do the things you're good at

I’ve always been a jumpy, climb-y person, as far back as I can remember - even during my short-lived-but-oh-so-intense basketball phase of youth, I was most complimented for my “mad ups” - suburban boy slang (and probably beyond) for jumping well.

But it’s odd - until very recently, I’ve never truly internalized that leg-heavy, jumpy / climb-y activities are truly my thing. It’s interesting to really take inventory of your body in your 30s - what am I naturally good at, what has taken me much longer, what has felt the most organically joyful and natural.

And consistently for me, it’s been stuff with legs. By comparison, stuff with hands and arms has been much more middling for me - I’m a mediocre piano player despite years of playing. It’s easy to tell that I’m all legs and coordination too, looking at me - a close friend described me as “90% legs” recently.

Doing things you’re naturally good at is such a precious gift - you’re able to flatten that curve of time vs. progress in a way that offers immense satisfaction, external validation, and easy access to flow states. So at this point, I’m starting to double down on such activities: skiing, climbing, drumming, and so on.

All this, by the way, stems from the fact that I tried out canyoneering in Utah. I absolutely LOVED it, and felt aptitude, fearlessness, and joy flooding through me the entire time. Feeling the strength in my body, the focus it brought out of me, the grounded flow of feeling fully 100% present - that’s what living well feels like. I’ve felt similar feelings while writing music, while singing in choir, while skiing, while coding. I’ve very rarely felt it from piano or mandolin, despite how much time I’ve put in there. I’ve definitely felt it while drumming. I never really felt it from physics, but I did get a lot of joy from just sheer fascination.

I’ve been listening to Philosophize This recently, as it makes for a good listening project during this long-term travel time. Most episodes, but particularly the early episodes on Aristotle, have been interesting to shape the question of what it means to live a well-lived, well-examined life. I’m interested in how these different philosophies will mentally engage with all the cultures and people I’m going to cross paths with in this next year. I’d love to just ask some people what they think a well-lived life looks like for them.

But I know one thing for sure: that cross-section of aptitude, challenge, and flow state that certain activities provoke – that’s definitely part of a well-lived life.