Building a workshop
About the project
Choosing a location
It is clearer than ever, our world is using resources in a way that is far from sustainable. It is time to dimm down on the lavish use of materials while keeping up our thrive and dreams. Being more mindful on sustainability does not mean to relinquish, it could be the exact opposite!
I wanted to put this thought to the test when building an organised workshop (to create a base to realise future projects).
My grandpa built my parents a little shed in the garden. Over time it has lost its charm and it became a store room for unwanted or broken items.
The easiest way would have been to tear it down and placing a ready to install kit of a little workshop there. I found some companies that supply pretty affordable options that would have made a great workshop base.
But lets restore and rebuild the old decayed shed and then I make a conclusion how living/building/restoring in a more sustainable fashion could positively affect our lives.
2. Start of restoration
I was fairly optimistic on how fast I could convert this old shed into a usable workshop… The condition turned out far worse than anticipated. The entire building seemed rotten and crooked. I stick to the plan and I am excited what I will have learned from all this in the end.
I believe that when you set yourself a goal one should stick with it.
Life is extremely complex and by nature we have to constantly work against its friction to go whichever direction. If one chooses to go nowhere it will cause friction just as deciding to go to a defined goal will. A sentence that staid with me since I heard is:
“There are two types of pain you will go through in life, the pain of discipline and the pain of regret. Discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tonnes.” Jim Rohn
3. Why do we do what we do?
You surely have asked yourself what happiness means for you. It might be slightly different for every individual. And I believe the root of the opposite is the stoppage of process.
Have you ever found yourself unhappy?
Most likely you have been in a state that had no clear direction or no direction at all.
What makes a happy life:
Being in a constant process and having defined/clear goals. Those goals should include impacting the lifes of the people around you in a positive manner.
4. You have to study!
Until recent when one studied or got a higher education it was of some certainty to get a working contract, and not only that, but a working contract for a decent amount of time.
However, times changed and our own initiative is more asked than ever. Job securities are not of the same sureness as they were in recent times. If you are below the age of 40 you most likely have worked already in 2 fairly different work fields.
I believe that studying or other higher educations are of great importance to guide us into a certain direction, but at the same time have school systems failed in preparing us for how the world has changed.
Start ups have never reached higher numbers, because it is the direction of the future: Own initiative rather than relying on school teachings or learned backgrounds. We have to be more flexible than ever.
And now you know why I am building a workshop:
To try my first steps in our new working environment: Own initiative, creative thinking, immersion and execution. And combining tasks of a variety of working fields to apply the learned information for future projects and to implement them in a versatile fashion to find solutions in a rapid changing society.
Train your adaptability to cope with the increasing speed of change!
5. ?
I did not write this page to show you how to build a workshop. I wrote this page to encourage you to join me in believing that ones dream can become reality if we set us a clear goal and work on it inexorably.
6. The biggest hurdle:
I think it happens daily to me.
Procrastination.
The biggest hurdle mostly is not the obstacle itself but the obstacle in our minds to start approaching the task/goal.
Most likely this sentence resonance somewhere with you and that is okay because we all suffer from procrastination. The problem is when it becomes a trait.
7. The super mind principle
Get in touch with a community that desire to reach a similar goal or have already reached it. Spending and exchanging thought ideas and actions in such a constellation will rapidly increase your possibility of success (I have to apply this more myself).
I think Jim Rohn has put the definition of success on point:
“Success is the continual unfolding of the design of your own life and pulling it off.” -Jim Rohn
Success is not a number or a place. It is to pull your desired design of life into reality. I truly believe in this.
8. Back to the workshop
Here you can see the tool room that I build, it has quick access tool walls. This helps in finding the right tool quick as every tool has its own place in a visible area.
Additionally I build a bench to have a place to rest for a delicious coffee from time to time.
9. The Workshop results
I am really happy with the workshop. As I built it in the garden of my parents, therefore this whole project is more for them than anyone else. It can now be used as:
Workshop
Extended terrace
Storage Room
Garage
Place for gatherings and lifelong memories
Remember what I wrote in Chapter 3:
What makes a happy life:
Being in a constant process and having defined/clear goals. Those goals should include impacting the lifes of the people around you in a positive manner.
I was never serious about creating a workshop, all I did was an experiment on adaptability.
10. How did it work out for me?
The workshop project is a metaphor for the modern market place.
We must take initiative and immerse ourselves in a variety of doings in order to find ourself readily for the needed adaptations that are/will be put upon us in the market place.
Conclusions:
After I finished the workshop I gained enough confidence to convert a motorbike and a transporter into a high tech camper and a high tech racer while filming the entire process in order to edit the material to start a YouTube channel with the serious intent of making a living as a full time video/content creator
(I am currently struggling through the difficulties in surviving with the little income of a beginning YouTuber, but I wake up with a smile and I hope this workshop story gave you a little bit more confidence in the worthiness of giving your dreams an attempt).
This project/experiment proves yet another time that even as a studied veterinary surgeon own initiative, adaptability and flexibility are more asked than ever. While a veterinarian 20 years ago was still in a relatively prestige situation regarding her/his finances we find ourselves now with in-proportional rising real estate prices, in-proportional rising inflation, in-proportional rising living expenses and food prices regarding the salary development. Additionally the demands on the workplace rise in every sector while permanent working contracts are found more rarely while temporary employment agencies rose to be the top employer worldwide.
I really hope this workshop story showed you the worthiness of giving your dreams an attempt because now it is the time for it, more than ever.
I might not make it as a YouTube creator but I surely will be happy to having tried and yet again it might give me the little advantage in finding a solution in a future job that I might wouldn’t be able to without the internet experience, in short becoming more of a modern worker: Flexible and adaptable. Do not leave your dreams unfulfilled.
Lukas Kiemer
(El Veterinario)