I Suck at Most Things

I live a pretty good life by most people’s standards. I am not super wealthy but my family and I are comfortable living an expat life in Malaysia.

We are financially free for the next 5-10 years (depending on how much I go shopping!).

You would expect to be in this position you would need to be a pretty amazing person. Well, the truth is far from it.

The reality is I suck at most things!

This revelation may seem surprising but if you think about it, it’s really not.

So, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at all the main things that I really sucked at. This is of course not a complete list as the full one would be way too long to post here!

Things that I suck at

• Patience – I got cranky quickly
• Parenting – you need plenty of “patience”
• Being a sensitive husband – I am selfish and do think of myself
• Empathy – I struggle with empathy at times as I tend to think it's easy blame other people
• Cooking – I was known as the sweet and sour kid at university (thanks Uncle Bens!)
• Knowing when I shouldn’t try to make a joke – I like being the comedian
• Studying – Just passed my grades at school but managed to turn things around at university although I am by no means a natural learner
• Languages – I still struggle with English
• Writing – my writing is better than it was but still far from good
• Spelling – Simple typos all the tyme
• Remembering – It can be names, places or even facts
• Investing – When I mostly buy shares they go down or in some cases even get delisted! Recently had a bit more success – check out my monthly reports
• Delegation – I still do 99% of everything for this blog and my business that I run, which is crazy!
• Handy man – I can’t even put up a shelf. My limit is assembling Ikea furniture
• Cars – I have only recently started driving and never really been too interested in cars. Understanding how a car works, I am clueless
• Meditation – I have tried a number of times to regularly meditate but rarely lasts. The only time I could do this consistently was when I stayed in a Thai temple in Thailand many years ago
• Alcohol – Never really drunk beer or wine, absolutely clueless about wine. Less of an issue these days as I decided to stop drinking recently
• Singing – Rubbish at singing like most people in the world
• Time management – I get easily distracted and as my daughter says I am Mr Coffee Chatty man
• Thinking big – I often believe that I lack ambition and don’t really reach for the stars
• Chatting up women – I was never great at doing this, partly I believe because I went to an all-boys school as a teenager. I am not married and so I should probably not right any more on this 😉
• Being employed – Thank fully only been an employee for 2 years when I was a teenager, I hate being shackled to a desk on someone else’s say so
• Being active – Part of the excuse is me blaming chronic fatigue and not being able to run like I used to do. It's part of the excuse though as this doesn’t stop me from being MUCH MORE active than I currently am, which is why I started my weight loss challenge

This is quite a list eh?

Even still my ego isn't bruised as despite sucking at most things I am at least proficient in enough things to make my life great.

Of course, I am still a work in progress!

My Achievements

Despite sucking at most things I have managed to achieve things in my life that I am proud of.

Here are a few achievements from the last 45 years of my life so far.

• Competing in Triathlon and Running events to a good standard – see my story of triathlete to chronic fatigue
• Playing live solo music at University and in nightclub my own music – for my band called “collusion” doing dance music
• Created a 7-figure online business – see how I make money online for the last 20-years
• Have a lovely family with two sweet funny kids –

Even though I suck at most things, I don’t settle for an average existence. And you shouldn’t too!

The fact is I can't.

I believe I am unemployable and so it naturally made sense to be self-employed and to take the risk of working for myself.

For me I feel more in control of my life, living this way.

If I hate to work my whole life is a struggle. I cannot JUST live for the weekends!

Everyone should be working towards personal goals. These can be internally or externally motivated, initially, this shouldn’t matter as the worse thing in life is to be on AUTOPILOT.

If you’re waking up going to a job you hate, eating crap food, and just looking forward to binge-watching TV in the evening – then you need a wake-up call!

Playing to your strengths

These days you can live life in so many ways. There really is no one-size-fits-all with the opportunities available online and offline.

With this in mind, it makes sense to do what you do well instead of trying to do something that doesn't come naturally.

These days it's really easy to get help on things you're not good at. For example, I am not great at photography so I hired a local friend to take photos for me.

The gig economy now means you can hire someone in another country to do work for you at usually a great price. This allows you to leverage your existing skills and expand your business and personal life.

Leverage and scaling are skills I am still poor at and will be writing about this in a future post!

So, work to your strengths and outsource the stuff you're not good at.

Stop sucking at life and start living

It's a cliche but I have found that life really is a combination of hard work and luck.

The saying is that you work hard and you create your own luck, which I totally agree with.

A lot of focus is centered around being an “expert” in a particular field but this isn't necessarily the case. You can be proficient in many areas and NOT SUCK AT LIFE.

This is what it's really about eh?

This is an interesting topic and would like to hear your thoughts on this. What do you suck at and what do you excel at? Or are you like me and proficient enough to live a happy, fulfilling life?