Monday, February 7

Willapa of all trades, continued.

I remembered what I originally wanted to say a few posts ago before I got side-tracked by talking about gear.  It's not so much the stuff that gets in the way, it's me.  I find myself interested in so many different things, it's been hard for me to focus on one and get really good at it.  Cycling is a good example.  When I was younger, it (and soccer, and trumpet) was my primary recreational activity.  My brothers and spent pretty much all our free time riding bikes, working on bikes, building trails to ride our bikes, etc.  My natural physique would only get me so far as a racer, but I was pretty good back in those days.  These days, my attention is spread out over more things, so I dedicate less time to cycling (although still plenty).  It's something I do for fun now, nothing competitive.  Although, when I'm riding and see someone ahead of me, it's game on! 
So now I'm spreading my time across a lot of different activities - cycling, hiking, canoeing, fishing (usually combined with canoeing), caving, photography (combined with everything), chasing insects, amphibians, and reptiles and on and on.  What I'm getting at is that I do a lot of different things, but I'm not REALLY good at any of them.  I'm pretty good at most of them, but I'm not focused enough on one thing to get REALLY good.  For example, I love fishing.  I go fishing all the time in the summer, but I rarely actually catch anything.  When I do, it's usually something small.  I went fishing this summer with Chrissy's cousin Austin, who is totally focused on fishing, and he caught all sorts of fish and showed me some new things.  He'd never fished on that lake before, but he was pulling out all sorts of fish right off the bat.  Why can't I do that?
Same sort of thing with cycling and skiing.  I do both quite a lot in their respective seasons, but not enough to become really good.  With cycling, it's mostly a matter of putting in the miles.  I've got the bike handling skills, I just don't have the fitness to move my fat ass around as fast as I wish I could go.  With skiing, I blame my technique.
Anyway, the point of all this is that I think I need to focus on fewer things so I can get better at them.  Not necessarily because I want to be competitive at any of it, it's just more enjoyable sometimes if you're better at it.  So there it is... which of my interests should I eliminate?  I've been thinking about it and I can't really come up with a good reason to abandon any of them.  What to do...

On a completely unrelated note, we had a thunder-snow storm the other day.  It was the weirdest thing.  It had been dumping snow for a few hours (at night) and all of a sudden I started to hear thunder and see lightning.  The temperature got warmer as the storm moved along, so it must have been a warm front pushing up against the backside of a cold front, forcing the warm air up and over the cold, causing massive uplift, and therefore a thunderstorm.  Kind of the opposite of how it usually happens (an advancing cold front forces uplift of the warm air ahead of it).  At least that's my meteorological interpretation based on a meteorology class freshman year of college...

4 comments:

keith said...

There's an easy way to figure out which ones to focus on.
Step 1 - get married (you got that covered).
Step 2 - have a kid (no need to rush into that, take your time).
Kids can consume all your free time, but they are totally worth it.

Will Waterstrat said...

I realize when I have a kid, they'll consume most of my time. But, I'm sure I will also want to show and teach everything I know to them, so that won't solve much. We'll see.

Anonymous said...

the secret is don't worry about how kick ass you are at something. Just recognize whether you are enjoying it and if it is beneficial or detrimental to you and those around you. If your trying to protect or save something its a little different perspective. It is fun to be good at something, but the most fun is learning about it. Trust me you are about a million times better at your long list than most people you encounter. It's great to be inspired by incredible feats and skills, but not a the risk being cornered into one specialized person. Jack of all trades master of none, That way you are always learning,

Mission Creek Naturalist said...

how interesting....teal really struggles with the same thing, both with his hobbies and professionally. He wants to really master one thing, and be passionately focused on it, rather than be so interested and sidetracked by all the things around him. I try to tell him that his natural curiosity, open-mindedness, and energy are amazing characteristics and that he manages to live a very full life. You two should really chat over a beer sometime....when are you and chrissy moving to the west coast?
sheila