I create and therefore I am — Max van IJsselmuiden
After moving to New Zealand and getting a complete life reset, the author realized every happy memory in their life involved creating something—and decided to structure their entire life around that one insight.
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TLDR
• Moving countries gives you a rare "complete reset"—a chance to redesign your life structure, social circle, and identity from scratch
• Pattern recognition across your happiest memories reveals what actually drives you (for the author: every good memory involved creating something tangible)
• Creation is inherently selfish—you do it because it makes YOU happy—and that's perfectly fine
• The builder's wisdom: "At the end of the day you've got a finished product, and you can say 'I made that'"
• Making YouTube videos while traveling solo created connection and purpose, proving you can share creation even when physically alone
In Detail
The author moved to New Zealand at the end of 2025, which triggered a fundamental rethinking of how they wanted to structure their life. Moving to the other side of the world creates what they call a "complete reset"—your life structure, physical social circle, and even identity get wiped clean. Instead of drifting into new patterns, they used this reset to ask: what actually makes me happy?
Looking back across their entire life, they discovered a clear pattern: every happy memory involved creating something. As a kid it was crafting objects and building a pond with a waterfall. As a teen it was building websites, doing graphic design, editing videos for school projects. On holidays they'd record everything and make videos. Even their current job as a designer satisfies this need—the digital product is their new "pond," the interactions are the new "waterfall." They met a builder in New Zealand who switched from accounting because he wanted to be proud of what he does: "At the end of the day you've got a finished product, and you can say 'I made that.'" That resonated deeply.
The practical implication: they're structuring their life to always make room for creation, whether it's objects, digital products, blog posts, videos, or art. They acknowledge this is selfish—they're doing it because it makes them happy—but they're okay with that. The YouTube journey (making motorcycle travel videos that got them to YouTube Partner status) proved that creating and sharing creates connection even when you're physically alone. Viktor Frankl's insight from the concentration camps applies here too: having choice, even in the smallest things, is what gives life meaning. The author chooses to create.