Make Something (of Yourself)

The world becomes more enjoyable and meaningful when you make something.

Some will tell you to make something people want. That’s true if you’re trying to build a business. But that’s not the only thing worth making. The more important work is making something (of yourself).

“Of yourself” is in parentheses for a reason. Let’s start with just “make something.”

There are three types of actions in this world:

1. Destroying: deriding, dismissing, insulting, tearing down.

2. Doing nothing: sometimes healthy, other times its own form of self-destruction. Putting off what you know you should do.

3. Making something: the act of revealing something new to yourself and the world.

It doesn’t have to be entirely original. It might be a variation on something that’s existed before. But the version you make is yours alone. That might not matter to others, but it should matter to you. Making something proves you’re capable of more than destruction or avoidance.

Even if it falls short of your own standards, it’s still valuable. You’ve transformed an idea in your mind into something you can hold in your hands. That transformation is a little like magic.

When you make something of yourself, it’s more than producing an object or a project. It’s embedding a part of you in the thing you’ve made — an externalization of your soul. That happens best when you’re not chasing others’ approval or shaping your work around their opinions, but simply following what feels right in the moment.

In the other sense of the phrase, to make something of yourself is to not settle for the status quo of who you are. That doesn’t happen on day one, or even day twenty. But maybe on day two hundred, you’ll look back and realize: making something was how you made something of yourself.

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