A couple weeks ago, I made the world’s crappiest knife. It all started when my wife learned about a metalsmithing class offered at a local Maker Space. Two of my kids were interested in taking the class, so I signed up with them. In that class, we used railroad spikes to hammer into a small knife. I had never used a forge before or done any meaningful metalsmithing in my life.

By all measures of quality, the knife sucked. It was barely sharp, not very functional, and looked ugly. And yet the entire experience was wonderful. The feel of the heat, the power of the hammer, the skills learned, and the knowledge gained, all led to an experience that was extremely cathartic.

Journey before destination

It’s the act of creation that leads to this catharsis, this ultimate feeling of pleasure and pride. It doesn’t matter that the knife I created is crap. It’s my first knife, so of course its crap. But the process helped me to learn, develop, and become stronger. The process showed me ways to work with something seemingly immutable and purposeless and turn it into something malleable to give it purpose.

I felt the same sense of enjoyment while building my backyard patio and pergola. During the process, I sweated, got dirty, and strained muscles. I knew nothing about building a patio or about how to build a pergola. Yet, I pushed myself to learn and strained to make my vision a reality. There were times throughout the process that I questioned my own sanity, taking on such a huge project myself. Why didn’t I just hire contractors to do this for me? I’m glad I didn’t. I’m glad I can look at the result and know that “I” did it. That I am the creator.

In spite of the effort required to do these things, its the work that makes those things meaningful. Its the hard work of creating that makes the created object so special. That’s why the IKEA effect makes people value their IKEA furniture more than it is objectively worth. Because we partially assemble the IKEA furniture, we value it more. The act of creation connects us to the object, connects us to reality.

Creating Happiness

That’s not to say we don’t enjoy taking things easy. Reading a book, watching a movie, enjoying a dinner, or hanging with friends can bring us immense joy. These relaxing times bring pleasure, undoubtedly. But the joy is fleeting. The memories may last, but the joy itself leaves after the experience. We absolutely need these experiences in our life, but they don’t bring the same sense of deep, lasting satisfaction.

In order to create happiness, we need to create. Reading a great novel is good, writing your own story is better. Enjoying a delicious meal is good, cooking that same meal yourself is better. Hanging with friends is good, creating unique memories with them is better.

If happiness comes from creation, why don’t we do it more? I don’t claim to have the final answer on this, but I suspect its out of fear. Fear that the creation will be sub-par. We fear others will mock our efforts or worse that we’ll mock our own efforts. The first time creating something, it never looks as good as professionals or experts. Measuring ourselves against those experts makes our efforts seems inadequate. This approach to creation is wrong. Our measure should be individually based. We should judge our efforts against what we did previously. So even though I created a crappy knife, it looks better than what I could have done previously – which was nothing. And because of that I’m happy.

This is the secrete to happiness – creation. So go forge a knife, build a patio, write a book, plant a garden, sew a dress, start a company, establish a career, and create a life. Happiness will follow.