimization, risk management, serviceability, or maintenance. It should absolutely prioritize aesthetics. Building functional homes matters, but beauty elevates how we feel living in them.

Of course, budget constraints are real. Clients have limited budgets and often prioritize square footage over aesthetics—bigger and cheaper. However, beauty isn’t necessarily about expensive finishes, but about thoughtful design and unique features. Even within these constraints, I believe we should advocate for aesthetics since how we actually feel living in a space matters most. Beauty transforms a structure into a home, a living space that makes living worthwhile.

A well-designed structure shouldn’t just be robust—it should be inspiring, captivating, and calming. That’s why we should design with elements like high ceilings, double-height spaces, functional fireplaces, skylights, vaulted ceilings, and indoor gardens in mind. These features don’t just serve a function. They elevate the quality of life.

Whenever we travel, aren’t we drawn to the cathedrals, fountains, medieval quarters, or old architecture? We’re inspired by national or local parks, markets, monuments, and archaeological sites. This is what matters most at the heart of civil engineering: not just building sound structures, but inspiring future generations and helping make the world more beautiful.

We’re all builders at heart. Whether we’re crafting a meal, repairing something with creativity, improving a habit, or learning a new skill, we can set our own clever scaffolding and leverage the principles of civil engineering to guide us in the process.