Why You Should Design Everything In Your Life

Customize Everything

What if what you're missing on your quest is a handful of magical items?

From elixirs of healing, to a cloak of invisibility, a custom sets of armor, a sword buried in stone, a wands of destiny, or perhaps a ring to rule them all;

No hero faces fate with empty hands.

The same can be true for you. Why settle for off-the-shelf, drop-shipped, mass-manufactured mediocrity?

I am obsessed with customizing everything in my life.

Nothing I own remains 'deadstock' for long. Every new purchase is met with scissors, markers, the sewing needle, and whatever else the project calls for.

My first custom modification was a SwissGear backpack.

Early life in private school meant strict uniforms, dress code, hair cuts, and school-issued bookbags. Evangelicals aren't exactly known for their self-expression.

But in 3rd or 4th grade this changed.

The weight of the Pearson Propaganda hard-cover tomes finally exceeded our little arms ability to carry them in a canvas tote. For the first time, we were allowed to purchase our own backpacks for school.

And much to my parents chagrin, the factory warrantee on mine did not last long.

I cut the metal zipper-pulls off, and replaced them with paracord. (Not sure if the jingle bothers anyone else, but I've do this to every bag I own). I also felt that the red in the Swiss flag logo clashed with the otherwise blue and white aesthetic of the bag. So I took a hammer to the small glass and enamel logo, and cracked off the red, leaving only chrome behind.

Much better.

While this may seem like the strange and insignificant story of one man's neuroticism, I think there is far more at play.

All my life I have been custom modifying, designing, and creating all the objects in my life. Especially those items that I interact with on a daily basis.

It's more than having cool custom stuff. Through the creation process, I see myself as the cause of my reality. My everyday carry reminds me that I am a CREATOR, and not simply a consumer in this world.

Designing every aspect of your life, down to the sacred objects you wear, is one of your most powerful tools for individuation.

Some people would have you believe that the Self is an illusion and a trap. That transcendence comes from dissolving your ego, and becoming 'one' with reality. That your sense of individuality is a limitation, and an unintended consequence of "The Fall".

I find no accidents in God's creation.

Even Darwin could not avoid the purposeful nature of design. He listened along as the finches sang the beautiful birdsong of creation: a harmonious chorus of form and function.

Make no mistake: Nature selected you.

Generations conspired to bring you here, now, exactly as you are. Your interests, passions, curiosities, idiosyncrasies, and neuroses, make you an irreproducible masterpiece

But all that individuality remains hidden unless you express it.

The world can only assess your unique taste in-so-far as you embody it.

Bearing forth WHO you are, into the material world, is a sacred rite. It's WHY you're here in the first place.

One of the most powerful ways to do so, is by designing every single item in your reality.

This is the power of Life as Mythcraft.

So which way western man?

Dissolve the self and exist in the eternal bliss of oneness with the All?

Or pick up your sword, and don your unique armor of individuation?

I discussed this topic at length in my most recent podcast. You can watch it here and see some examples of the custom items in my life.

Otherwise, Thanks for reading, share if you feel called. Otherwise talk soon.

Mythologize Yourself; Be The Renaissance.