"How did you learn to do that?"

Ronni

Ronni

Well-known Member
Location
Nashville TN
It's a question I'm commonly asked as I'm wading into someone's organizational nightmare and bringing order to it. It could be a huge walk-in closet, a junk drawer, a kitchen pantry, garage. Or perhaps a home office, or a mountain of paper, a collection of photos, CD's and DVD's. Sometimes it's organizing via computer and apps, like creating a Master Contact List for a years long collection of address books, business cards, scraps of paper, and addresses torn off envelopes. That's a different kind of organization requiring a learned skillset...manipulating a spreadsheet program, basic coding to create a custom spreadsheet, that kind of thing. But it's usually the physical organization of large or small spaces that generates the question of how I learned to do what I do.

And the answer is, I didn't. I have never NOT known how to think organizationally. It's just sort of how my brain is wired I guess. There's nothing in my personal life that is not organized, whether it's my files or my underwear drawer. Everything is sorted, categorized, itemized. I don't know how to live any other way. I enjoy keeping things organized. And that translates to my work. I see someone else's mess, and my brain starts working at hyper-speed to figure it out, sort through it, make categories, see how to put it all back together again in a more orderly manner.

It frustrates people sometimes, that I can't tell THEM how to learn to do what I do. I can certainly pass on tips and tricks, and I do, all the time, but that underlying fundamental function of how my brian works so that I can just sort of SEE how this or that can be organized, not to mention the sheer pleasure I get from creating the organization, along with the tenacity and persistence to see it through? I don't know how to teach that.

I see someone else's organizational nightmare, the thing they've been putting off for forever because they don't have a clue how to tackle it, and just dread the mere idea of starting, and then here's me, and I just can't WAIT to dive in and bring order to it! It's weird, so weird. Sometimes I feel like an alien!

It's been a lot of fun to find this niche for myself. There's an expression...find something that you love to do, and figure out how to make money at it? That would be me lol!

How about you all? Are you a natural at something that others find onerous or difficult or can't figure out how to do?


-
 

Well, first, I am more organized that my wife is.

Second, I went to a Roping School to learn how to rope off of a horse. Some folks would get very impressed by my skills with using a rope, but, then again, these folks didn't/don't know much, or anything, about rodeo or ranching and the skills it takes to do either. My roping days are over, but I've still got a couple ropes from my old rodeo days and can still form a loop and swing it. Catching something could be more difficult, but I could do it.
 
I really haven't a clue how I became such an organized person although I have been this way since I was a little girl. I never had to be told to keep my bedroom clean or organized like my brother did. I suppose I just watched how my mom kept things in order and I followed her ways. I guess I always like my T's crossed and I's dotted.
 

Ronni said:
How about you all? Are you a natural at something that others find onerous or difficult or can't figure out how to do? -
Click to expand...

Crude as my stuff is, folks have asked how



simple


want to




jnFvq6D.jpg


E6YmA1s.jpg


BxwRKm5.jpg


sMZUfx2.jpg


5iKbi8i.jpg


X39Ovtj.jpg


ZovKWjl.jpg
 
I'm with Gary, here. When I want to do something, I do it, learning along the way. I'm a great landlord, but I wasn't great, at first, although I had a good feel for what it took to get, and keep, good tenants. Thirty-three years down the line, I'm great. I think, Ronni, that you surely got better at what you did/do, as time went on. You may not realize that, but I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that that is how it went down. I could sing, right from the time I first tried, and could play bass good enough to get a band going, after one lesson, but I learned more, and improved, along the way. One night, onstage at a club, I swung my bass over my shoulder and started playing it backwards, on my neck, as it faced away from the audience. I NEVER practiced that move, never did it before, or since, but the endless nights of regular club work taught my body, and some sub-conscious level of my brain, how to play backwards bass guitar. I believe most things in life are like that, although we're not always aware of the learning process. Yes, some of us do have natural talents that may be hard-wired in, to an extent, due to genetics, but every skill improves with experience.
 
I have a good natural ear for music. I can play any tune on the piano after hearing it once.

I also have excellent relative pitch. That is not the same as perfect pitch, where you hear a note and can always correctly say what the note is. But after somebody tells me what that note is (or I look at the
piano), I can correctly identify any other note following it.

As they used to say, that and 50 cents...
 
I'm not a 'natural' at anything, but I'm a certified nerd in good standing with an endless attention span. DW is quite the same. I applied that initially to finances and spent hundreds of hours in my 20's learning to budget, save, and invest. After that, it was taking out books from the library to explain how to remodel things in the house (now I get on YouTube and watch a video for 'how to'). DW and I also actually don't sign anything until we read the contract. We'll take the contract home, look up the 'legalese' to understand it, then take it back signed. It's dry, boring, but we understand all of our business transactions. We also do taxes the 'old fashioned' way --- do spreadsheets, and do the forms by hand.
I'm organized (you have to be to accomplish anything) and am always looking forward --- I rarely look back on anything in my life. When we had a camper, I got a bunch of totes and made lists of what items went into each tote, and taped the printed list to the tote top.

Now, the flip side. I have about as much 'creativity' as a potted plant. My brain doesn't light up in the creativity part. :D
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top