Unskilled...

Play to your strengths. 

Try NEW things until you find the “thing” that you’re good at and cultivate that SKILL.

That’s what we teach our kids at Chez Moi. 

If your strength is a loud voice, go out for drama.  If your strength is singing, go out for Chorus.  Math?  Science?  Maybe go out for Chemistry Club.  If your strength is balance combined with a total disregard for personal safety, go out for BMX Bike Racing or Horseback riding. 

I love to run & see measurable improvement, but I’m not statistically speedy.  Running is not my “special skill”.  I love it though, don’t get me wrong.  I’ve made huge personal strides in the past 18 months that make me think that the sky is the limit.  That maybe, just maybe, my me-centric goals are (shhh).

I’m loud, but I lack this detail called talent that is so desired by the theater crowd, and I can sing, but… yeah, see above note about talent.  I’m short, so my special skill is not reaching things for short people, because I’m usually the one mucking about looking for a step stool when the tall person wanders in and gets the high up item.  I like chemistry, but it's NOT my strong point.

I write but lately I’ve been crippled so severely by writers block I can barely function at all.  Creatively I’m dead in the water.  So writing is probably not my skill.

I have no special skill? 

None at all?

I’m skilless.  Skill-less.  Spell check tells me that is not a word.  Perhaps that makes me unskilled… but, I really hate to be anything that starts with an UN and contains the word Killed.  Skill-less seems more my speed.

Today I realized something. 

I’ve been looking for a tangible skill.  Something measurable.  Instead, I think my skill is more abstract.

I’m a hunter-gatherer…. Or, a grouper, if you prefer.

Which sounds fishy, but not quite as fishy as being a "groper".

I’m the kind of person who brings people together.  I have over the past year “gathered” a group of random individuals, and through luck, the chemistry has created a team.

I’m proud of my mad grouping skillz.  Our lovely team consists of both women and men.  Experienced and newbie.  Casual and Competitive. 

Sometimes I over think things.  I over think my unofficial leadership role that’s just slightly outside of my “unskill” set.  BUT ~ grouping things is tough.  Especially when you have a large group of people that’s not quite large enough to be a mob.  We’re individuals here, not a mass of bodies.

And today, just when I was about to freak the freak out about chemistry and “junk”, I remembered something.

Everything is going to be fine, because I am playing to my strengths. 

I have a loud voice.

I can sing poorly.

I like to wrangle, and I fall naturally into leadership roles.

When I wrangled horses and kids, I never lost a horse or a kid.  Not every wrangler can say that you know.  I was a bit of a freak when it came to by the book safety “stuff”. ~nazi~

Chemistry is all about reactions.  So all I need to do is figure out how to work with the chemicals I have to make the least explosive and most beneficial reactions….

Before I blow something up.