3 Unexpected Benefits For Corporate Professionals Who Start Making Things

In August 2016, I was completely burned out from my corporate job and discovered relief from an unexpected place: making things in my garage.

I had been working nights and weekends for nearly a year, felt like I barely saw my new wife, and had canceled so many plans with friends that invites stopped coming. A YouTube video came across my feed of someone building something (what I cannot remember, although I wish I could) and I thought, "I can do that." I immediately started figuring out what tools I needed, what I could build, and what space I had in the garage.

I wish someone had told me what unexpected benefits I could find by making things, so here are my top 3.

Benefit 1: Increased Problem-Solving Skills

Making things is like a puzzle, but you cut the pieces out before putting them back together another way.

During build projects, things I have not foreseen come up and I had to look at my tools and materials available to find a solution. Once you have several projects completed, you start to realize that just about every problem can be solved in a few different ways. You'll also discover that different solutions can either create separate problems or that one solution is more difficult, but looks better.

The more you make, the more you stop seeing problems themselves, but start seeing multiple possible solutions to solve a puzzle, along with the benefits and drawbacks of each, enhancing strategic problems solving skills.

Benefit 2: Enhanced Creative Perspective

Most logical people mistakenly believe they are not creative, but you'd be surprised how creative you can be once you try.

I am in Excel just about every day analyzing data, building financial models, and trying to find ways to automate processes. After I started making things and tapped into my creative side, I started noticing that I wouldn't just look for the fastest solution, but try to understand what was really going on and what was needed. Physically separating material, then recombining it helped me look at data as what could be separated, then combined in different ways to have a better result than just doing simple formulas.

Logic and creativity, when combined, don't simply add together, but multiply into something better than either separately could ever be.

Benefit 3: Therapeutic Stress Relief

Let's be honest, all jobs (even corporate ones) are stressful, draining, and demoralizing (at least once in awhile), so you need to relieve some of that stress.

Making things allows you to do something specifically for yourself that solves your problem the way you want it to. It's all on you and up to you, not a board of directors or boss (except maybe your spouse). Taking ownership of that ability is a positive stress that counteracts the negative stress from work.

Plus, when you're making something, you actually get something out of, unlike watching Netflix or playing GTA 5 (again...).