Nov 24 2008
Anywhere But Stationary is Growth
The Good | Making It Yourself
Do you know how to make furniture? I didn’t, and then my temporary interest in reading an actual self-improvement blog aggregator lured me into the inspired ingenuity behind multi-purpose homebuilt “hack” furniture. When called upon to invent crafts in a class, I tapped those inspirations for my own and learned the history and physical science behind the design and construction of furniture. Am I genius? Was the project successful?
If we’re being literal, no by at least ten or fifteen points and yes, very much so. Academically it was a huge success but for me it was also a great personal success. Aside from enriching my knowledgebase, it proved to me once again that I need only to stick my toes in any given water to be able to adapt to it on an entry level and better yet find an appreciation for it.
We’re obviously very complex creatures, and the routines in our lives can feel controlling. In many ways they are, but difficult as it is to break them, occasionally it can and must be done. While breaking that routine, it makes you feel more human to apply yourself to a novel purpose and realize you’re still giving it your own spin, your own taste, and your own approach.
It doesn’t have to be a rote skill, either. It’s simple wish-fulfillment. Practice makes better. If you’re uncomfortable talking to the opposite sex, you probably don’t do much talking to them. You can argue about cause and effect until you’re blue in the face, but the fact is 95% of the smooth people in the world used to be you. Then they talked to girls or boys or men or women, and they made huge fools out of themselves but figured it out through experience.
This is a basic technique, a basic feature of the human condition, and yet it’s put to the least use.
Live, and, learn.
