Cultivating Mind

Constructive Thinking

or, Building Something From Scratch

This Week’s Intentions:

Video Transcript: 

Hey everybody, AJ here with the next step in Cultivating Purpose. this week’s theme is Building Something from Scratch. This may sound like a big task when you first hear it, but let’s break it down.

A lot of us probably think of something physical when it comes to building something from scratch. Something like a shed or a birdhouse was the first thing I thought of, which would be pretty darn cool. In fact- I’ve included a great resource this week that’s all about building your own birdhouse!

But before I talk more about specific things we can build from scratch, I want to talk about it’s importance as it pertains to living a more purposeful life. In modern society, our lives have become more and more specialized and segmented. By this I mean that most of us live lives where things are done for us. In modern society, I’m clearly not raising my own livestock, building houses, hunting for food, or doing any other “end-to-end” process that you could consider “built from scratch.” Modern society has afforded us the luxury and utility of dividing the workload, but it also means we are building less and less from scratch than previous generations.

So why build something from scratch? Well, it taps into our primal nature-- building something from scratch is a gateway to early human psychology and physiology. We humans evolved a complex reward and survival system that sustains us, and nurtures our psyche. Building something from scratch is at the core of that-- it satisfies that biological, evolutionary desire to create, grow and thrive. When you build something from scratch, from start to finish, it delivers us an innate sense of purpose and meaning that, quite frankly, is hard to achieve elsewhere.

The practice of building something from scratch is meant to help us tap into our original selves, as sort of a subconscious reset and reminder of what truly makes us happy.

When I build something from scratch, it helps me feel accomplished and satisfied. I first learned this feeling when I worked summer construction jobs during college. But even though we associate “building from scratch” with physical construction or manufacturing, building from scratch can relate to anything in your life. If you think about it, you can build a lot of things from scratch.

You can build a poem from scratch, you can build a recipe from scratch… you can even build a new friendship from scratch! Tonight… I’m building this fire from scratch-- something we’ll actually dive deeper into in later weeks!

Original Content:

Additional Reading, Viewing, and Listening Links

FILM & TELEVISION RECOMMENDATIONS

Get Inspired by watching these 'built from scratch' pieces of art!

• In a World - Lake Bell (Director, Producer, Writer, Lead Actor)

• Meet The Patels - Ravi & Geeta Patel (Directors, Writers, Cinematographers, Lead Actors)

• Meru- Jimmy Chin (Director, Writer, Producer, Cinematographer, Lead Actor)

• Master of None - Aziz Ansari (Creator, Director, Writer, Producer, Lead Actor)

Action Items for Constructive Thinking: