Nick recently wrote a popular post listing 20 things he’s not good at. In the comments I mentioned my past experiences with burned pots, especially broccoli, until we switched to microwaves. And I never will forget the time when I was a teen and my poor mother came home to a horrible sulfur smell. I had been hard boiling the eggs she had asked for and went back to studying my Spanish. She couldn’t understand how I could be in the same room and not notice the charring earlier.
After my comment at Nick’s I remembered my college freshman Chemistry lab for the first time in years. That’s where I accidentally burned my instructor’s hand with a piece of molten glass and got a minus weight for oxygen.
Then I saw this internet video:
Oh, yeah. I’ve always sucked at athletics, and now I even use walking sticks when I stroll on the uneven ground up on the land. The last sport I tried was aikido about 20 years ago, and as I wrote in What I Learned From Sending My Aikido Partner Through A Plate Glass Window, that didn’t last very long:
The class was three hour-long sessions a week. I started the first week in March, and the third week in April I came home from my last class, washed the blood and glass out of my gi (the outfit we wore) and put it away with my other treasured mementos.
I’m sure I could come up with a long list of other things I suck at, but in fact they’re irrelevant. I’m sticking to
Stay curious and open to life. No matter what happens keep learning and growing. Find what you love and find a way to share it with other people.
It works for me.
Loved it! I’ve never been great at sports, although I’ve dreamed of doing great athletic feats. And singing…I’ve had wonderful dreams in which I sang like a bird!
I could never carry a tune and always just mouthed the words until I saw an ad in our local paper saying lessons for everyone, even people who can’t carry a tune. I jumped at the chance and took them for a couple of years and had a great time. I had fun with the teacher, and I could have joined a choir or some other group, but the quality of my sound wasn’t very good so I moved on. There is always the piano or my glockenspiel. 😀
LOL! how cool is that. the things you’ve tried. whether excelled in or not you got the fun out of it.
except the surfer on that wave… oh good lord. no thank you.
why ANYONE would try that is beyond me. but then a lot of ‘sports’ I feel that way about.
still amazing to watch them. dare devils of all sorts.
and that type gets more daring and accomplished with with each passing year!
We’re all wired differently, and I can see why people with athletic talent would want to challenge themselves. My challenges lie in other directions, directions that would bore them silly.
I think most sports are rather stupid.
At least team sports because I’m not competitive at all.
Although the surfing video is very cool.
I used to think bike cycling was cool too, until I found out they are mostly cheaters.
I have a long list of things I’m not good at.
One that makes me really mad at myself is-
I’m not good at finishing things.
But I’m very good at procrastination.
Truthfully, I’d rather focus on what I’m good at
And work on changing the other list! Lol!
That’s the trick, focus on what you love to do and are good at. Sometimes it pays to experiment to see what those things are.
yep, I would rather focus on things I “can actually do…” lately things, have been sliding – but seems to be for 2 reasons: one of my health issues not up to scratch/sliding and two my left hand/arm has gotten worse…
Leftie wasn’t exactly good in the first place, but she was a support unit for Rightie who has problems as well…but now there are points which indicate the support leftie is just on the outer…
I realised quite a few things in recent months that Lty and Rty struggle with…and one seems to be do with kitchen & cooking, hence I’m not sure we can manage the b/maker. Going to ask my niece for some help…
I’m so sorry. You were already dealing with enough.
“Stay curious and open to life. No matter what happens keep learning and growing.” Indeed, I try to do just that. My views are changing all the time, as I assimilate new information and arguments. I’m baffled by people who have fixed views and won’t change them even in the face of overwhelming counter-arguments.
Not just counter arguments, sometimes completely disregarding verifiable data even when it is pointed out. I figure we live in different worlds, so not much hope of communication.
I can’t make a list of things that I suck at. If I could not do something well enough, I simply stopped doing it. The one thing that I really suck at is conveying condolences at deaths. I am normally quite voluble but I get tongue tied in these conditions.
i think everybody who has experienced deep loss does rummy.
once my brother when he was about 16 was leaving the house to go to be with a friend that had lost one of her parents.
my mother said “what will you say?”
his reply I think might have been wise beyond his years (after losing his own dad at 14) he said… “I don’t know. but I know what not to say.”
But you don’t need many words, just “I’m so sorry” and your presence can help a lot. The worst thing is to avoid the person because you don’t know what to say.
It’s hard. One woman in my Silver Sneakers class today wasn’t there Monday. When I asked then someone said she was going to have knee surgery. I asked her today and apparently Monday was an appointment about the knee, but it turns out she also has lung cancer so needs to deal with that first. It’s only Stage 1, so the prognosis is good, but she’s already legally blind. What can you say in a case like that except you’re sorry, she’s already dealing with so much, and good luck. The main thing is it’s not about us, it’s caring about the other person.
and possibly with serious issues, is the actual fact “you ask…but don’t insist” and not hide away saying nothing. Even if it very painful to do that.
it has been painful for me to inquire into my b/friends problems with the escalating skin cancers – and then as if that wasn’t enough for her…(she always on top and never particular out of sorts) she trips and falls right outside the doctors clinic. Breaks I think 2 fingers and now those are splinted.
she is very upbeat about it all…and maybe that’s the way to be. I keep noticing that maybe she if reflecting on “my issues” – she phoned just to come and see me this week for coffee…and short chat, then I went with her to look at wood-fires as her fire box is getting old.
I bumped into one of our mutual friends today…and her comment was “A has suddenly realised she is not as young as she used be…”
Oh! I’m glad your friend can stay upbeat, though. And I agree, the most important thing is not to hide away because you don’t know what to say. Let them know you are there if they want to talk about it, but it’s their choice, whatever helps for them.