September 29, 2023

(Just Some Of) Our Hidden Talents

A few days ago, I asked what things you could teach to a beginner.

As promised, here’s the (anonymized) list of hidden talents that y’all would feel comfortable teaching:

3-minute quick release of pain or any distress
30 simple structures you can practice to bring depth and fast authenticity to a relationship
5 elements theory & warm-up massage you can do in 3 minutes
5-step process to see your life through fresh eyes
A reframing that turns any conflict, confusion, or chaos into the signal for the breakthrough that it is
Agricultural stuff (Take care of vineyards, almond trees and cherry trees)
Any level Mathematics (I just need to refresh)
Audition for a local theater production
Auto fleet management
Back up a camper trailer
Backpacks and all kinds of objects
Baking
Bank repo management
Basic demolitions instruction (explosives)
Basic firearms safety
Be an efficient time-manager
Beatbox
Become a coach
Bike
Bike racing
Boxing
Breath control (for riflery)
Breathing techniques
Build a bed frame
Build a fire
Build a square-foot garden
Build a treehouse
Build a website
Build business critical apps in python
Build makeshift toys with wood (bows, arrows, slingshot and the like)
Build the world that wants us to be healthy
Buy a bike
Carve pumpkins
Catching a wave on a surfboard
ChatGPT prompts
Check and top up my own fluids in the car, wiper blades, change the tire (if still was strong enough)
Checkers
Chess
Chess
Chess
Chop wood not loosing a limb
Classical music
Coach soccer (mostly any sport)
Code
Code a choose-your-own-adventure
Coding (C/C++/HTML)
Cook
Cook (the arguably perfect) Spanish omelet
Cook a curry
Cook a delicious, healthy meal
Cook great meals when camping: open fire and Dutch oven
Cook healthy from-scratch meals every single day (with zero wasted food)
Cook perfect boiled or hardboiled eggs
Cook perfect scrambled eggs
Cooking
Cooking
Cooking
Cooking
Create a flattering portrait
Create a private ritual to create personal transformation (without resorting to “woo”)
Create a strong, focused, authentic sense of “we” in any group that desires it
Create manuals, protocols, and procedures
Creating social media strategies
Creative writing
Cut your own hair
Dance (Shuffle)
Defuse an angry customer complaint
Designing handbags
Diamond painting
Do some musical theater
Do tricks w/ cards
Do well in an interview
Draw/paint
Drive
Drive a 4x4 in sand dunes
Drive a car
Drive a car
Drive a stick-shift
Drive and operate tractors and machinery
Drive stick
Dutch
Edit video using Camtasia
Edit video using DaVinci Resolve
Effectively google for things
Electrical installation (power outlet etc)
Encouraging people
Essential phrases in Mandarin for visitors keen to strike up laughter & fun
Fill in a magic square
Film and edit movies
Find your own home organizing style and implement strategies that will keep your home organized for good
Fire a pistol with reasonable accuracy
Fix a tire puncture
Fix most vacuums
French, Dutch, English
Gaming
Get ready for hiking
Get smart fast on a subject you know nothing about
Get started in Japanese and Spanish (enough to get into trouble; not enough to get out of it!)
Get started on BlueSky
Get started on Mastodon
Get started on Twitter/X
Get started with Astronomy
Give a good presentation to an audience
Greek
Handle and store a gun safely
Handling a cranky toddler
Have fun in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: get started, and keep going
High school XC coaching
Home automation
Homeschool your kids in Texas, from kindergarten to college acceptance
How soul and spirit are different, and your life can become rich by noticing the presence of each
How to choose
Ice skate
Improve your communication (with friends, husband, wife, co-worker)
Incorporate a business
Inquire ChatGPT (Bard and the rest)
Install cabinets
Installing specialty acoustics
Integral transformative practice, infinitely adjustable as you learn things about yourself
Inventory control, expediting
Invite meaningful dialogue into any relationship and open the door to a generative process
Juggle
Kayak
Knit, crochet, embroidery, macrame
Land navigation
Latin
Launch a podcast
Lawn care
Lay carpet
Lay radiant floor tubing
Learn to learn by yourself
Learning a new skill
Live production setups
Live without resistance
Lose fat and gain muscle
Make a mini zine
Make a proper fist (according to Isshin-Ryu karate)
Make better coffee
Make decisions
Make espresso
Make homemade pasta
Make homemade pizza dough
Make homemade yogurt
Make house music
Make hummus
Make sourdough bread
Making a blanket using a loom
Making ravioli
Manage your own time
Managing a class
Master a few good magic tricks
Maths
Mend a “traditional” roof
Mend socks and sew buttons
Mixing a martini at 100 miles an hour
Mooring a boat
Music recording
Neapolitan style pizza making
Negotiation
Nutrition
Operate a fire engine
Pass a ball in soccer
Pattern languages
Perform basic military first aid
Perform your own consumer-level car maintenance (oil changes and other stuff most people don’t do anymore)
Photography
Piano
Pilot a DJI drone
Plant a garden
Play a funky bassline ;)
Play all the open chords on a guitar
Play backgammon and euchre
Play basketball
Play campfire-level acoustic guitar
Play cards
Play chess
Play chess
Play chords by ear on a piano
Play computer games (counter-strike 😅😅 was a professional gamer once)
Play Go
Play golf
Play MANY different board games and card games
Play netball
Play the cello
Play the drums
Play the piano
Playing chess
Poker
Pour a concrete sidewalk or countertop
Practices that make the following 5 phrases true in your life: the past is approved. The future is open. All is possible. All is good. You are accepted
Print design, setup for print/separations/prepress prep
Professional graphic design
Proper rowing form
Properly catalog and evaluate your art collection
Publish a YouTube video
Put out a fire
Recaulk a bathtub surround
Repaint your car with spray cans
Replace a door or window
Replace a toilet (yes, I could)
Replace household plumbing fixtures (toilet, sink)
Replant your entire lawn
Ride a bike
Ride a bike
Ride a unicycle
Rock painting
Rowing
Run a decent game of D&D
Sailing
Sailing
Saltwater aquariums
Schedule recurring Facebook posts
See the Northern Lights (in the Midwest)
Select a college or university for your child
Self-love
Set up a basic home chemistry lab
Set up email campaigns on MailChimp and familiar with CAN-SPAM regulations
Set up their Google Business Profile for optimized local search
Sew
Shoot a ball in soccer
Sketch cars and other vehicles
Snow skiing
Snowboard
Snowboard
Snowboard
Solder a wire
Some French
Speak basic French
Speak basic Japanese
Start a blog
Start a blog
Start a business
Start a business in France
Start a campfire
Start a fire
Start a newsletter
Start a Newsletter
Start a podcast
Start an LLC
Start raising backyard chickens
Strategize
Survive a police encounter without incriminating yourself or escalating to violence
Swimming
Take care of a child
Tantra
Think laterally
Think two steps ahead
Think w/models
Tie a half hitch
Tie a taut-line hitch
Tie your shoes
Too much gardening knowledge for a condo dweller
Trap a ball in soccer
Turn a live chicken into dinner
Upgrade m.2 storage in a new PC
Upgrade RAM in a new PC
Use a fountain pen
Use a recording studio
Use ChatGPT effectively
Use Obsidian
Vector graphics drawing – a skill from early print days for flexo label printing
Watercolour painting
Waterskiing
Web design and hosting (majority of the current gig)
What to say to a recently bereaved person
Windsurfing
Wire a house (but get somebody else to wire the panel, please)
Wireframe a landing page
Woodworking
Write a daily email
Write a personal-feeling email that encourages action
Write a story
Write copy
Write katakana and hiragana
Write poetry
Yoga
Youth/Adult Beginner Hockey Player
Zero a rifle (iron sights)

Wow!!! What a list!

Several things stood out to me, but the two biggest ones were:

Just one yoga? Really?! 😜
Lots of build, cook, create, make, play, start, and write 💪

What was your favorite?

Yours,

—J