Minor Achievements
Major excitements
I’ve been going through old photos and was taken by how many pictures I have of this stupid little bench I made in 2016. There may well be a hundred. It’s almost embarrassing. But I think the better framing is the pride and excitement I felt in such a meager victory.
I’m frequently in conversation with people who are exploring building plans to construct a cabin or something similarly aspirational. And because I’m an advocate of baby steps on the route to daunting dreams—and because I’m bad at business—I often try to talk them down to a smaller, more attainable project.
It’s partially because I assume their cabin build might never get off the ground and something more humble likely will. But it’s not entirely about the odds of success. It’s because I know how much reward is found in any success, even when oh-so-minor. And how emboldening that can be.
This stupid little bench is an easy thing to point to because it was the first fixture we ever erected on our property, but the truth is I’ve overly documented everything I’ve built. I’m like a parent photographing each fresh face their baby makes, or an owner sharing too many videos of their dog. Every step, every stage, every angle, is newly exciting.
I’ve found the degree to which something feels like a monumental achievement is not really proportional to how actually monumental it is. Every win seems pretty damn amazing, so long as it’s novel and beyond my current skillset. I recall that feeling well with this dumb little bench and the proof is in the mountain of photos I took of it. There’s A LOT of excitement to be mined from minor projects. An (almost) embarrassing amount. Don’t overlook the power of small accomplishments. They pave the road to the big ones.
A MESSAGE TO THE LITERATE
The publisher of my Tools book reached out to let me know that the first run was nearly sold out and that they would not be printing a second. I guess the world just wasn't ready for more Tools.
My buddy Ryan scooped up the remaining 200 copies to sell at his and Sam’s bookstore, The Painted Porch, in Bastrop, Texas. You can order it here. And maybe you should. Collectors Item status seems imminent.
DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX
NEW TO THE NEWSLETTER? TO BUILDING?
Start with these posts on Project Planning and Construction Basics.
Or these posts on Community Building.
Or browse. Posts wander from friendship, to workshops, to tools, to explosives. Because we contain multitudes.
elevatedspaces.ca | Instagram | YouTube
This is a very nice bench because it is not really a bench at all. It is at the scale of its tree rather than its user, more than bench and less than deck. Shelf fungi scale appropriated for repose and reflection and fun. Jaunty.
I think you took the appropriate number of photos for the number of thoughts, considerations, “design moves” and craft accomplishments for this jaunty fellow.
My architectural career started with a wooden project that was more than entry steps and less than entry deck to our family’s 20-acre wood home in Michigan. It was the only “real” built object in the “portfolio” required for application to the undergraduate program. The meager wood skills and tools came from high school summer jobs on landscape crew where we occasionally built decks and retaining walls with “wolmanized” wood, a copper arsenate dipped product that’s probably now illegal, certainly in California.
These not-quite-dwelling projects are the beginning of “inhabitation” and as much ceremonial as functional but the function is deeper than your deprecating “dumb little bench” title belies.
I read somewhere of the East Indian settlement practice of manashastra shilpa (AI search would help me remember and spell correctly but I refuse). In this ritual the ground of the future village is cleared and cultivated. A year later the grain is harvested, bread is baked and the first town party held on the site where there is as yet no town but already community. I picture a Martha Stewart layout but with more colorful flowers and costumes, including bare midriffs. Who knows. But whatever goes down at the party gets built upon in the hangover and is the literal foundation and founding of the village that lives on.
I bet you had a village party on your jaunty little deckbenchaltarbed, right?
The small wins fuel bigger dreams and feelings of empowerment. Thanks for sharing your stoke