The Do It Yourself Mentality

The ‘Do-It-Yourself’ ethic or mentality – it’s the idea that anyone can do the same work of paid professionals. Basically, this means that instead of hiring someone else to do the work for you, you can actually do the work yourself. It is a mentality that focuses on working with your hands and overcoming hurdles that may otherwise derail this or that project.

Often, this ethic is often associated with the home improvement industry. When one says ‘do it yourself’ it often means doing the work of fixing or remodeling your own home. This also means putting together things yourself such as furniture and the like.

What it boils down to is this: you stand on your own two feet and don’t rely on others for a lot of things that you do. In this mentality you are the one dictating the terms, not the one being dictated on.

Of course, there are those who will say that ‘no man is an island’ etc, etc. Indeed, we can’t live by ourselves. We do need to rely on others for some of our needs. For example, we do rely on those people who make television sets or the grocery store owner where we buy our food and clothing.

But, we don’t need to rely on others to put together a cabinet. We can also paint our own bedrooms and even finish our own basements if we need to. If you are really well inclined you can even redo your own kitchen and do everything from the tiling to putting in a new counter and sink all by yourself.

We can all be do it yourselfers. Even those who don’t think they can be, can be. All it takes is some perseverance and the motivation to be able to do things yourself without having to rely on others. Of course, it won’t work if you feel like you’re entitled to other people’s work or if you are just too lazy to do it yourself.

One of the things that do it yourselfers need is knowledge. They need knowledge in order to learn the skill or skills they need in order to do something themselves. For example, if you plan on putting together a piece of furniture you may need skills on using simple tools like the hammer, screwdriver and the like. If you want to pain your bedroom you may want to learn the skills of how to paint properly.

The good thing is that there are resources available for you to use so you can get the knowledge needed to help develop the skill set that you need. The internet is awash with resources that you can pull up and learn from. They often include step by step instructions as well as videos and images to make things easier for you to understand.

Brick and mortar resources are also available. Your local library can help you find the resources you want. Even if they are dated the basic premise often doesn’t change so they can be useful.

Once you have the basics you should apply what you’ve learned. It doesn’t have to be anything major. For example you can try replacing a door knob on your own. Put together a chair or a stool if you want. You can even practice painting it if you desire.

All the resources in the world won’t help you if you don’t apply it. Nothing beats actually doing it. The good thing is the more you do it the better you become at it. That’s what the do it yourself ethic is all about.

*Photo Credit to the Owner