I do some things quite well, like breathing and walking. Others I do moderately well, like avoiding donuts, and some I’ve resigned myself to never being that great at, like math. Math is hard.
But there is a group of miscellaneous things that I have attempted to become better at and, for various reasons, have failed to do so. Here’s a short list of some of these things, along with the odds that I might actually become better at them:
- Ice skating. I am not terrible at ice skating, just a bit wobbly, especially when required to move in a not-straight line. I very rarely ice skate, though. Odds of improving: Close to zero.
- Swimming. I have long described my swimming technique as “not drowning” and after taking aborted swimming lessons, discovered that part of the problem was having an actual fear of water, or at least water’s potential to snuff out my life in the right circumstances. I rarely go in water, though I am sometimes near it. I’d have to overcome the fear before trying lessons again. Odds of improving: Slight, but better than winning the lottery.
- Typing. I never learned to touch type. How can someone who dreamed of becoming a writer never learn to touch type? I do not know. I even got my own typewriter as a kid. I’ve tried learning with Mavis Beacon and it did not go well. I’ve dabbled a few times since. This would clearly benefit me, yet I never seem to get enough momentum to keep pushing through. I need a magic typing pill. Or just start using dictation. In fact, I’m going to dictate the rest of this post! Odds of improving: Slim, but possible.
- Losing weight. I am in the process of losing weight now and have actually seen some success, so I am somewhat positive that this will be a thing I can actually achieve. Odds of improving : Good.
- Drawing. Over the last couple of years I have started to draw more, and I am seeing improvements by doing so. I have taken actual lessons on things like perspective, shading and so on, and some of those lessons have actually stuck! Odds of improving: It’s already happening, woo.
I’ve now turned auto punctuation on for the dictation, because it was doing weird things with the periods and commas. Let’s see if it works better now. So far it seems to be working better. Who knew? Computers are just so darn smart. Maybe I’ll let the computer write the next post.