How do you start all over again?

The thought of starting over can be unnerving. How do you begin again after you say goodbye to a career or a business you’ve built? How do you start over when the work you’ve poured so much time and effort into turns out to be not what you wanted anymore? Whatever may be triggering this urge for change that causes you to re-evaluate your life, work, or priorities, starting over can also be an exciting time and it doesn’t have to mean starting from scratch. 

As makers who create upcycled crafts would know—since they’re always recreating something from an object meant to be something else or have been discarded—you can always use the ‘old’ to start something ‘new.’ We looked to some of our makers from Common Room on how they’ve restarted or created new beginnings for themselves, their crafty pursuits, and even their business. 

Don’t forget: you’ve got skills.

Even if you’re leaving an established career that comes with a steady paycheck to pursue your own business, your passion, or just to figure out what your next step is, remember that you’re restarting your life with all the years of experience or skills you’ve developed throughout your career. Look at how they can help you as you press that restart button.

As Common Room founders Roma Agsunod and Maan Agsalud were making handmade dolls in Popjunklove and eventually setting up Common Room, the latter juggled it with her full time advertising job for 17 years. “I was trying to learn as much as I can from the advertising world, so that eventually whatever it is I learn I can eventually apply it in Common Room,” says the former executive creative director in our recent Common Room YT episode on finally resigning to go full time with the business. 

Maan brings all her learnings, from the training to the processes, into her full time role in Common Room. Keep in mind that there’s always something you’re bringing into a new beginning. Even if you’re coming from a totally different field, the soft skills you’ve developed, like how you communicate and interact with people, are just as important. 

Time to innovate. 

When you find yourself at a starting point again or simply reassessing your next move, flexibility and an openness to change are two traits that will help you take your first few steps. 

Madz Sablada of Izzo Shop knew that the designs for her bags and pouches had to constantly evolve. This was especially true during the pandemic when she stopped production for a year and had to think about whether to close her business or keep at it. “You have to be creative on how you can still sell your products,” she says in her previous Meet the Maker YT interview. 

Her flexibility and openness to change allowed her to look at her existing products in a different way. She was able to innovate and even use her remaining materials to make cloth masks. Madz also got started on another business, Aling Noona, a one-stop shop for BTS merch and other Korean goods, which made use of items from Izzo Shop. 

There’s a Japanese saying, “Flexibility conquers rigid change.’ It speaks of the universal truth that being flexible to what life throws at you is much more powerful as it can prevent you from breaking. 

Learn to let go.

When the Common Room team learned pottery wheel throwing with Wabi Sabi Studio, its owner Pau Javier, who also served as their pottery teacher, told them a nugget of wisdom that we can all take with us, particularly when we’re starting over. She talked about how clay is a forging medium. “If you’re not happy with your piece, you can always destroy it and then later on you can use it once again.”

It illustrates a mindset that allows you to learn when to let go. That impermanence is constant and embracing it helps you to move forward more easily in the new beginning that you’re undertaking. New beginnings become a bit easier if you can let go of unrealistic expectations or any baggage you’ve accumulated from the previous chapter of your life that doesn’t serve you anymore. And yes, even, for craft projects and works of art that you’re not too happy about.

Look at our heritage. Look at things beyond what they are. 

If you’re restarting a project and having a hard time finding inspiration or where to start, sometimes you don’t have to look very far. Sometimes, it takes looking at things from a different perspective. Take a look into our heritage and culture. Your inspiration can be something you grew up with. It can just be around you, in a nearby museum, gallery, local shop, even inside your lola’s baul. 

We love how Jodi Aguillon, a self-confessed collector of beautiful things, turns vintage pieces into something new. The maker behind Glorious Dias finds joy with second-hand items as he gets to see them “beyond what they are and imagining what they can become.” 

Having such a frame of mind will help when you have to begin again. Seeing how starting over doesn’t have to mean failing, but as a chance to be able to go after what we want, what we choose to prioritize, and what we choose to become.