Let's All Suck at Things More Often

Embrace your inner child and explore your interests

Ever since I was a little girl, I loved fashion. I would find scraps of fabric and staple them together to create clutches to match each of my outfits.

My cousins and I would spend our Thanksgiving dinners constructing outfits out of toilet paper and then modeling them for our families.

I’m lucky to have a mother who saw how much joy fashion brought me and enrolled me in a course at the local YMCA, teaching me how to embroider beads onto a t-shirt.

This one course evolved into sewing lessons at the YMCA and then private lessons learning how to read patterns and construct clothing. I took these lessons for many years, eventually selling my pieces on Etsy and entering them in fashion shows at the local university.

In college, I taught young girls how to sew and bring their designs to life. I even provided lessons to moms in the area who wanted to learn how to make their own drapes and baby clothes.

What started as an interest in fashion blossomed into a passion for creating and teaching, something my mom could have never guessed by simply enrolling me in a class at the YMCA.

As children, we constantly beg our parents to enroll us in a new class, a different sport, or to try an activity we’ve never done before. It’s in our DNA to want to explore our interests and see what comes of it.

However, as we get older, we stop exploring. We no longer chase out new things, afraid that we will be bad at them, that they will take up too much of our free time, or that we will be wasting our money.

We convince ourselves that the responsibilities of being an adult are just too much and that our time is so little. What we don’t realize is that this exploration is key to living a fun, happy, healthy, fulfilling life.

We Prioritize All Wrong

Our ancestors were forced to try new things all the time. They had nothing to distract them, no reason not to pursue their interests. How do you think fire was discovered?

Curiosity…

The average American spends more time on technology than they realize. Every moment of boredom is masked by mindless social media scrolling. A lack of true hobbies is hidden from awareness by endless Netflix, TV, and movies.

I see this first-hand whenever I go home for the holidays. My parents end their workday only to spend the rest of their nights decompressing by watching hours of TV. Before they know it, it’s time to go to bed, wake up, and work again.

And by no means am I innocent- at the end of a long work day, sometimes all I want to do is relax and enjoy myself. So I turn to Instagram or Netflix, and before I know it my night slips away from me.

Because of how accessible technology is, it’s easy to get lost in it. Even if you don’t want to!

Instead of viewing technology as a way to relax, we need to see it for what it really is- mentally draining, bad for our mental health, and an absolute time suck. There’s nothing “relaxing” about it.

Rather than giving our free time away to technology, we need to schedule intentional time into our days for hobbies that uplift us and don’t feel like a chore.

Benefits of Trying New Things

Every passion or hobby you currently have started with trying something new. Without exploration, you never know what’s out there that is meant for you.

Trying new things introduces you to a new way of looking at the world, new friends, and new ideas. It’s not only about the thing itself but everything that comes with that thing.

A woman who tries a wood-working class may later end up opening her own shop where she sells beautiful custom furniture.

A young man who goes hunting for the first time could find purpose and struggle in a life that was feeling monotonous.

A girl that finally signed up for the watercolor class she’s been wanting to take for years may find that it’s no for her, but meet a best friend in the process.

A retired man in his 60s decides to go hiking for the first time and finds something that he wakes up excited for every day, helping him cope with the grief from losing his wife.

Sucking is Good

Many of us are scared to try new things in the fear of being bad or looking stupid.

The truth is nobody is good at something the first time they do it. That doesn’t stop kids from trying new things. They aren’t afraid of what others think of them, and neither should you.

I know that’s easier said than done, but no master started off a master. It took years of learning, practicing, and slowly improving. Think of it as a challenge rather than something bad!

Many of us don’t ever give ourselves the change of improvement. We try, we are bad, and we quit. But don’t we owe it to our inner child to see how we can progress at something we enjoy?

Heck, you don’t even have to progress! If you enjoy something, that should be enough. We don’t have to be masters at everything.

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Take action: This week I challenge you to sign up for a class on something you’ve been wanting to learn for awhile. Or, maybe go buy the supplies and follow along with a Youtube tutorial.

I want you to schedule time for this in your calendar so you can plan ahead. No excuses!

How did you feel afterwards? Take note of this so you can use it as motivation to keep coming back when life gets busy.

I signed up for a cactus painting class at the Phoenix Center For The Arts. I’ve been wanting to improve my painting skills for awhile, but always avoid painting for a reason I have yet to discover. This will hold me accountable and teach me some of the proper techniques!

What hobby are you going to try? Whatever first comes to mind may just be what you need to pursue. Don’t talk yourself out of it!

Please share in the comments so we can hold one another accountable.

I’ll be sure to share my experience after I take the class at the end of January.

Happy Sunday!

Madison