Hello all,
I would like to put out a question here. Like many of you, I started dabbling in woodworking as a hobby, it progressed to a passion, and crossed that fine grey line into obsession. But this was 10 years ago. The past few months, I am having a problem getting enthused about going into the shop. Even with projects on my plate, a couple that will pay me, it is much tougher to just throw on the jeans and sweatshirt, and get there and do the work. Have any of you experienced this? And if so, how did you compensate and address the issue? After all, it is wintertime, and isn’t that when we are supposed to live in our sawdust factories? I am approaching retirement, and have felt for a number of years, that woodworking is how I would fill my time and checkbook. But I am having some second thoughts right now.
I look forward to hearing your responses.
FastEddie in Lancaster, Pa.
Replies
Take a break and do a few things you have wanted to for a while. If you were obsessed with it for so long, I think you have probably pushed your own wants onto the back burner more than a few times. Do something for yourself, other than woodworking.
Thanks, Man, I appreciate the input. As you probably already know, I have gotten tons of good advice, and I plan to act.
Happy Sawdust Trails!
F E
Fast Eddie,
I understand, I've felt that way myself from time to time. For me it comes when 1) I just spend too much time in the shop and don't spend enough time on other things, and 2) when I take on a project that I don't enjoy that much.(I'm just in it for the $$)
A few days off, a fishin' trip, or some other activity for a while might be good for you. If you're like me you'll be back in the shop soon.
GRW
I grew up in Lancaster. As I recall, the winters can be long and gray. Sometimes working alone in the shop is therapeutic and can be a tonic for life's challenges. Other times, it can be a lonely and unfulfilling experience devoid of human interaction. I would recommend keeping my options open and not count on one activity to satisfy my needs. Take care!
From what what you've said about your prior level of involvement, it sounds like you may be due for a change of perspective - sometimes referred to as a vacation.
I'd be curious to know what kinds of woodworking you spend the most time involved in. Are there skills you have always wanted to learn, but haven't? Are there parts of the woodworking process that you seem to like more than others (or dread more than others?)?
I guess it's a question of identifying your passions (which, by the way, shift from time to time throughout our lives, often without warning), and take responsibility for igniting new passions.
I have been involved with an excellent college woodworking for the past few years, and this had not only encouraged me to try my hand at lots of new skills, and has ignited many new passions, the latest of which have been nice, quiet, activities including greenwood chairmaking, hand tool joinery and carving.
Another thing that you may want to consider is finding ways for you to share your knowledge of woodworking with others, whether it's volunteering to teach basic skills to a troop of Boy Scouts, or making wooden toys for charity with a group of other woodworkers.
Above all, have fun!
-Jazzdogg-
Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right.
Sounds like what you need is a sabbatical.
In my line of work, when someone is getting stale, and feeling burnt out or uninspired, they go to work in someone else's laboratory. It gives you a new perspective, and appreciation. And, it often will make you feel more appreciated yourself.
I'd suggest that you find a place to either volunteer, or work at minimal wages, just for the experience that you gain. Find an aspect of woodworking that is as different from your own as you can . If you make casework, go find a wooden boat shop. If you are a turner, find someone who carves carousel horses. Apprentice yourself, or offer your general expertise at a place were no one even knows the basics.
While you're doing this, you will eventually find yourself describing your work to other people, and at some point you'll realize that you miss it, and that you have a hundred ideas that you need to express. Then it's time to come back to it.
I think that I know what you're experiencing, and if I do, I know that it can be overcome by a decisive choice to find a change.
Good luck to you.
Tom
Edited 1/18/2005 12:19 am ET by tms
Sounds like boredom to me. Try incorporating design elements you have'nt tried yet, you may need to challenge youself and get the blood pumping again!
Have fun!
After I closed my cabinet shop, I was totally burned out on woodworking and did very little in the woodshop for almost ten years. Then I got my first grandchild and I started making a few things for her, within a few months my passion was rekindled and has grown to the obsession level, where I have "Sawdust Withdrawal" if I miss more than a day or two in the shop.
Like you I plan on making this my greatest pastime in retirement. What you need is like may have already suggested, a different direction, time off, helping someone else learn to enjoy our passion.
Build something different. You didn't mention it, but I get the impression you build a lot of boxes. You know what I mean.
Try chairs or complicated turning, veneering, or carving. Maybe all you need is a new challenge.
Edited 1/18/2005 1:06 pm ET by cstan
Fasteddie
I can hear you. I have gone threw this a time or ten.I to will use woodworking as a retirement funding in my older years also just like I have for the past 25.
Remember as long as you have paying Customers what more could you ask for have fun and roll-on.
Never get mad at woodworking there is always something to Make.
Best to you
Jimmy
my thoughts are inline with benchdog.
Take on the challange. Do something you have only thought others could do.
Go to some galleries for inspiration.
I think you need to get out of the shop and go see some fellow woodworker's. That has always helped me even if you don't talk about woodworking.
It will pass.
Good Luck
Garry
WOW,
I appreciate all the replies, guess I am not exactly alone in this. Anyway, someone suggested a fishing trip...........hmmm, Jensen Beach Florida almost got blown off the map with the hurricanes, however, I doubt the fish know that. could there be a quick trip in my future?
Again, many thanks for all the responses. You have given me some other perspectives to consider, and I will.
May your sawdust always be sweet smelling
FastEddie
Every one forgot the best therapy (at least in the short term) BUY A NEW TOOL..... if you have never done any turning for instance, go out and get a lathe even if it is just a pen lathe. never done scrollsawing get a scroller and learn intarsia. ect. ect. sometimes boredom just comes from too much repitition.
Might I suggest building a musical instrument, such as a guitar of dulcimer, if only from a kit? Take a drive up to Nazareth, PA to the Martin Guitar factory and take the tour three or four times. It will be a day well spent!
When I took the tour I was totally impressed with the skill level of the crafts people at Martin, and found myself reinvigorated with woodworking.
I'm a woodworker. My wife is an eye doctor (with a medical degree). Here's something else to consider...
Low iron levels in your blood; thyroid problems; diet changes; "aging"; all can replicate the feelings you describe. Your mood could be chemically induced.
I suggest you visit your doctor, and have him do a blood test, specifically looking for changes that may cause your altered enthusiasm. What might seem like dread, fear, boredom, lackidaisicalness, etc., might be eliminated with a simply little pill to adjust some "level" in your body. I've seen my wife brighten hundreds of people's outlooks by simply having them check for some chemical imbalance. Hell, a simple chocolate bar can get me off my sofa and into the shop for afternoon of joyous piddling. And I can spot when my wife's thyroid levels are low just by observing changes in her behaviour.
The doctor may find something easy to fix. That's good news. And the doctor may declare nothing to be wrong. That's good news too. It's a win-win proposition.
Dave B.
I've seen my wife brighten hundreds of people's outlooks by simply having them check for some chemical imbalance.
Did I get this right, she's an opthamologist (an "eye doctor" as you put it) and practicing as an opthamologist?
I'm sure your wife is an excellent physician. With that said, I can't for the life of me remember an opthamologist (and I've seen several) asking me about my mood. I've certainly never heard of one treating hundreds of people for mood disorders. This seems odd and I wonder if you could clarify this.
Edited 1/19/2005 5:00 pm ET by cstan
Many of us came to woodworking as a respite from the rigors of some high pressure job. Hours alone in a shop, without all those demands, seemed like a tonic. Gradually, an interesting hobby morphs into an obsession, and you begin to think about either making your living by woodworking -- or at least taking on paying jobs to fund your tool acquisitions, etc. But somewhere along this path, you begin to understand that woodworking is a solitary, lonely activity. And sometimes without even knowing it exactly, you begin to fall into a depression. Often times, I think, you are simply missing the social interaction and intellectual stimulation that was also a part of that previous life you were trying to escape.If my hypothesis holds any water, that's why it makes sense for some of us to find ways to get out of the shop and do what others have suggested here -- teach, volunteer, or even get some kind of job, if only part-time -- anything that has a social component to it. And as someone else has suggested, sometimes passions run in cycles. I had at least two major, consuming passions before I fell into woodworking. In each case, I gradually lost interest and moved on. so --- maybe it is time for you to start shopping for another passion.
Don't you know that all women are Psychologists and they specialize in telling us what's wrong with us and how to fix it? Often this includes a lot more than only ophthalmology.
"I've seen my wife brighten hundreds of people's outlooks by simply having them check for some chemical imbalance.
Did I get this right, she's an opthamologist (an "eye doctor" as you put it) and practicing as an opthamologist?
I'm sure your wife is an excellent physician. With that said, I can't for the life of me remember an opthamologist (and I've seen several) asking me about my mood. I've certainly never heard of one treating hundreds of people for mood disorders. This seems odd and I wonder if you could clarify this."
True story: a co-worker was having a little trouble focussing on close work, so he went to get his eyes checked. The Doctor examined him and told him he needed to get his blood pressure under control before getting eyeglasses. The Doc didn't have a blood pressure cuff, but recognized a problem from internal examination of the eye. Sure enough, when he went to his physician, his blood pressure was off the chart; he got on some meds; didn't need glasses with his blood pressure under control.
Also heard a story a number of years ago about a dentist congratulating a patient on being pregnant. The woman didn't know she was pregnant at the time. The dentist recognized subtle changes in her gums and suspected she was pregnant.
Maybe we shouldn't be so quick to put all medical personnel into the 'quack' category.....
Bill Arnold - Custom Woodcrafting Click Here if you're interested in a good,inexpensive website host.
Food for Thought: The Ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic by professionals.
Clearly other organic disease can affect one's eyesight. I just found it odd that this opthamologist apparently regularly inquired about mood and things like that.
Obviously, lack of motivation and lack of enjoyment of activities one once enjoyed is one potential indicator of depression. In isolation, however, it could mean he's simply sick of woodworking.
I would imagine there are retired woodworking professionals who are more than happy to never pick up another "tool" other than a 9-iron.
"Did I get this right, she's an opthamologist (an "eye doctor" as you put it) and practicing as an opthamologist?"
Yes. As an ophthalmologist, she started with a pre-med degree, added a medical degree, then speciailized for three years on eyes. Many diseases and chemical imbalances evidence themselves in the eyes. She is trained to recognize these clues. And often an eye doctor is the first to see clues to a more serious disease when the complaints bring the patient to the eye doctor complaining about some eye problem. My wife is often the first one to spot brain tumors (pressing on the optic nerve), STDs, blood pressure problems, jondice, diabetes, and several other diseases when patients come to her for "eye" problems.
Eyes are the window to the soul. More true than you might think.
Dave B.
Edited 1/21/2005 4:20 pm ET by 4DTHINKER
I'm aware of other diseases that affect vision. I just didn't think mood disorders were one of them.
FWIW, the condition you mentioned 'jondice' [sic] is spelled "jaundice" and is derived from the French word for yellow.
"FWIW, the condition you mentioned 'jondice' [sic] is spelled "jaundice" and is derived from the French word for yellow."
Ok, so I'm not a doctor. My wife is though, and she would have surely corrected the mispelling too.
But maybe I meant JohnDice, an eye affliction often caused when any male (a "John") spends too much time staring at the dice while gambling. The patient compains of seeing spots.
Either way, still wrongly spelled. My bad. ;-)
Who better than an opthalmalogist to diagnose a case of optical-rectalitis - The serious condition in which the optic nerve and the rectal nerve become crossed and the sufferer ends up with a crappy outlook on life!
-Jazzdogg-
Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right.
Eddie -
I've suffered from 'loss of passion' on many occasions. Woodworking just happens to be my current focus.
I've had many 'passions' over the course of my life, each one fading as I reached a certain level of expertise yet never achieving any degree of mastery.
What maintains my interest in woodworikng is that I put woodworking to work for me. I view it as a means to an end rather than an end in itself. Being most recently retired we bought what's turned out to be a renovation project for our retirement home. I had most of this in mind when we bought it and forsaw the need for a decent work shop and adequate tools with which to work. For me it's not simply working in the shop, it's the end result that draws me there.
Perhaps you've lost that perspective? Getting away from it for a while as most people suggest could well clear the mind and allow you to re-focus on achievement rather than simply work.
From Beautiful Skagit Co. Wa.
Dennis
I was watching The Weather Channel as I came across your note.
It's a bright sunny day with a gentle breeze, low pollen count and a whole 83ยบ reading on the thermo where I am -- from what I see on the TV, I'm not the least bit jealous of your weather.
I know how weather affects my whole demeanor. Perhaps a brief escape is in order, if it's possible. Hey, fly out to Phoenix and you could actually see water in the Salt River!
-- Steve
Enjoy life & do well by it;
http://www.ApacheTrail.com/ww/
Edited 1/19/2005 5:05 pm ET by Putzger
Your respondent whose wife is an ophthalmologist may have hit on an important point. As a retired M.D., G.P. my first thought was depression, not at all uncommon at the approach of retirement. Big changes in life can be very distressing, even those that we are supposed to look foreward to. To consult a Dr. is a good suggestion.
Tom
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