Make more things with your hands

You're 60. You look back on your 21,900 days on earth and think "what have I been doing with all this time?"

I'd want to have as many visible reminders of time well spent as possible - namely, an environment I’ve created by hand. Optimally, a house, a garden, furniture, cutting boards, art, clothes, candles…

When you create an object, you embed a story within it, and these stories bring beauty to life. Even if the objects themselves aren’t visual masterpieces.

Most work we do in our professional careers is, frankly, invisible and abstract. You can’t easily point to something and say “this is what I’ve worked hard on for the past 12 years”. So we start to question and panic: “Actually, yes, what the hell have I done with my life?” Midlife crisis / lack of meaning ensues.

Make more things with your hands and you’ll have multiple, visible reminders to point at.