I'm on the way to the career I want, but I've always wanted to pick up some kind of art or other skill with which I could express myself creatively. When I was a kid, I wanted to write. Then I wanted to draw. Then it was solo game development. Now I've picked up magic tricks. I always try a thing for a while, then give up. I know it has to do with my really shitty self-esteem, and how being bad at things makes me feel like I'm worthless.
But I'm not sure how to get past that. Logically, I know it's silly to base my worth as a human being on my ability to do a card sleight, for instance, but if I try and try and can't get it right, I start to hate myself, and the more I keep going, the more depressed I get.
I know I should see a psychologist, and I'm going to start seeing one on campus week after next, after Spring break, but do you have any other tips for me?
I really want to stick with it this time.
>>16901748
>I know I should see a psychologist, and I'm going to start seeing one on campus week after next, after Spring break, but do you have any other tips for me?
No.
You and everyone else. It's not even a mystery - things get exponentially harder for less and less tangible improvement/gain. You also start coming up against your natural limits, and the requirements to specialize. Specializing takes up a lot of time, sometimes what seems like your whole life, suddenly a lot more is on the line, and you don't know if you want to commit, especially given the effort and the questionable reward. It's easier to just step back.
The answer seems to be that you need to just pick something, though after careful consideration, and focus on those things. There are exceptional people throughout history who can excel in various fields, but most just don't fall into that category.
>>16901748
Have you ever sat down and learned how to practice? Because, what I'm getting from this isn't that you're insecure, but that you don't know how to systematically approach developing a skill. Most people's conception is simply repeat an action until you get it, or slow it down if you're having particular trouble. There's no getting around practice, but you can get more out of it.
>Block out time
Find a consistent time to practice something. Even if it's 30 minutes. Set aside a chunk of time where you will have no interruptions, or distractions. When you feel your brain start to wander off and go to other things, you need to force it to focus on the task at hand, because when you make those kinds of demands on your brain, you're telling it "hey, this is important. Pay attention"
>Take things slow
This is important, but there's more to practice than just this.
>Break things down
Usually, tasks are a few skills piled on top of each other. If you can break things down step by step, and rehearse one part at a time, or one aspect of it, instead of trying to do the whole thing in one go, you'll see more progress.
>Set goals
If you set tangible goals, you'll see tangible results. Let's take a card trick for example. Maybe your goal could be to do the entire trick from memory. Maybe the goal for the next practice session would be to do it without any hesitations, or maybe your goal is to practice cutting the deck perfectly even four times in a row
>Come back to old skills
Foundations are important. Even when you've practiced a skill, and got it down, you need to come back to it. You can start off a practice session by going over what you learned the previous day, and if you got it, move on to your next goal, and maybe three or four days, check back in and see if you still got it. Seeing new skills built, and being able to retain old skills helps keep motivation, and also keeps you from having to relearn things when you move onto more advanced stuff
>>16901927
One more thing: if you can, find someone who will help hold you accountable, and keep you motivated. You're going to be told to do things for yourself, but having someone there to appreciate your hard work is always nice and keeps you motivated to continue on
