Ok, I might as well go first: I wish I could draw. Not at the level where I could make photorealistic portraits, but I’ve always been envious of those who are able to scetch something together in a few minutes that perfectly captures what they want to convey. Sometimes words aren’t enough to express what I want to say, and for those situations I would love to have a simple drawing do the talking for me.
Focusing on the things I need to actually do.
I swear, if even if I was forced to do something at gunpoint, I’d manage to get distracted anyway.Robber: “Why does it take so long to stuff money in the bag?” Bank employee: “Oh, that’s what I was supposed to do.”
I literally wish I had the ability to practice.
That’s really what all my other answers to this come down to. I would love to write better, be a better woodworker, play music, learn languages, learn programming languages, etc. But my mind just… slides right off it. I can’t bring myself to put in the time necessary to cultivate literally any skill.
I’m the same way. I’ve found that I need another person to keep me accountible so taking lessons has help me. I started drums this year and it’s something I’ve always wanted to do and having a teacher give me things to practice and checking in keeps me going.
This may be old advice, and I can’t speak for music or languages (where I myself have the same issue) but for woodworking and programming this is my experience: Once I get some idea for something I want to build, that becomes the goal of the project, not learning the skill itself. It could be carving a small model boat, or writing a sudoku solver, but at least for my part, once I get caught up in some project, I have a hard time letting it go. That’s as opposed to if I sit down and try to systematically learn a skill.
Some suggestions for projects off the top of my head:
- Some kind of simple encryption/decryption method.
- A nice wooden box to put something nice in (possibly without visible metal parts)
- A sudoku solver
- Model car (maybe with wheels and movable doors)
- A little “river steamer” with a rubber-band driven “propeller” (don’t know what the wheel on the back of a river steamer is called)
- A “peg solitaire” solver (because I was really frustrated at not being able to solve it)
The point is just to find something else that interests you, that can motivate you to learn the skill you want :) good luck!
Wow, this was cool to read! I definitely use the goal of the project to motivate myself to learn how to complete it, but I never realized it until you laid it out. I understand what OP says about the skill “sliding off” but the project is usually complete before that happens and only becomes an issue on revisiting it later. Like my Magic Mirror project that I completed but it’s using the Pi and some software that I don’t remember now. But the mirror is still great, hooked up to a PC with wallpaper engine running.
Motivate myself.
It’s weird. I go to work, I’ll get the job done. Something comes in my inbox that shit is covered.
I’ve been home for 3 hours now, and this is the most I’ve done tonight since I got home. Not even video games. Fuck haven’t gotten chores done. What the hell is that skill that I have at work that I don’t have at home?
My guess would be the sense of fulfilment.
At work you have a purpose, and so you fulfil it.
At home, to motivate myself to do the chores, is to find a rationale for it to be done.
- Laundry? So I can wear them to work / be ready to look nice when going out.
- Dishes? So I can have nice big servings of meals and be able to cook.
- Cleaning? So I can enjoy a nice, cleaned house without getting dirty when I walk around (walking barefoot inside is a good indicator when to clean)
Etc. Etc. Plus it helps to enforce the thought that I’m “adulting”, like the kid in me and others would say.
I wish I could speak a lot of languages fluently.
Any particular languages?
Other than ALL, Spanish would be very useful. Japanese so I can watch Anime and not miss half of it because I’m reading subtitles. French so I can cuss at you and sound like I’m quoting a love song. German so I can quote you a love song and sound like I’m cussing at you. And Chinese (mandarin?) because that has a lot of business opportunity.
Not op, but French, Russian, and Japanese. They’re all hard for Americans to learn (vs, say, Spanish or German).
French is considered just about as hard as Spanish, maybe a little harder on the phonetics. German is harder than French or Spanish. Russian is harder than German/French/Spanish, but Japanese would be significantly harder than Russian.
I wish I could just decide to sleep. I wish I could go “I have to be awake in 10 hours, I will sleep now.” Nope. I can go forward but not backward. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve wrapped around the clock, staying up for 20 hours and sleeping for 10. The abiltiy to go “man I don’t need to be up at 1AM, I have shit to do in the morning” and go to bed at 11 and actually sleep. That would be useful.
I wish I didn’t break down so easily. Sometimes I feel like I’m made of wet paper and the smallest mistake sends me spiraling
would be nice if I had more graphical imagination, but I just can’t create detailed images in my head. I can either “see” the big picture but with no details, or can focus on some detail, but then loose the big picture.
this way I really can’t draw stuff purely from my brain, I need references. and again, I can’t really vary from those references.
there’s room for practicing, obviously, but I have less and less time (and need, tbh) to develop my drawing skills, so I kinda gave up on it.
Sounds like you have aphantasia. I’ve got it too, it was wild when I first found out.
Tuning a musical instrument by ear. I have tried to “train” my ear and all that but no dice. I can play well enough but if stuff goes out of tune I have no idea until I check it or someone tells me
Go lay down and fall asleep within a few minutes no matter what. I know a few people who can do this and I am so jealous.
Exercise during the day so you’re physically tired. Either that or get a job on night shift so your sleep schedule is continuously messed up.
Ok. Mini-rant because I can’t contain myself atm. Do you wanna know a badly-kept secret? I’ve been making art on and off for 29 years. My ass wishes I could draw too. A ton of artists wish they could draw.
Talent will only give you a leg up, and mainly just at the beginning. The rest, all of us have to struggle for and I’m quite sure very few of us appreciate having to do so. And no matter how good they get, there is always something they have no idea how to do yet or they have some idol whose style they envy more than their own. Or they’re the type that only hates what they make because they’re the one who made it.
Van Gogh had a painter friend named Gauguin, and they were both jealous of each other. There is no magical point that one hits where you feel like you’re Good Enough. The best you can aim for is the kind of steady improvement you don’t even notice happening except on a scale of years, and the confidence to acknowledge those improvements instead of hyper-focusing on every way it isn’t what you saw in your head (it never is).
Go get a pencil or your ipad or whatever. Youtube is by far your biggest friend. Go look up videos about how to actually see what’s in front of you instead of what your brain insists must logically be there. USE REFERENCE. Trace a photo over and over, then immediately try the same thing freehand – this one is super useful, because a lot of drawing is also muscle memory. Break things down into simple shapes and then build on those. Use the open space between objects if you need to, to trick yourself into drawing something complex without getting lost in intimidating structural details.
When you’ve got those down, move onto perspective and composition. Cry a little if you have to, then get back to it. Because now you’re able to do whole backgrounds. People? Do tons of deliberately imprecise gesture drawings. Give your OC a terrifying robot head, a pillow for a torso, and springs for limbs. But go get. Your pencil. And be ok with drawing at first like everyone thinks they draw.
Barring that, my second choice is singing.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Focus on reading a book.
I can do it but I have to be in the mood. I wish it were all the time but it’s more like once a month. I’m trying to wean myself away from screens and be more mindful about spending more than a few minutes on a task. It’s a lifestyle change and a struggle.Also; spelling, typing, and writing in print and cursive. I always type and write letters out of order.
Juggling. I want to be able to juggle. Have tried so many times and failed so many times. No good reason, I just really want to be able to do it.
I’m quite willing to draw badly and sing badly, find those enjoyable even without talent. They seem like human things everyone does, and if I practice they get better. But for whatever reason, I am so jealous of those with reflexes that let them snatch balls out of the air, and haven’t been able to learn this. When I practice I don’t get better and it’s frustrating.
Drawing. So I can get mad money from furries.
Ooh I actually had the same thing with drawing!
I spent an hour a day for a month trying to draw just the same character following a tutorial.
I wasn’t a master, but the difference between “I look like a child scribbling” and “person who looks like they need more practice” really was just a month it felt like.
I have the opposite problem as you, I wish I was more able to verbally express myself without becoming lost in the options during an open conversation, an issue I’ve always had to deal with.
