To wonder how she does it?

[Cherryhotchoc]

I have a friend who literally great at anything she turns her hand to. She has started baking with her dc during lockdown and is now making professional looking cakes/brownies etc every week. She has never been able to sew (she’s said this herself) but wanted to make facemasks last year and after her first few attempts they were so good. Taught herself to draw last year too and they’re amazing. Literally anything she turns her hand to, she is always amazing at it in a relatively short space of time.

Is anyone else like this? How do you do it? I would love to be able to decide that I want to do something, watch some tutorials/training etc online and then be great.

Are some people just naturally more talented? All rips welcome! 😁

Tips*

My sister is! She can take up a craft and a few days later be producing super professional looking stuff. She's open, patient, practices loads and is naturally very detail oriented. I can get good at stuff but it takes me a lot longer!!

Sounds to me like your friend has always had creative talents and perhaps hasn't had the time/excuse to use them up to this point. Could have been funnelled down academic routes at school for example and is now nurturing those innate things.
My DD is a bit like this, with a additional drive to get things right. Which is important in skills like sewing. I'm far too slapdash! And the best seamstresses I know have a real engineering type brain - they understand how things are put together.

I think some people are quick learners and dextrous. I can pick up a musical instrument quite quickly.

Look up growth mindset.

It's not natural talent.

If you want to be good at something you just need to put the effort and hours into it.

People like you friend will be putting many hours into getting good, they just don't be telling you because our society doesn't value effort. You have to downplay effort and pretend it's natural talent.

"Oh this? It's nothing really" did while blushing and not telling you about all the failed attempts to get to that point.

Okay so I always thought I wasn’t at all creative - my mum and sister were insanely artistic and I felt really crap that I couldn’t draw a stick man. I did nothing creative until my late 20s.

I went on a cake decorating class for fun in my late 20s and became obsessed. Then I learnt to knit, crochet, embroidery. Started teaching cake decorating, then later knitting and crochet (found I was good at teaching others).

Then I started paper cutting and selling my work quite successfully even though I can’t draw well.

Now I design paper cutting templates and have just started on a range of crochet patterns I’ve been planning to design for about four years but haven’t had time with the kids.

I really feel like I just didn’t find what I was good at until later on and wish I had found them sooner!

I am a bonkers perfectionist and very patient with some things and I think this is why I can do these things well. There’s no inherent amazing skill, just perseverance and a drive to be better at it. A strong sense of quality control is the other thing - seeing what you’ve done objectively and knowing whether it’s good enough to sell etc, which many people don’t have.

I definitely am not good at everything though! I can’t use a sewing machine well, and there are loads of things I am useless at.

My husband is like this. He looks at something and goes "I might try and make one of those" and it ends up perfect. This is from baking to sewing to carpentry and then some. I just look at him in awe when I can't even draw a straight line. He does spend ages researching things and watches tutorials and plans everything meticulously, so he does put the effort in.

My cousin is like this, she just excels at absolutely everything she does! She's made some cakes for family birthdays and they look absolutely incredible, you'd think she was a professional baker with 40 years experience! she's also an amazing crafter, decorator, cook, mother and just generally fantastic at everything she does. She's a huge inspiration to me and I strive to be at least half the amazing mother and person she is.

I can't even draw a stick man properly and all my cakes and paintings look just average but I know if I practice enough and put in the time I should get better, I also ask her for tips regularly.
I like to think she started off as awful as me and just taught herself to be great at everything, it gives me hope that others can do it too.

@SinkGirl I remember the Hey Duggee? Cookies you made your children from another thread! Not a stalker promise, they just stuck in my mind because they were so fabulous

What fitzbilly said , 10,000 hours of anything makes you an expert ( or whatever they say) .. I think if you want to do something enough you can . I know if I put my mind to something I can usually do it !

[quote Ostryga]@SinkGirl I remember the Hey Duggee? Cookies you made your children from another thread! Not a stalker promise, they just stuck in my mind because they were so fabulous [/quote]
Thanks, that’s so nice! I love making things so much but very little time and energy these days. Always try to make an effort for their birthday, not that they notice but their little friends really loved those cookies at least!

I'm a bit like this. I am the most stubborn person ever. I'll do a load of research and 'how to' type things and just do it again and again and again until I am good at it and refuse to let it defeat me. I'll spend hours and hours trying to get it right and do it again and again, tweaking things each time, til I'm happy with it

I'm a bit like this. I am the most stubborn person ever. I'll do a load of research and 'how to' type things and just do it again and again and again until I am good at it and refuse to let it defeat me. I'll spend hours and hours trying to get it right and do it again and again, tweaking things each time, til I'm happy with it

Me too! And I'm totally happy to show my failures too.