Good at many things/Great at nothing... Is this a common problem?

[meccaNES]

Something i've been thinking about recently is that i'm pretty good at just about anything i set my mind to (i'm massively lazy and it shows in my results). But, i'm not great (professional or world class level) at anything. And, my hobbies seem to change every couple of years as my interest change. I'm 22 above average intelligence and can't seem to just develop the magical drive or motivation that makes people amazingly successful at that one niche.

Maybe i just haven't found it yet or maybe there's some other reasoning? Too many interests maybe? I'm not sure. But i believe it's prevented me from succeeding in multiple fields. My most recent interest of course being poker which i'm sure i could be very good at if i can over come my laziness which i'm taking steps to do.

Is this a common problem? I mean i just beat an international master on icc (internet chess club) in a couple games of 3 0 (not that impressive as the time constraints allow for a lot of blunders) but i'll never be world class or probably even titled. I don't want the same thing to happen to my poker playing as i genuinely enjoy playing this game. Which is a first as i never had fun at much before.

Does anyone have this same problem or know a way to overcome it? Maybe this is too much like the "intellectual apathy" posts flying all over the place. But something i've had trouble with is finding that one thing that just drives me to commit my life to it.

When did any of you guys (if you have at all) find that one thing that is your life's work? Or just that one thing that you enjoy more than anything else? Is this something that can be learned, taught or come naturally?

[RED_RAIN]

Have you ever stopped to think that maybe you "aren't" world class at anything?

To me, this sounds like probably 99.9% of the people in the world. It also doesn't seem like something bad or as a failure to life type of thing.

I would be content that you are great at many things.

[Slowroller13]

I, too, am competent at many things. However, I'm not "world class" at anything...but that's OK. No matter how good you are or how good you think you are, there's always going to be someone better than you.

The sooner you accept that you're never going to be the best at anything, the sooner you will begin to enjoy your activities more. I promise you that.

[Goodnews]

its not just a matter of laziness, the fact that there is a point where the work necessary to get better is much more than it was before.

Example:

1st Level: Preflop strategy is easy, grab a pf table and you are better off preflop wise than the majority of the players.

2nd Level: Learn postflop play, when to bet etc. a bit harder but not too difficult to master.

3rd Level: learn advanced postflop play, learning to play marginal hands like mid pair and overcards, much more difficult than the 1st and 2nd level combined. In fact, many players will get to this point and never move past it. Those who do are the great/world class players.

[J. Stew]

wtf don't listen to anybody that tells you to be content with mediocrity.

you want to know what your problem is. you already said it, you're lazy. sloth, it's a deadly sin, look it up.

now what does it mean to become unlazy. . .

if you look at what the various spiritual teachings have to say, there is only the present moment, there is no past and future, and all you ever have is this moment right now. that's either a lot to get your head around or very simple to understand. regardless, if you want to 'fix' your laziness, the only place to do it is right now.

so this would mean being aware of how you are lazy and then consciously 'improving' your actions towards quality through slothynessness. see when you're world class you can make up new words. ok now i'm just being gay, gl . . .sloth . . . heh heh.

[ChubNub]

this is basically me. I was a division 1 volleyball champion, but wasn't good enough to play on the college team. I've played piano and guitar for 11 years, but havent become engrossed in music, its just a hobby. i surf/skate/snowboard, but i'm not amazing at any of these, just above average. likewise, i'm not amazing at poker but i am certainly a winning player. I've always wished I could be amazing at 1 thing instead of being able to do everything better than most people.

my interests change over the years, i used to be into magic, bowling, etc all sorts of random stuff until i got pretty good, then it lost it's interest.

[goodgrief]

Almost no one is great at anything, that is what being great means, that it's something rare and special. There's almost 7 billion people in the world. Almost none of them are Sir Isaac Newton last time I looked. Hell, almost none of them are Phil Helmuth. It's a reality of human existence that if you think you are great, you are probably lying to yourself. You would probably know if you were Tiger Woods or Bill Clinton or even Britney Spears. Fortunately, we are not required to be great to have a good and successful life. Being good at something, anything, is more than most people achieve. Look around you. Most people are not even good at school where they're told what to do A,B,C. Hell, most people can't even bake a good cake. If you are good at something, you're already a step ahead of the crowd if you just apply yourself.

[meccaNES]

I think the idea was missed or i didn't illustrate it well. It's not that i'm crying about being good at a lot of stuff, that, i consider a blessing as i'm a pretty competitive person and would drive me crazy to constantly lose. But, i'm meaning in this post what is it that separates those that are great from those who have the potential to be? I believe i have the potential to be regardless of whatever negative person says about how it's possible and that i should just be settled with mediocrity. That's [censored], tell me i'm in denial all day long but someone telling me it's impossible to do or be something just makes me want to accomplish it more.

What i was meaning in the OP is that where does that drive come from that allows a person to be great? Such as Bobby Fischer (world champion and widely considered greatest chess player of all time...although i personally think it was Paul Morphy but that's something entirely different) studied like no other. He woke up day in and day out and lived, breathed and loved chess...even when he was built up too much by the media and scared to sit at the board he was still that much better than everyone else. What creates that? So far the only answer i can come up with is hard work. It's something i've been deathly afraid of my entire life but i'm going to force myself into improvement (at all works of life not just poker) by working hard. I've squandered my life so far and i literally have the potential to do anything (i don't give a [censored] if you think i should settle for mediocrity lol) and intend to start using it.

I just don't fully understand the difference...i guess it really is just self control and motivation...

I dunno...

[Hercules]

lol@meccaNES....

Its like we have the same "problem"...

(Ok OP, maybe you can explain in the light of relativism what "good" and "great" in your headline means...)

I am also a chess player and i can kill nigel short and other gm`s on a good day on the chess server. But i am not good enough to be a pro.
I play piano, won international prices, but i know i will never be a pianist, because i can`t play (from nature) a certain combination of notes (only piano insiders can understand)...
Ok, so i began to play poker a few months ago. I earn a decent living, but I`ll prolly never be world class like aba etc...

So i understand your "problem"...but its all relative.
Lets look at chess: You know prolly GM loek van Wely from the Netherlands. In his country he`s admired, but he looks like a total idiot, every time he plays against kramnik or topalov etc...He also feels like beeing mediocre. Or what about Bent Larsen and Taimanov? Brilliant players, looking like stupid morons and retards, when playing against Bobby.
So IMO its just the perspective you`re looking at it.


I never had a real chess trainer and maybe i could have would have become a good GM (or still will become *lol*)if i would have studied more. But it would be pretty arrogant to say that i would have easily made it. I just did many other things.
And in order to become word class, you have to concentrate on fewer things. But again, even world class is relative (see van Wely)...

But referring to bobby Fischer: I think its not new, but common sense says, that you can reach like 90% with work and enthusiasm, but there`s the 10% called genius.

Stuey Ungar might have been a complete idiot in many things, but he had a [censored] damn talent to play poker. He just had it. He was a genius. And i think you can`t work to become a genius...
Its like you can learn art, but not becoming an artist.


So maybe you and I and many others will find a thing, where they are "world class" at. Some talents stay undiscovered.


ok, but actually i really don`t care about beeing word class at this or that. I have other values and i don`t do things just to become "the best" at it etc. But thats actually a different topic. But nevertheless its an interesting thread.

[Split Suit]

to b very honest, i think this is going to b a very common 'problem' on a site like this. this entire site is flooded with college age kids who spend countless hours practicing, playing, and reading about this game. im sure that lots of the people on this site are winners, altho im sure not for as much as they wud like, but not very many are killing at higherstakes.

in this instance, which is very prevelant on this site, is a case of 'being good, but not great'. so im sure lots of ppl on this site feel this way, so i dont kno if asking this question here is going to give you the greatest unskewed answers.

as to myself, i feel im in the same boat. i do many of things stated above. i do music, poker, pool, and pride myself on academics. however, i feel that i am far from the greatest at any of those, altho i wud say that im fairly talented at all of the above.

ive talked about things like this with my counselor, and we both agree that it comes from my over-evaluative personality. obvi this stems from my childhood, and im sure if u looked carefully at ur own, u cud easily spot the roots of this. really, it all comes down to the fact that you need to just learn to b content with who u are. saddly, i havnt reached that point yet, but im hoping to eventually. im the kid that gets pissed over everything if i dont 'win'.

so this is really perfectly natural, just do some work to understand that you will never be the best, but doin ur best is as good as u can do. gl