It's not the end result that counts, it's how you get there
Sunday, May 3
Robert van Loghem in life hacking

That is what Bert Monroy says at the end of every Pixelperfect show that my girlfriend and i watch on Revision3. The show is about how to create digital paintings in Photoshop. Yes, the paintings at the end are indeed wondrous to look at but, just as looking at Bob Ross working, it's the way he creates them that keeps us coming back to enjoy watching the show every week.

When i was a kid, i used to dream how it would be when i was 20-ish. Be a DJ, do cool work in IT, buy any gadget i would like. I realized my dreams. I DJ-ed on some big festivals, traveled abroad, do cool work at one of the best IT companies in the Netherlands and i can almost buy any gadget i can set my eyes on (if my purse allows it ;) ). Was i happy that i fulfilled my dreams? No i wasn't. In fact, as soon as i reached a milestone in my life, e.g. DJ in London, i would immediately set another one. e.g. DJ in Japan. I felt empty, always looking forward into the future, never looking back or living in the present and enjoying the fact that e.g. i played at the Lowlands festival (one of Hollands biggest music festival). I wasn't enjoying my life until i started applying Bert's motto; "It's not the end result that counts, it's how you get there".

I first understood it when i was building my new speakers, Scanspeak Maxima's. These were going to replace my 16 year old Visaton ones. The Maxima is very big and it would take me, together with my dad, a long time to build (6+ months). When i started, i dreamed about how they would sound, spend time with friends, family and my girlfriend putting on some great music! At the time, in my mind i wasn't busy with building them, they were already done. The building-part was just a hurdle that needed to be taken as quick as possible. Again, i wasn't enjoying myself, the enjoying part would come as soon as the speakers would be done. I knew from past experience that as soon as the speakers would be done, i would not enjoy them but just set a new goal and dream about the new thing. How frustrating...

We bought the parts, wood and started building. With my iPhone i took a lot of pictures of the work we did. Whenever we started on a new part, i would take pictures, whenever we finished a piece, i would take pictures. When i wasn't working on the speakers, i would sometimes look at the pictures and it occurred to me that, i was enjoying the progress we made. Wow, i wasn't thinking about the finished product! I felt proud about building the speakers, glueing, sanding, painting, seeing how far we had gotten within 4 months.

For me there is a comparison between looking at the Maxima building pictures and watching an episode of Pixelperfect. I see progress and of course some mistakes ;) It makes me feel great inside. So i started doing that in every aspect of my life, not by using pictures but by being aware. Whenever I'm doing something, I think about where i was, where i am now, where I'm going to, but most importantly, how i got there! Seeing the "...how i got there..." part has changed my life. It's weird but i'm happy, i found it! I'm still doing the same things as i have always done, but the things i do make me feel good inside. Only because I'm aware and proud of the things i do to get somewhere.

Article originally appeared on Drummingwithneedles - Robert van Loghem (http://drummingwithneedles.com/).
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