For do’ers.

For explorers.

For the ones who get their hands dirty.

The Calloused Hands Club is a place where imperfections are celebrated and failure is a rite of passage. It’s about trying those things that you’ve always wanted to, but never got round to. It’s a space to see what happens, because you never know until you start. 

The club fell out of the idea that it takes 100 days to form a habit. We wanted to put this to the test and see for ourselves – 100 days to form a good habit, learn something new, and with any luck, create some cool things along the way.

Whether it’s writing 500 words of a book, taking a photo on 35mm, or finally restoring that piece of furniture that’s gathering dust in the shed, let’s just see what we can come up with when we put our minds, and our hands to it.  

Everyone in the studio has been racking their brains recently to come up with their chosen habit. We’ve decided to document our 100 days, starting on June 1st, using #CallousedHands100 and we’re inviting you to join us. To help get you started we thought we’d outline some Club Rules...

Commitment keeps us accountable

Plan for your commitment

Seems obvious but it’s worth making sure you’re not biting off more than you can chew. If we give ourselves unachievable targets we’re only setting ourselves up to fail. 

Create a theme/rule to make it repeatable

Repeating a task is key when forming a habit. The more we repeat, the more natural it will feel and there’s a much higher probability that you’ll stick to it in future. 

Plan for how to share your explorations

Another way to hold ourselves accountable is sharing our progress. Not only does this allow you to easily document your progress over the 100 days, but it gives you the nudge to show up for yourself. Using the hashtag #CallousedHands100 will allow other club members to see your progress and hopefully encourage us all to keep going. 

Get comfortable with failure

Practise working to deadlines

Let’s remember this is something we want to get better at. If we had it all figured out there wouldn’t be much point choosing it for the 100 days would there? If we’re slow or it takes us longer than we initially thought, there’s no pressure. Give yourself a bit more time or maybe break it into more manageable pieces. Don’t expect to have a perfect end goal. It’s about improving the skill, rather than the finished outcome. 

Try the imperfect for a change

Use the 100 days as an excuse to experiment and embrace the alternatives. What’s the worst that could happen? Ok well yes, technically you could burn the kitchen down, but at least you’ll have learnt that you were overreaching a tad with the flambé on day 1.  

Be open to criticism

So this is the tricky one. The best thing to remember here is that criticism doesn’t have to be “bad”. We’re all human and we all make mistakes, but we learn much more from those moments that didn’t land perfectly than the ones that did. Constructive criticism is one of the best things for us to hear, it’s another form of nourishment. We get stronger when we get comfortable with knowing things go wrong sometimes and that we can improve.

Whether we ask someone we trust to critique, or we fill the role ourselves, make sure you can set manageable targets based on the feedback you receive. Be kind to yourself, as long as you’re learning it’s not time wasted. 

Steadily get better

Remember to take stock of what’s improved and reward yourself for sticking with it. Good habits are tricky things to form and we need to celebrate our tenacity and ability to take the knocks and get back up. The easiest thing would have been to not start at all. You can’t fail at something you’ve never tried, but where’s the fun in that? 

Never stop learning

Helps us make connections

By learning to be more comfortable with failure and by encouraging ourselves to share our outcomes to stay accountable, we can make new connections with other likeminded people. This club is a place to share ideas just as much as it is a place to learn new skills. 

Shed our egos

By allowing your work to be shared and by being open to outside opinions we can quickly shake off those sneaky little chips that have a tendency to form on our shoulders. It’s great to be proud of ourselves and our achievements, but we can do this whilst understanding we’ll always have more to learn. 

Puts more you out into the world

In a world where only the most shiny, polished and heavily edited moments get posted, how refreshing it could be for us to share a work in progress? Let's give ourselves permission to be vulnerable and encourage others to do so.

Will create a fearless working mindset 

When you can feel comfortable with failure, there’s not a lot that can hold you back. Removing the fear of failure clears a more adventurous path for the future. Less risk allows for greater reward.

See you on the 1st of June. 

CHC