Want To Improve Every Aspect Of Your Life? Start MAKING Things!
Making things has improved my relationship with my wife, my enjoyment of entertainment and travel, and even my full-time job.
When I first started making things, I had no idea the impact it would have on my life.
Initially, I saw making things just as another tool to solve problems. As I progressed, my mind shifted from looking for existing solutions to trying to figure out an ideal solution instead. It was subtle and took some time and many projects, but I started wanting to try making something before buying.
Making things changed how I think about problems, but not just my own personal ones.
How Making Things Changed How I Think
When you know that you can take an idea from your head and create it in reality, you start to see your world differently.
Here are just a few ways my thinking shifted as a Maker:
I stopped accepting partial solutions
My creativity (which I didn’t know I had) was unlocked
I started believing that everything can be improved
I began seeing complex problems as many groupings of easy problems
I noticed details in how cool thing are made (even in places like Disney World)
My appetite for knowledge grew
My curiosity exploded
I could keep going, but the shift in my thinking helped me grow as a maker and in pretty much every other aspect of my life.
Non-Maker Areas That Improved Thanks To Making Things
No one spends all day every day making things.
My non-maker list includes:
My wife
My 2 young kids (#girldad)
Our dog and 2 cats
A full-time job that can sometimes be demanding
Attempting to be healthier
Trying to keep track of what I want and need to do for everything above
Traveling (mainly to Disney when we can)
Spending time with friends
Reading
Watching Movies and streaming shows we like
What’s amazing is the mind shift from making things has positively impacted every area of my life above.
My wife and I think about things we can do ourselves instead of just buying things.
My oldest daughter asks for ways that something can be improved by adding something (and my youngest is getting there too).
Our pets have areas for them customized to how they like it.
My full-time job has seen the benefit of breaking down complex problems into manageable bits that can be addressed more effectively.
When I notice I am not as healthy as I want to be, I look for the root cause to address, not just the impacts.
Instead of keeping everything in my head, I worked to create a second brain in Notion.
I enjoy traveling more to see and experience new textures and details I haven’t noticed yet.
I pay attention more when talking to friends, which I struggled with in the past.
I love hearing new-to-me ideas whether from fiction or non-fiction.
I notice how props, sets, and colors play more of a role in entertainment so I can try to emulate it.
Making Things Has Improved Every Aspect Of My Life
I cannot recommend starting to make things more highly and everyone should give it a try.
You don’t need a dedicated workshop or 100 tools to get into it. Just a couple of tools and a problem you really want to solve will do the trick.
