Craft Your Aim — The Instinctual Philosophy for a Creative Life

Life can be vast at times — meaning can be aloof.

How do we make sense of it all without using up all of our thinking tokens?

As someone who values practicality & efficiency, I appreciate a phrase or an idea that can sum up a whole lot all at once in simple terms.

Easier to stuff in your pocket and go do fun stuff.

This wee phrase — craft your aim — I came to after considering a frame of mind that would best serve a life on its way through many ever changing creative projects.

I found my inspiration for this phrase in my Father — a master craftsman.

He’s built boats — one of which, ‘Catalyst’, he has circumnavigated the Pacific Ocean on — he’s made furniture of which you’d imagine in a magazine that fancy people buy.

He’s built it all, from quirky, curvy, unique homes to regular old wooden spoons.

And all of his creations have been made without him even consciously knowing this philosophy, because it is just so natural.

This philosophy is instinctual.

I wrote this short semi-fictional story to give an insight into the mindset of my Father while he considers a new project, a new aim to craft to illustrate this idea.

A woodworker sits at his bench and picks up a small slab of wood.

Turning it over in his hands, his mind wanders. It wasn’t that it was a particularly special piece of wood, he just had someone in mind that he wanted to make something for.

What could he make? The old man looked down at the slab and blew off some dust. “Perhaps I’ll make something useful,” he thought. “Not just a thing that sits and gathers dust.”

He sat with the wood held loosely in his hands and closed his eyes. Again, his mind wandered. The radio played faintly in the background. Around him, the old shed had decades worth of projects and materials. The amount of dust was likely at a toxic level. Old bike tyres, one car door hanging on the wall, enough wood to build a small shack, and hundreds and hundreds of tools. A new one hadn’t been bought for years. He had all he needed & his craft was down to a fine art.

Once he had a vision for the piece of wood, he knew that he could reach across the bench and the tool he needed would be there.

A chisel, the sander, a router.

He knew these tools intimately, applying the exact amount of pressure on the wood to create the perfect curve or indent. His hands had their own intellect. His fingers could diagnose a flawed knobbly bit with ease.

His eye knew how to gauge finality effortlessly.

The man lifted his head and took a breath. “Something useful, something practical.” He glanced out towards the garden and a memory crossed his mind.

He had tended to that garden with his beloved wife for so many years. She had taken care of the family’s needs fiercely. Raising the children, worrying about them, cooking all of their meals.

“Perhaps that’s it,” he thought. “Something to use in the kitchen, a wooden spoon. Yes, that’ll do.”

There was no big moment.

The idea just fell into his mind just like the answer to a crossword puzzle. It fitted in. A satisfying sort of knowing that anyone watching couldn’t have guessed at. He would make her a utensil that she could use to care for her own family.

A tool made from his own hands to give his daughter to hold in hers.

The vision of it formed in his mind. He looked down at the unmade slab of wood in his hands and could immediately see what edges had to go.

Firing up the sander, and reaching for his pencil, he sketched out a rough idea and the intellect of his hands took over. Just like the thousands of other creations that had come from unmade pieces of wood, he began the process once again of crafting a worthy aim.

The vast expanse of life that lays before you is waiting to be shaped by your hands.

Your own two hands that grip & fumble. Able to both delicately trace an outline and grasp tightly onto a thread.

These two ways of being correlate exactly to the dual hemispheres of your mind.

The left half of your mind — which switches at the ‘medulla’ to control the right side of your body — holds onto a thought and points towards the details; The right mind opens up to an idea and considers the options before deciding.

• Your life is the unmade slab of wood
• Your aim is the vision of what it could be
• Your mind is the hand that lays itself open to that vision and then reaches for a tool to shape it

So, What’s Possible?

Like the woodworker, a worthy aim can be found in contemplation.

Where does your mind go when it wanders?

Floating untethered from earth, your vision is waiting for an open mind to fall into. It is a subtle yet unmistakable feeling when it connects to a Knowing within you. Follow the thread of it and an outline might be drawn.

• “I could just see myself in the country.”
• “Imagine what a life around horses everyday would be like.”
• “I’ve always dreamt of travelling the world for my job.”
• “I can envision this helping so many people.”

This is the feminine aspect or the right hemisphere of the brain. It is open to considering anything without placing limits. It has more flow and less stricture. There’s no real action taking place here because that would restrict the possibilities.

The Tools in Reach

We cannot achieve our aim without action and for action, we need tools.

What are the tools that will take you further? What can your hands & mind can grasp onto?

Our thought processes, habits & actions are our tools.

• “I can do whatever I set my mind to.”
• “I structure time in my day for this.”
• “My energy is most productive in this area.”
• “What details do I need to take care of?”
• “I’m focussing on building my career.”

This is the masculine half of the equation, which corresponds to the left hemisphere of the mind. It is more focussed on category and definition which allow its actions to become more accurate.

Each tool that the woodworker reaches for has a specific purpose. He requires the right tool to do the exact manoeuvre for the envisioned result. Some tools are sharper than others, some tools may only need to chip off a small amount. What tools does your aim require?

Crafting Your Vision

So when we go between these two principles — masculine & feminine in their purest form — we eventually strike a balance and this is what I would consider crafting.

Dictionary Definition
crafted; crafting; crafts. transitive verb.
: to make or produce with care, skill, or ingenuity

Crafting isn’t about getting to the finish as quickly as possible.

It is savouring the experience of the actions. Crafting describes the attitude with which the pursuit of an aim is approached. It is feeling your way through each stroke of the chisel and considering the results with contentment. It’s unhurried, steady & deliberate. It is fully in the moment.

This way of being makes the tools more efficient without cutting off possibility.

But it takes practice.

A chisel in the hand of a master craftsman is much more effective than the same tool in the hands of a beginner. You develop a feel for the tools over time until they become an extension of your own hand.

In pursuit of your vision, you will dance between these two states.

Without even having much of a conscious understanding, your life will naturally mirror these principles on a micro and macro level. My Father knows nothing of this philosophy behind what he’s doing. He just does it.

So, to sum up.

Find a vision.

Explore the balance.

Craft your aim.