Real talk time. Crafting is not all sunshine and roses. It’s frustrating sometimes, especially if something isn’t quite working the way you want it to. But you know what? I’ve learned a lot of life lessons from crafting, and today I thought I’d show those with you.
I’m talking purely life lessons here, not about gaining the skills to do the crafts. It’s kind of a given that you’ll learn those, and I want to focus on the other things that crafts teach us, the ones that might not be so obvious at a first glance.
Patience
Very rarely is any type of crafting able to give you instantaneous gratification. It’s a process. It takes time. But you also get the satisfaction of watching your craft develop in your hands. You work through the frustration, or you might put the project in time out for a while. But eventually, we go back to it and we learn to be patient with both the project and ourselves. It can be a difficult lesson to learn, but patience is never a bad thing to have.
Problem-Solving
Rarely does any craft go perfectly the first time you attempt it. That’s part of the learning process! But sticking with it and working through the problems is a great thing, and you not only learn the craft better, you learn how to solve problems better too. These days, we have so many resources at our fingertips that we can look at to solve whatever problem we might be having with our craft. We have a multitude of ideas we can try until finally something works, and then we will know for the next time the problem arises.
Self-Confidence
When I finish a project, I like to think “I did that!” Because I did do that! The more projects I complete, the more confident I am in my skills. And if I finish a particularly difficult project, then it is so satisfying to know that I have added skills to my repertoire. Then I’m able to feel confident about tackling another project. Now if only this was transferrable to the rest of my life…
What lessons have you learned from crafting? Have you ever thought about it this way?