Regularly doing something you’re bad at

There’s an inherent satisfaction to doing something well. Even outside of their practical utility, people enjoy gaining skills and using them. Some people will spend tons of time learning to play a video game as fast as humanly possible, because they enjoy playing at their maximum capabilities. The same can be said of musicians practicing or athletes training. Even if they are doing these things professionally, they generally got into the profession because drew enjoyment from doing something really well.

Of course, in order to get good at something, you have to be bad at it first. I’ve previously written a post on this idea, in which I observed that you have to be able to enjoy the hike up the learning curve, not just being at the crest of it.

But I also think it’s worth doing things you don’t even expect to get better at. The other day I was thinking about how I used to draw every day as a child. I wasn’t really drawing with the intent of getting better at it, and for the most part, I didn’t get better. Much of what I drew was in a crude line-art style, without much attention to form, composition, or lighting.

But that wasn’t the point. I was doing it for fun, because it was fun to be creative, it was fun to tell stories with pictures. Even now, I think it’s fun to look back through my old sketchbooks and see what ideas I entertained myself with.

Sometimes I see really good drawings and think I should try to seriously get better at drawing. But then I wonder if that impulse to get better is even necessary, or if I just want to start doing it again for fun. But there’s this creeping feeling that as an adult I would find it frustrating or embarassing how bad I am at it, or that it would somehow not be fun to do it just for the sake of doing it, if I wasn’t trying to get better.

I wonder what changed from when I was a kid. Partly, I probably have a clearer idea of the gap between my skills and what others are capable of. But in spite of that, I think it would be a valuable thing if I would draw again just for fun, even without hope of improvement. Learn to enjoy doing things you’re bad at is itself a skill worth cultivating. It might just help increase your tolerance for climbing that learning curve.

Do you do something regularly that you’re not very good at? Are you trying to improve, or are you just doing it for enjoyment? Maybe both? Let me know your thoughts at my Ctrl-C email: gome ​@ ​ctrl-c.club.