About a month ago, I decided to complete a crafting project because I wanted to test whether motivation follows action or not. I watched a YouTube video, “Why Motivation is a Myth,” by Ali Abdaal. According to Jeff Haden (as cited in Abdaal, Jul 1, 2020), motivation is a sugar rush that never lasts. Progress creates a spark; thus, we must act upon it (1:15 – 2:12). This video made me think deeply. I am goal-oriented and favor a checklist because I gain great satisfaction in completing items. I picked a crafting project for this test because I am not good at completing crafting projects. Excitement does not seem to impact the probability of finishing a crafting project that takes more than several hours unless it is a school project. I hypothesized that I might change the outcome if I treat it as a required task instead. So, I made sure that this project was always on my to-do list, and I made sure to spend 15-30 minutes each day.
My second objective was to discover some of the benefits of crafting. I used to work for a head office for long-term & retirement facilities. I remember that activity therapists created an activity curriculum for our clients. The government funds those types of activities in Canada for long-term care facilities. Valid reasons must exist for them as professional therapists develop these curricula. This little experiment will be an excellent opportunity to discover their benefits.
Finally, I wanted to try crafting a tiny house to see whether it can be in my hobby repertoire. The best way to find out is to try it out myself.
I purchased Countryside Notes, a CuteBee Dy Dollhouse Miniature Kit for under $10 from Amazon. According to the vendor, the assembly time is 6-12 hours. Since I have never done crafting like this, I expected my completion time to be 12 hours.
Motivation is a Myth – learning from DIY Dollhouse Project.
About a month ago, I decided to complete a crafting project because I wanted to test whether motivation follows action or not. I watched a YouTube video, “Why Motivation is a Myth,” by Ali Abdaal. According to Jeff Haden (as cited in Abdaal, Jul 1, 2020), motivation is a sugar rush that never lasts. Progress creates a spark; thus, we must act upon it (1:15 – 2:12). This video made me think deeply. I am goal-oriented and favor a checklist because I gain great satisfaction in completing items. I picked a crafting project for this test because I am not good at completing crafting projects. Excitement does not seem to impact the probability of finishing a crafting project that takes more than several hours unless it is a school project. I hypothesized that I might change the outcome if I treat it as a required task instead. So, I made sure that this project was always on my to-do list, and I made sure to spend 15-30 minutes each day.
My second objective was to discover some of the benefits of crafting. I used to work for a head office for long-term & retirement facilities. I remember that activity therapists created an activity curriculum for our clients. The government funds those types of activities in Canada for long-term care facilities. Valid reasons must exist for them as professional therapists develop these curricula. This little experiment will be an excellent opportunity to discover their benefits.
Finally, I wanted to try crafting a tiny house to see whether it can be in my hobby repertoire. The best way to find out is to try it out myself.
I purchased Countryside Notes, a CuteBee Dy Dollhouse Miniature Kit for under $10 from Amazon. According to the vendor, the assembly time is 6-12 hours. Since I have never done crafting like this, I expected my completion time to be 12 hours.
Challenges
It was a challenging project for me because I did not know how to use the tools properly. I bought a toolkit set. At the start, I used my fingers to craft. Soon, I realized that using the tweezers made some tasks were easier to do. Each pair of tweezers seems to have its best-suited job. Once, I picked up a piece with tweezers pinching so hard that the part flew out and – luckily – landed on the table. I learned that I needed to grab them carefully.
Not all kits come with all of the items required for crafting. After I opened the kit, I realized it did not come with either glue or batteries. Initially, I was using regular glue that would not affix certain parts together. After investigation, I discovered I should be using silicone glue. The most challenging part was to determine which batteries to use for this dollhouse. It took me few days to realize LR44 indicated on the instruction was the size of the batteries to use for this dollhouse.
A minuscule measurement error can result in running out of materials. I had to substitute my hemp twine for the roof and a piece of gauze for the chairs. I did not have enough yarn to cover the rooftop. The cloth piece for chairs was missing from the kit. It is not so bad though, as long as they look alike, you can substitute anything from the house.
Benefits
While I was doing this project, I noted some recognized benefits of crafting from my experiment. Additionally, I researched the benefits of tucking with crafting activities.
Develop Planning Skills
Planning is an essential part of a project like this. The instruction that came with the kit was pretty good, but it would not be perfect. So, I had to figure out these missing puzzles. For example, the instruction never mentioned creating a hole for the lighting fixture. I realized this when I was examining the house for the wiring. It can take multiple days to build one piece of furniture as the furniture may have numerous parts that cannot be attached simultaneously. For example, it took me three separate days to construct the cooking oven because it was difficult to glue the shelving for the furniture and accessories on the same day without breaking other parts. So, I chose to make various pieces of furniture at the same time. I read multiple pages of instructions and wrote a plan. Numerous components of furniture were created simultaneously and completed at the same time.
Develop Problem Solving Skill
You develop problem-solving skills from crafting because there are always difficulties in assembling something so tiny and fragile. I had a problem keeping the ground steady due to the wires for the lights. I created a housing from cardboard to hold the wires together and stuck the cardboard housing directly to the tin can. I used toothpicks to hold the ground piece until it adhered to the tin can. The next day, I was utterly disappointed to find out it did not glue well. I needed a more appropriate glue to adhere to the pieces. After I got silicone glue, I glued a cardboard frame to mount the base to the tin can. This part took me three days—another problem I solved by using more appropriate tweezers. I did not even know which tweezers to use.
It’s a Mentally Stimulating Activity
Crafting will prevent aging in the brain. The number of myelin decreases as we age, which prevents us from accepting new challenges later in life. The brain is plastic, and it will continue to grow at any age by learning new skills. People who continuously engage in learning new skills prevent their brain’s demyelination because they continually develop their neural pathways. When the neural pathways are hardened from more practice, the newly learned activity will become easier to perform. According to Krell-Roesch et al. (2017), older adults who performed the following five types of mentally stimulating activities such as reading books, playing games, craft activities, computer use, and social activities at least 1-2 times per week reduced the risk of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Although their study did not conclude why that is the case; however, they assume that a particularly mentally stimulating activity helped decrease the risk of developing MCI (page. 7). It wasn’t easy to use the tools, but it got more manageable with practice. I assume I regrew some myelin by doing this project.
Learning Something New
I learned something new from this project. I’ve never built a dollhouse, so this project was an exciting experience for me. I found I could not use just any glue to attach wood pieces to the tin can. There is a valid reason why a tool kit contains multiple Tweezers because each has different usage. There are many sizes of watch batteries. I found YouTubers posted a video on building a tiny dollhouse like this. Some of them use a variety of scavenged household materials to create a dollhouse.
Discussion
Relying solely on motivation will not help us complete some tasks because motivation decreases over time. As Jeff Haden pointed (Tedx Talks, May 24, 2019), you may have a teacher to sustain your motivation when you are at school. This is not true when you do a project for yourself because no one will keep inspiring or motivating you throughout achieving the goal (0:35-0:59). I studied hard to obtain a professional designation for a steady income. I have completed various crafting projects because I got awards from winning the crafting contests. When you are doing a project for someone else, you also have some external rewards. When I want to do something for myself, like losing weight or crafting, my motivation decreases. I was so focused on the outcome but not its process so I did not even notice my improvements or progress. Eventually, I quit the project altogether. The accumulated failures made me feel like a loser and a quitter with enormous guilt for creating an additional trail of failures.
The crucial part of sustaining motivation is to understand how people get motivated. Jeff Haden explained (Tedx Talks, May 24, 2019), you must generate your own motivation. Once you find something you want to do for yourself, create a plan to complete it. You will need to put in the right effort. When you feel some improvement or progress, it generates dopamine in your brain. Then, your motivation will increase to continue with your project the next day. It is a cycle that helps you to complete a task (3:59 – 4:42). I got frustrated at some challenges I had during the project. However, I systematically approached each problem. Every time I overcame the obstacle, I could see some improvements. I was keen on such improvements because I was actively seeking the benefits of crafting. More importantly, I saw the progress throughout the project. Approximately around the 10th day, I was no longer relying on completing my checklist or the outcome. I was confident I would complete this project.
So, motivation will follow by acting on it because you will generate motivation by seeing your progress or improvement. I obtained immense satisfaction by completing this project because I regained my capability to complete a project for myself. I understand why it is essential to focus on the process instead of focusing on the outcome. I saw the benefits of focusing on the process. I am now sure this is how I should approach projects for myself.
I am already planning to build another dollhouse. I saw many benefits from working on this project. Crafting provides people with great benefits because it forces us to think, plan, and practice. I learned many things from this project. Eventually, I wanted to create a miniature theme from our household scavenged materials. I consider dollhouse making to be in my hobby repertoire.
References
Abdaal, Ali. (2020, July, 2020. Why Motivation is a Myth [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzAuvOr-YsM&ab_channel=AliAbdaal
Haden, Jeff (2019, May 24). The Most Successful Person in the World | Jeff Haden | TEDxPaloAlto [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLFqoofiiBg&ab_channel=TEDxTalks
Krell-Roesch, J., Vemuri, P., Pink, A., Roberts, R. O., Stokin, G. B., Mielke, M. M., Christianson, T. J. H., Knopman, D. S., Petersen, R. C., Kremers, W. K., &Geda, Y. E. (2017). Association Between Mentally Stimulating Activities in Late Life and the Outcome of Incident Mild Cognitive Impairment, With an Analysis of the APOE ε4 Genotype. JAMA Neurology, 74(3), 332. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaneurol.2016.3822