A beautiful way to, at least, describe what we’d like to experience with our work or job is “Craftsmanship”. I believe Frank Chimero defined this simple concept as, “[the] desire to do a job well for its own sake.” At the time I feel comforted by this ideal, anxiety creeps in just as quickly and easily. Because I ask myself, when? What are the conditions of one’s moments or work-life when this can be experienced? When do we feel this in our hearts? I believe in the theory of “Flow”, we exerience something similar, in that we lose time and find pure enjoyment and even happiness. But particularly for work, Craftsmanship, reminds me of the experienctial, Flow, while Crafstmanship requires at least 2 things - one my hands doing work (not to mean the traditional wood work or furniture making or knitting), I mean my work takes my body (almost wholly) and I’m not playing or just experiencing a feeling passively - this is up to me. And two, a better environment. I have a feeling we’d all want to perform a craft so romantically and many higher-brow entrepreneurs would tell you, without a doubt, you can do it anytime anywhere. Yet, we do not. And I believe real-work blockades are put in my path. While at the same time, it’s up to me to knock them down, move around them, or ignore them as an entrepreneur would, oh so simply.
I may be my own worst enemy here. Kelly would tell me so. Between my idealism and sense of fairness - it’s harder for me to conform to another’s process for the sake of learning, only because it doesn’t feel like learning. Not that I hate learning - all I seem to do when not working is reading and writing and learning from others. Plus, it should feel like learning. Meaning, I shouldn’t experience this frustration as, “I’m above this,” but more as a chance to learn what I like, what I can do better, and how to get involved and even change my own situation. I believe the bigger sense of being told what to do drives me crazy and furthers my rebellion to becoming a pro-designer. Because that’s really what we may all struggle with, how to become amazing? And is it enough to just become amazing in our own right? Meaning, can I be great no matter where I am, for myself, and enjoy the job for it’s own sake?
Raise your hand if a negative story-line enters your head almost instantly, when you feel you can blame anyone else for impeding your intended greatness? I can easily blame the place I work today. It’s slow moving, risk adverse, far too large for the product it cares to produce, doesn’t focus well, and most of its inhabitants are more worried about keeping their jobs than on excellence and the paramount user is denied or ignored in the name of quantity.
So, it’s everyone else’s fault, no? Didn’t I tell you my idealism not only runs parallel with my experiences, but typically veers left, jumps the curb, and runs right into my stupid vehicle knocking me unconscious almost instantly - and regularly. The question is, do I want to be great with articles written about me or can I find the nirvana of Craftsmanship sitting alone in a cabin in the woods - for myself? I think the answer is, I must do the latter. And the only way to afford such things is to learn everything everywhere. I may not be a designer that draws all the time, or “just has to make something” (those types designers can so easily make everyone else feel like worthless piles of lazy designer shit) or am I one that simply has all the ideas all the time and “must be working”. But when I have a task to do, a problem to solve, no matter if my friend’s asking for advice through casual coffee or when my job requires my brain and a little skill - I must love doing it when I’m doing it. And what I find is, that is actually the case. I can talk and make things for hours when I need to, when I want to and otherwise, I have other parts of my life to build up. And I believe that is good enough.
I supposed a passion doesn’t have to consume every other part of my being. Would you agree?
Though, how often do we hear the opposite? Nothing else should take precedence over your passion because only when one is engrossed with it, will they be happy. And I wonder if engrossed can be binding. I worry that if I am not engrossed, I’m not good enough. Or I worry that we are being taught incorrectly. Perhaps, these stories of influence, success, and inspiration are all too subjective to be relatable. Tugging at heart strings doesn’t make for personal relevance. Sure, the feeling is quite personal otherwise, one wouldn’t feel the connection to their bodies. What I mean to say, is that the emotional quality of someone else’s experience doesn’t make it a part of you. It doesn’t have to be set in stone - something you could or must reach. I believe we will feel more let down throughout our lives when we don’t know ourselves well enough and it takes other’s lives to inspire or feel relevant to our own. That’s bad teaching. It’s scarily like Hollywood.
A high school teacher once told me that “good enough never is.” I’ve never agreed with that statement (though coming from a teacher, the hearts was in the right place) because good, bad, better, best is subjective in so many cases. Granted a cure for cancer is better than not a cure for cancer. But there must be degrees of all judgements. Therefore, in my personal sense of Craftsmanship, I must learn to love the kind I am, not compare to the other kinds there are, and love being a designer when I get to be one.