Prompt: Write about something your work has taught you about yourself.
Okay, the prompt for today, July 3rd, 2026, is: Write about something your work has taught you about yourself.
For this, I’ll probably focus on woodworking.
I think the first big lesson is that I am not a business person. I don’t like business, or at least the business aspect of making things.
But I think there’s more to be learned from woodworking than that.
One of the biggest lessons—and it’s only really coming to light now, even though it’s probably been there all along—is that I don’t naturally have the patience to develop a practice around a skill.
What do I mean by that?
Essentially, I’m impatient. I want to get to the end right away.
Take sharpening, for example. Sharpening your tools is one of those foundational woodworking skills that you would never think much about until you actually get into the craft. But learning to sharpen well—especially hand tools like chisels—takes a long time. Sharpening my woodturning chisels properly takes work. It takes practice. A lot of practice.
And that’s only one of the foundational skills I need to develop before I can become better at woodturning, cutting dovetails, using hand tools, or really doing any of the things I actually want to make.
I think what woodworking has taught me is that I don’t naturally want to spend time on those foundational skills. I want to jump straight onto the lathe. I want to start making boxes. I want to do the exciting part first.
Another example is making jigs.
A jig is really just a tool you build to help you build something else. A circle-cutting jig is a good example. It’s basically like a compass, except instead of a pencil, there’s a very sharp, very fast blade at the other end.
Making a jig often takes more wood, more effort, and more time than the project it eventually helps you create. If you’re making a jig to route hinge mortises, for example, building the jig can take much longer than actually routing the hinges themselves.
That’s difficult for me.
I think that’s the biggest thing woodworking has taught me about myself: I need to slow down. I need to back up. I need to focus on the foundational skills. I need to give myself time to learn those things properly before expecting the bigger projects to go well.
Buying another tool, spending more money, or filling the shop with equipment isn’t going to make the work easier or better.
If I had started my woodworking journey with that understanding—with the idea of building slowly—I think I’d be much further along today.
Of course, it’s not too late. I can always go back and build those foundations now.
Part of me doesn’t want to. Part of me still wants to jump right into making things.
But maybe that’s exactly why this lesson matters.
Right on.
You can find this prompt, and many more, at Letters’ Lounge. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this one or any of the others, so please leave a comment or share a link to your own blog or audio journal. I’ll be sure to give it a read or a listen.
All right, folks. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.
This transcript was lightly cleaned up with the help of AI to improve readability while preserving the original voice and intent of the recording.
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