Average at everything - just curious if anyone else is the same...

To start off with, I'm not complaining per se.

It seems that most things I try I'm pretty average at, I can juggle, but not that well, I can play badminton pretty well, when I used to do basketball I was alright. I've got a digital SLR, and I've got some nice photos, but I feel this is largely due to being in the right place at the right time, as well as having an expensive CCD :smile:

I enjoy playing poker with my friends, and I've won several times but can't really explain why afterwards.

What I've realised is that in most of these things I'm doing what comes instinctively to me, rather than trying to apply what I know and have learnt. Eg in photography, I know about the rule of thirds, correcting exposure by checking the histogram, but in the 'excitement' of seeing something nice and taking a photo I forget this, and just point and press the button. Similarly, in badminton I've been to coaching for several years, and I can play pretty well, but it's still all just gut reaction. For instance, when I go back to play a clear, I'm not conciously thinking of how to place my feet, or telling myself to keep my arm straight when I play the shot. Instead, I run backwards and just hit the shuttle, not using what I've been taught.

I seem to have a poor short term memory for some things, someone will ask me to email them something, and 30s later I will have completely forgotten and been distracted by something else. I suspect this is related to what I've described above, I know what I NEED to do, but I never remember to actually put it into practice whilst I'm doing stuff. Consequently, after most things I think about how I could have done it better, and how I should have used xxx that I was taught.

I'm just wondering if anyone here is the same, and what you've done about it? The best way I can think of is to constantly remind myself of these things, when I remember to that is :P

Reply 1

MSB

I don't understand the question.

Did you expect to be perfect?

Reply 2

AlfaFoxtrot

No, i just mean that I have all these things I 'in theory' know how to do, but when actually doing them I never think about it. Ultimately it's just a matter of forcing myself to, and eventually it will become natural I guess!

Reply 3

suicidal_dream

i found i was pretty much like that in school for a bit... except for p.e. everything else i was pretty standard at - could do it, top 2 or so groups for every subject... but i never really excelled at anything - thats what bugged me. i was fine just 'doing things' but now im at uni its quite frankly annoying now... if i try and do things by the book, like an essay properly, i some how never do good enough... tis most strange.

Reply 4

neboo

Yeah I'm a bit like this... if I'm drawing I'll usually go by what feels intuitively 'right' as I go along rather than marking it out beforehand.

You could look into practising things that require you to use a methodical and logical approach, such as programming etc. if you're interested in developing a more 'responsive' thinking pattern? But as for short-term memory I don't really know... I'm still stuck on that one :redface:

sticky notes, maybe?!

Reply 5

Angelil

When you know how to do something well then the idea is that you don't NEED to think it through theoretically/step-by-step.
I speak French quite well, though it's not my first language, and when I'm speaking, I don't even think about conjugating verbs anymore. You don't think about this when you speak English either - does that mean you can't do it well? Of course not. Same with singing - when I'm singing I'm not thinking about the exact movements of my vocal cords needed to reach the Eb that's written. And so on.
I think you just need to readjust your perspective of what being good at something actually means.

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