What Skills Are You Best At?
Following my highly scientific survey last week, I’ve concluded that, like me, people comment on posts that resonate with them.
I think for most blog readers…if the post or topic is not revving their engine, they’ll turn the corner and move on.Ā If they find a blog is consistently irrelevant…they’ll unsubscribe or toss it into their spam bin.
Thank’s for answering my survey. I was surprised by some of your responses. Not one…Ā OK 2 PEOPLE told me to shut up and stop blogging. (I’m not counting them š
“Randomness I come across” was the number one topic you wanted me to write more about.
In my continuing search for relevance, I asked my husband, what one word he would use to describe me. There were several funnyĀ discussions and in the end, he came up with the same word I think of…when I remember my Mom.
Competent. I’m a can-do woman.
I have:
- Gapped my own spark plugs
- Changed flat tires.
- Changed my car’s oil.
- Re-wired light switches and installed chandeliers.
- Built a screened-in porch in our house.
- Reupholstered furniture.
- I’ve re-plumbed a sink.
- Taken my dishwasher apart to fix the problem.
- I’ve stripped and restored antique furniture.
- Sewed and installed drapery.
- Made several tufted head boards from scratch.
- Replaced all the doorknobs in our house.
- I’ve painted an entire house, inside and out…ours.
- Sewn all my clothes during high school and college.
- Striped off and hung wallpaper.
- Built a canopy frame for our bed and sewed the silk hangings for it.
- Taught myself to cook…and I’m pretty damn good at it.
- Knit many garments for everyone in my family.
- Can back a 30 foot trailer into anywhere and park it on a dime.
When wondering what commodity or skill I could trade for goods and services if the monetary system failed, I decided, plenty.
I don’tĀ think of myself as a pioneer woman and gingham ruffles have never been a fashion statement for me but perhaps I need to reconsider it.
What could you trade?
Thanks for reading and have a great day!
That’s a great skill to have. I’m a great business troubleshooter. That’s my superpower š
I suspect you have many other superpowers too:)
Wow. You. Are. Amazing. I loved reading about all of the things that you can do and the pride that you felt in sharing them. Very cool and inspiring.
Thanks Heather. I felt sort of pompous after I wrote it, but that was our topic and I did choose BRAVE as my word for 2015:)
I provide jobs for people who have wonderful skills like yours. I can make a mean jambalaya, and the cornbread to go with it. Maybe it will be enough to get by.
It would be enough. People have to eat and good food is always appreciated.
I bow down to you. I am useless at DIY but great at instructions:)
I don’t think I have anything i could trade as a personal skill. I’m good at my profession and am often asked to speak or interviewed but the subject wouldn’t rock most people’s boat, financial markets.
I’m terrible at instructions. A renegade at heart:) You could certainly write Anna, you do that very well!
Jen, I am quite impressed with your list and it far exceeds my practical skill set. The only thing I do very well that is tangible and has a ready market is driving. I’m the best there is at driving for many hours on end and unless I’m in stop and go traffic, it doesn’t bother me a bit. I can put in an audio book and drive 1000 miles if need be with hardly a pit stop other than for fuel.
That’s a great skill to have. I can drive shorter distances, but need many more pit stops:)
Dear Jennifer,
Allthat I can say is that I can’t compete with you !!!! You are the Queen of bartering !! XXXX
I’m actually terrible at it! At the flea market…I pay full price! xoxo
I just LOVE this list, Jen!! Surprisingly, I’m not surprised at anything on the list. Since I’m lucky enough to know you in person, I know that brain of yours will keep working until you figure it all out. This list is impressive! I have some latent skills in gardening that I’m not using right now. I play the flute and piano, neither very well. I’ve rock climbed sheer cliffs in Yosemite (similar to the event happening in Yosemite right now-but not as high), I danced on TV at the NYE Rockin Eve party 1988 with Richard Marx…none of those will save my life, or yours, but we will have some fun! I’ll be the dj at the next dance party! LOL! (That’s the best I can do at 6:30 am on my way to work;).
Fun post, my multi-talented friend!
xx, Heather
Dear Heather,
We must talk…more! I need to hear all about your dancing on TV! You wild woman with a past:)
And rock climbing. That’s a shock. I never would have guessed that. You are multi talented! And musical as well. Very well rounded skills. And we would have fun. Lots of fun together. We always do:)
Have a great day my friend!
xoxo
PS- After many years of piano lessons I can proudly play chop sticks.
What an amazing list of practical competencies! I would happily reside in a country that you were in charge of.
You’re too funny! I have tons of impractical skills also…like writing this blog š
Youāre a multi-talented diva for sure Jennifer. I loved the question. I think we tend to identify our skills with what we bring to the business world. What I like about your many talents was that you captured basic skills most of us do have, just to survive ā although I did have to google search to find out whatās involved with gapping sparkplugs ā Kudos to you! So for example, I could
*help harvest grapes – Iām thinking weāll be needing lots of wine
*help plant and harvest fruits and vegetables
*cook basic meals
*hit nails with hammers and use a screw driver
*clean ā I just spent a good part of today doing just that!
*mend clothes ā it wonāt be pretty, but an open seam will be closed and a button back on.
*provide first aid for CPR, ankles, sprains and wounds.
*my handwriting is still legible
*negotiate
And Iāll surprise myself finding other skills within me that will be of value to someone. I think we all have something to offer that another needs. We shouldnāt sell ourselves short. Great piece Jennifer.
Thanks Kate.
Wine making! Of course we will need wine, how could I forget that? You pick and I’ll crush. You’re right about us having skills we may not be giving ourselves credit for. As for cleaning, my husband suggested I leave that one off my list. Have a great day
you are very accomplished!
Thanks Barb. I wrote this post very fast, then looked at it and thought it made me sound like a braggart. I almost rewrote it then remembered my word for the year (BRAVE) and just hit post!
Let’s see. I can:
cook
clean
write professional resumes (I do this for a living)
sell cosmetics
stylist
deliver a speech
organize anything
paint walls, rooms, floors, etc…
That’s pretty darn accomplished! You’d do great in a barter system.
Wow, I’m impressed! I think you need to move in with us. š
Very amusing. You’ll train my horse and I’ll shovel the stalls š
Listening. Writing. Quilting. Flower gardening. Feeling awe.
Your quilting is amazing! As is your writing. Gardening is just not in my repertoire so I bow to you.
Holy Cow! That is not competent, that’s amazing, Jennifer. Wow, wow, wow. Ok, now that I’ve picked my jaw up from the floor, I can honestly say that if the monetary system fails, I am in deep doo-doo. Not kidding. Unless somebody wants knowledge of obscure facts which make me killer at Trivial Pursuit and Jeopardy…..
See, I’m simply lousy at Trivial Pursuit. You could be a record keeper with your memory.
Phew! What a list of “can-do-ness”!! I am impressed and slightly intimidated!!
You’re pretty talented yourself. I’ve seen your work!
Sounds like you’d do more than survive in the barter system…you might just be the
Leading lady!
So funny. Thanks.
“Gapping” spark plugs? Holy Moly – I don’t even know what that means! I know who I’m calling next time something breaks down, since my techno-mechanical son flew the nest!
Love your list!
Thanks D.A. This topic had me stumped, then I took your advice…let my fingers do the talking.
Wow! You are the Jill of all trades! I’m impressed.
I could cook and have been paid to do that for people in the past. I’m also very good at organizing and shopping for other people, so I suppose I’d be a good personal assistant. Although I’ve done many DIY projects including painting, replacing light fixtures, door knobs, changing hardware on toilets, laying flooring it is not something I would like to do for someone else.
bisous
Suzanne
I’m not a floor person myself Suzanne. You sound incredibly capable!
A Can Do woman… yes, I love that… that’s the best kind of woman to be… š
Thanks Vicki!
Dear Jennifer well I do think you could have easily made it across the country as a pioneer woman and settled in just fine! Me, you would have found laying in a ditch by the wayside, with perhaps a tool or knitting needles clutched in my frozen hands! Ha!
Seriously, you have amazing talents and I am so proud to call you my friend!
xoxo
Karena
Featuring “Inner Spaces”
I would have pulled you back in the wagon Karen :)!
Great friends like you are “keepers”.
xoxox
Oh my goodness…you are not simply “competent”…you’re super woman. I am very impressed. You even do doorknobs:)
And about the “two” who responded to your survey. I am not sure what drives people to read something and then be rude to the writer. I mean who does that? Like my mum used to say about nasty girls in my neighbourhood when I was little…”Just ignore them, dear.”
Thanks Sue! There’s great bravery in anonymity so commenters just let it rip. It used to hurt my feelings, but now I realize, they’re reading me so something must resonate for them!
Dear Jennifer
I can hunt; I can fish; I can farm; and I can cook; though none of it particularly well, but hopefully well enough to scratch out a living, should the need arise, which, of course, I am particularly that doesnāt anytime soon…
I’m hoping the need never arises either! Hunt, fish, farm and cook. That makes you a renaissance man. Bravo!!
I am awed by your list of talents. The one thing I am useless at is any DIY although I have done some painting and made curtains and clothes in my day. As a qualified image consultant and executive coach I could trade time as a consultant and certainly have done on quite a few occasions.
I’ve traded my Image Consulting and Personal Styling many, many times. Now I just delight in giving it away freely! I simply love helping women nail their signature style.