The Scene staff
Have you done something you sucked at today? I thoroughly suggest the endeavor.
What’s that? You don’t like doing things unless you’re good at them? You don’t want to look silly?
Allow me to explain why you should start acting outside the box: It is through trying new things in life that you become an interesting person.
A comedian named Kyle Kinane once made a great point about why people should strive to be weird.
If aliens came to Earth and looked down at humanity, what would they see? People mindlessly driving cars, staring at their phones and walking along the road in single file.
They’d view us in about the same light as we view cattle, a perception that wouldn’t bode well for humanity, especially considering how we treat our livestock.
But if aliens saw people showing individuality — a guy hopping down the sidewalk in a bunny outfit or a girl doing the Macarena in the middle of the street — maybe they would spare us.
This is hyperbole, of course, but my point is that normal is boring.
Imagine your funeral. What do you want the eulogist to say? “Dave … um … Dave was very punctual?” Or “I’ll always remember the time Dave wrestled a lion?”
I’ve never regretted being terrible at something.
A couple of years, ago I tried improv comedy, and I was really bad at it. After two months, my skills still were weak, but I had made people laugh accidently a few times and made some friends along the way.
Then I tried stand-up comedy. I performed at about 15 open mikes, and I can honestly say I learned a lot from those experiences. Namely, it’s hard to make drunken people laugh around
midnight on Tuesdays.
Even though I failed at improv and stand-up comedy, I learned that getting good at those pursuits probably wasn’t what I wanted in life anyway.
Of course, there are times when failing at something makes you want to do it more.
I’ve been playing guitar for about 10 years. It’s one of the few things I can do well. But the only way I was able to get to this skill level was to put my family through two years of irritating noise.
I would have never known that if I hadn’t picked up a guitar.
Now I want to write for a living. Maybe you think this column is terrible, and that’s fine. It just makes me more eager to get better and learn what it takes to write well.
If you care about something, being bad at it should make you want to get up in the morning and work at it for hours. If you care about something, struggling to learn it will be a joy.
So take my advice: Start being bad at something right now.
Make terrible noises on a cello, look like you are having a seizure while you try to break dance or draw a picture of someone that’s so bad they’re insulted.
It doesn’t matter how you do it, just unapologetically suck.