Moderation Is For Cowards (If You’re A Maker)
The path to this silly thing called “adulthood” is filled with moderating and I’m tired of it.
Growing up in the 90’s and 2000’s, we were told we could be anything we wanted, that if we could dream it, we could do it. Then college and the real world slapped us with nonsense like “adjust your expectations,” “realistic goals,” blah blah blah. The best and most successful Makers I know build ridiculous things because they can and are passionate about them.
Set realistic goals, dream smaller, and build with moderation?
F*** that!
“Realistic Goals” Keep You Constrained
How many times have you been told that your goals are too ambitious and you should set realistic goals, instead?
Let’s give whoever told you that the benefit of the doubt that they had your best interests at heart, but they were misguided. So called “realistic” goals keep you exactly where you are today, maybe marginally better. To make drastic improvements, your goals need to be drastic so that, even if you come just short, you’re still miles ahead of where you would have been.
Realistic goals didn’t get us to the moon or land rovers on Mars, but goals that defied them.
“Adjust Expectations” Teaches To Accept Mediocrity
Have you been told your standards are too high and you should adjust them down?
Constantly adjusting your expectations down breeds an acceptance of “just okay”. I get it, sometimes you have a deadline you just can’t miss and things have to be done the fast way. But cutting something out or leaving out a detail to make a cutoff is how you pick which matters more.
Don’t start with lowered expectations or remove something amazing before you start, but rather keep your expectations high until forced to pick between hitting a date or adding the detail.
“Moderation” Is For Cowards
Everything so far applies to life and Making Things, but this one is specific to Making and how audacious you are with your builds.
For a Star Wars geek like me, Galaxy’s Edge is an amazing, immersive place to visit and I find new things every time. When the imagineers at Disney came up with the idea and sketched it out, I don’t think they had moderation in mind. It’s a dream of mine to build out my garage workshop and home office to be fully immersive, functional rooms.
Moderation says to build a simple bookshelf, but where is the fun in that when it can be from a smuggler’s ship?
