Introduction

Project Mentality

So this is a place where I will write about some of the things that mean the most to me. As an obsessed car guy, I'll talk about my cars and the various projects I do on them. I may also talk some about my family life, house projects, my career as a classical guitar performer and teacher, and I suppose anything else that I feel like writing about. A common thread might be that there is commentary on process, that act of creating or improving.

I spend a fair amount of time on various forums, usually just quietly absorbing ideas and information, but occasionally posting on my own threads or someone else's. I was reading on the Garage Journal forum about this guy's mega-garage build and all of his cool cars, and I thought, oh yeah, he's car guy like me, just with a lot more money. But then at one point in his thread, he commented that he didn't really think of himself as a car guy, but rather a project guy. It got me thinking about my own interests and I thought maybe I need to adjust the way I identify myself. I do love cars, but I can also really enjoy making a workbench, a cat climber, installing tile, or trying to improve my guitar playing. If I'm using hands and tools in conjunction with my brain, I'm usually pretty happy. Hence, "Project Mentality."

I would go even further and say much of what we do in life could be looked at as a series of projects. If you're heading to the gym, there's probably some kind of plan in mind, even if it's just to get out of the house for a bit. If we're giving our kids advice or helping them with something, we're essentially trying to shape what already is into something it has yet to become. Even this blog is a project to me. I'm trying to make something I conceive to be interesting and of value to me, so I have to take time and effort to make progress. A mantra I've used many times before goes something like: "If you're not working on your projects, you're not making progress on your projects." Seems simplistic, but it's at the root of the Project Mentality, because otherwise we're just left with Stalled Project Mentality!