My lad reckons I'm an embarrasing knob.

Young Samuri, I'm going to do a sea kayak course in April with a view to doing the tour de Isle de Wight over 2 days a bit later. Pop down to the seaside and do it with me. Hopefully not much swimming required.

I remember a situation many years ago when I was still playing saxophone. I was at a wedding of some friends when I commented that I couldn't hope to play like the guy on the stage. Some of the more musical guys on the table I was sat at then said something along the lines of "yes but playing the saxophone is your hobby, for us it is how we are going to earn our living. We couldn't hope to do maths/science the way that you can." Basically your opinion of your ability is subject to whom you choose to compare yourself to.

If you choose and unrealistically high standard you will always be disappointed so don't beat yourself up about it.

You don't want to be really good at anything. With excellence comes a pressure that will suck the enjoyment out of whatever it is you are supposed to be good at. I know loads of scratch golfers who hate golf. I also know loads of duff golfers who love golf.

Just make sure you are good enough that you can enjoy it (or depending on what we are talking about, that the other person can also enjoy it…) and crack on.

My lad reckons I'm an embarrasing knob.

That made me lol. Did he actually say that?

Dave's lad does have a point though.

You know like nunchuku skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills…. [/]

I'm mediocre at two of these. 😉

Thanks for all the replies, I'll read them properly when I'm not behind the slowest internet gateway on earth.

Consider this:

A lot of people do little more than go to the office, drink beer and watch TV.

Taking that as a 'norm', although I'm not world class at anything, I'm inquisitive and will have a good go at most things so reckon that I'm not crap.

I doubt that many others here are either.

Samurai – I vaguely remember you writing a certain article for STW Magazine a while ago? (I might be mistaken)

If it's the article I'm thinking of you shouldn't even be asking the question.

Striving for success is a hopeless task. If you were club champion you'd want to be national champion, national champion you'd want to be world champion, world champion you'd want to set new records. The trick is to be satisfied with what you can do, not what you can't. Only wish I could follow that advice myself – found something I was extremely good at, and competed at a level lots of people would aspire to. Have raced on the same team as, and beaten people who are now World Champions, yet I still find myself wishing I was the chap who is now a World Champion and consistently wins lots of events, whilst I only won the odd thing here and there. The trick I reckon is to strive to be the best at being happy – wish I was rather better at that too 🙄

It's about getting somewhere you're satisfied with. For me, I'd like to win Sport or do well in Expert. I know I'm never going to be UK champ, I'm too old and I have a family…

"Striving for success is a hopeless task. If you were club champion you'd want to be national champion, national champion you'd want to be world champion, world champion you'd want to set new records"

But that is what being good is all about, always trying to improve and putting the effort in to make it happen. Very time consuming though.

Cycling and Swimming are the two things that you are always going to be limited by your physical makeup. Realistically if you can't do well above average without coaching, you are unlikely to be one of the best with it.

As I said elsewhere, go for the photography. You've taken some well above average shots already, and I'm sure you could do better with a bit more application.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

That's FDR, that is.

And he said this too:

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”

Careful observance of this maxim would result in me masturbating miserably under my desk much more than I do at the moment. 🙂

Samuri,

This is one of the eternal dilemmas in life. My bottom line view is simple: I can get up in the morning and take a piss without help. That's a very good start to the day. Not living in Haiti aside, you have a son, a partner I presume and some love in your life. You're a lucky guy and some contemplation is healthy – happiness is much more important than success so just be good at being you – that's more than enough. Fate has a macabre sense of humour – the skills we have are rarely the ones we really want. Stay Smiley, be you, enjoy the skills you have and just be happy!

yeah cheer up you miserable fecker

At school I was always rubbish at maths and art – always had a real mental block about maths, especially mental arithmetic (sadistic primary teacher, weekly humiliation of tables tests), so decided to redo GCSE maths. Took great pleasure in getting an A*.

Am very proud of teaching myself to crochet (am left handed so always thought it would be more difficult for me).

Am now trying to learn how to draw and paint …

MrsT

You're all correct, (well most of you anyway – I presume the rest are just hopeless losers). I'm going to do what Richpips said anyway, I think I'll make an effort to apply myself a bit more to photography, see what I can achieve with some proper effort. Maybe I can even be as good as him.

/licks richpips's boots.

ta.

Remember: You're great at being Samuri 😛

Pretty good photographer from what I've seen, I'd try and improve that.

Aah shucks, thanks. Eye contact handjobs all round if you fancy it it.

My careers teacher collared me the day I left school (at 16 before I took my highers) and said "You will be a failure and never amount to anything". Maybe it was reverse pychology because I'm not a failure, far from it.
We're all destined to be mediocre at things. Being mediocre at lots of things is better than none at all. Enjoyment of life to me is the most important thing. Who cares if I fall off my bike – laugh, enjoy the moment. You could be squashed tomorrow. 😛

Quite a few years ago I ended up in a rather difficult drunken conversation with a bloke in a pub about who and what each of us were.
Ultimately I said to him "I aim to do what I do to the best that I can."
2 seconds later, I had a rather disturbing hug and the reply, "That's all that we can do."
I have nothing else of interest to say.

Eye contact handjobs all round if you fancy it it.

edges away nervously…