...master of none...kind of sums me up. I can turn my hand to most things and can do them to a passable level, but I don't think I EXCEL at anything (lads, keep it clean please). I'm just not gifted at anything, unless I have yet to find my forte.

There are LOADS of things I would love to be able to do well, such as sewing (no patience), cooking (my waistline would suffer), drawing and painting etc.

Are you particularly gifted and if so, what; if not gifted, what would you love to be able to do?

Would be good to be more domestic I guess, I don't have the skills or the patience, but what I'd really love is to be able to write, as in novels, stories etc. I have a weird and wonderful imagination but can't translate it onto paper unfortunately.

I think you've just discovered the REAL world, where the vast majority of us are just average and not especially good at anything.....

But take heart, its the average Joe's like us that make the clever and talented people stand out, without us being average THEY would be nothing

I live vicariously through my children. I work very hard at recognising their talents at a young age so that they don't get to mine and not have any too.

Pretty much everything I do, I do well. Slight perfectionism may be to blame, also being extremely capable. Very rarely will I pay someone for something I can do myself. Why would I? So then I'll learn how to do that thing and save myself the cash. I've taught myself to plaster, tile, basic plumbing, electrics, gardening, photography... I can sew, cook, dance... to me anything new is just another challenge. If I'm going to do it, I'll do it well.
Basically I'm one huge pain in the butt, or really inspiring. Take your pick.

Being good at lots of things makes life difficult because then so many things compete for your attention all the time. It makes knowing what to do as a career difficult, so you have many, which to some people looks bad, but to others looks great... One recent employer told me that my focus was too broad. My latest employer loves my wide experience. Mind you, the employer who told me to narrow my focus was a dill who couldn't manage his way out of a paper bag, so I didn't really take much notice of him.
The two constants in my life are food of some ilk, photography and small business, which I'm passionately interested in. I used to be very envious of a lawyer friend who was ONLY good at law. Therefore it made his life very simple... do the job, reap the payment and enjoy your life. It sounded very appealing.
When you're good at a lot of stuff, people ask you to help out with a lot of things. I now am really good at telling them no because you end up doing everything for everyone and nothing for yourself and I'm well over that.
Sometimes following what you excel at can overtake the reality of living a life and making a living. I've now managed to balance the two.

Answered that so well, I killed the thread. Ta da.

Nope, I'm completely devoid of any talent, skill or wit. I make up for it by being cute.

You do it so well.

"Only" good at law????? Do you have any idea of how complex that is?????

There is a reason specialists get paid a shit load more than non specialists. Its because they know more..........

I've always admired my own arse....quite the nicest-looking backside I've ever seen....I feel sorry for those who can only talk out of theirs

Oh, you mean it's not a weekend course? He's blindingly good at litigation. End of. It's the only thing he can do, well apart from get pissed and start articulate arguments in pubs. That's my point, not the complexity of it.

I'm definately more of a 'jack-of-all' than a specialist.

I'm a passable pianist and back in the day was good, despite being motivationaly impaired.
I'm a decent orchestral viola player and possibly could have pursued that as a career, but never had the dedication to put any effort into it.
I was a journeyman rock guitarist for a while making small amounts of money.
I was a reasonably well respected bass player on the pub circuit in Hampshire for a while.
I was a decent software developer - but never had the zealous passion that some geeks do.
I cook very well - but am not driven to do it creatively regularly enough to be deemed 'excellent'.

In short theres a whole bunch of stuff that I do or have done to an 'above average' standard - but I've never had the drive to apply that ability and 'step up'.

Of course there are still plenty of areas where I lack basic, rudimentary capabilities. I've always been hopeless at pretty much any sporting activity and anything DIY or garden related is almost gauranteed to end up being a complete disaster requiring professional 'bail-out' - So much so that even the tiniest job succesfully completed by me produces a HUGE glow of pride.

Last weekend for example I *just* succesfully changed a lightbulb - this involved:
- Changing the bulb and realising the bulb wasnt at fault but the downloght transformer porbably was,
- Climbing into the roof cavity and crawling around in the very cramped spaces amongst the loose papery insulation crap, between the rafters and the huge but fragile air-con ducting tubes - realising I couldnt reach the transformer
- Climbing back down, pausing for breath, ventolin, a litre of cold water and a 10 minute sit down
- Getting a ladder, climbing onto the roof, removing a few roof tiles,
- Reaching down, unscrewing and changing the lights transformer,
- Struggling for about 15 minutes to try and replace the removed roof tiles.
- Climbing down and verifying that the last hour of activity wasnt completely wasted and the light was now working.

I hope you got a round of applause from your family when it was done.

Bloody hell, I'd have just bought a new light fitting.

Have you noticed viola players have smaller heads than the violin players?