When you can do something new, it really helps cultivate a desire to achieve. I think this happens because you start to see how you can improve from being horrible at something to being good at it, and as they say "success breeds success."
How can you not be positive in life when you can see with your own eyes that you can improve on something so much?
When I learn something, it reinforces the reality that I live in, which is one where I believe I can basically do anything as long as I work hard and keep my eyes open to opportunities around me. One of the minor things I've done over the last few months is learning to write with my left hand.
I got kind of annoyed by not knowing how to use a hand that I've had all my life. Also, when I got fatigued with writing with my right hand, I figured it would be practical to start writing with my left, sort of like a back up plan.
When I started, like most people, my left handed writing was horrible. I could barely even write the fricken alphabet. It would take me a very long time, and every line was so squiggly you'd think it was written by a 3 year old. I obviously couldn't just write with my left hand only or else I would never finish homework on time (or not be able to read it). So I would do it on and off at first. After awhile I could do more of it, although still very slow and quite messy.
I remember a turning point a few months later.
I returned back from a trip where I didn't write anything with either hand, and was taking a night class. I was writing with my left hand, not as messy as before although still about 3 times slower than my right, but something very strange happened. I would like to know if this only happened to me, but my head felt strange whenever I wrote. It felt awkward...like a very irritating itch, but obviously one that couldn't be scratched away. It was like my brain had for the first time in twenty some years re-wired itself such that it no longer viewed my left hand as being a foreign object. I was still quite bad at writing with my left, but I really think that at this moment something just changed neurologically.
Most believe that being left or right handed is something you were born with. I have read that people who are right handed predominantly use the left side of their brain to write, but people who are left handed use both sides of their brain to write. Many studies have also shown left handed people as being on average much more creative than the average right handed person. Some studies also show a slight (10%) higher average earning salary for left handers.
I think that is why my head felt weird when I was writing with my left hand. I wish there was some sort of cat scan on my brain that day just to see what was happening. Anyway, I don't know if I'm ambidextrous right now, because I still prefer my right hand. As dexteric as I may be, I'm still about twice as slow with my left, although it has become much more neat.
One thing I want to say though, is that for me, the learning curve for drawing was much quicker. Within a month I could basically draw as well on my left hand, probably because drawing is all about visualization. When I draw, I tend to have a very sketch like style where I go over lines over and over again, so it doesn't matter if the precision is off by a little bit. Writing words requires precision that isn't needed in drawing. Have you ever noticed how people who are good at art almost always have terrible writing and yet many people who write very neat are horrible at art?
This was just a small example of learning something. I am in the process of learning animation, and in the future I plan on learning languages, work out more, and so on. My lifestyle is very forward looking and optimistic.
How can you not be positive in life when you can see with your own eyes that you can improve on something so much?
When I learn something, it reinforces the reality that I live in, which is one where I believe I can basically do anything as long as I work hard and keep my eyes open to opportunities around me. One of the minor things I've done over the last few months is learning to write with my left hand.
I got kind of annoyed by not knowing how to use a hand that I've had all my life. Also, when I got fatigued with writing with my right hand, I figured it would be practical to start writing with my left, sort of like a back up plan.
When I started, like most people, my left handed writing was horrible. I could barely even write the fricken alphabet. It would take me a very long time, and every line was so squiggly you'd think it was written by a 3 year old. I obviously couldn't just write with my left hand only or else I would never finish homework on time (or not be able to read it). So I would do it on and off at first. After awhile I could do more of it, although still very slow and quite messy.
I remember a turning point a few months later.
I returned back from a trip where I didn't write anything with either hand, and was taking a night class. I was writing with my left hand, not as messy as before although still about 3 times slower than my right, but something very strange happened. I would like to know if this only happened to me, but my head felt strange whenever I wrote. It felt awkward...like a very irritating itch, but obviously one that couldn't be scratched away. It was like my brain had for the first time in twenty some years re-wired itself such that it no longer viewed my left hand as being a foreign object. I was still quite bad at writing with my left, but I really think that at this moment something just changed neurologically.
Most believe that being left or right handed is something you were born with. I have read that people who are right handed predominantly use the left side of their brain to write, but people who are left handed use both sides of their brain to write. Many studies have also shown left handed people as being on average much more creative than the average right handed person. Some studies also show a slight (10%) higher average earning salary for left handers.
I think that is why my head felt weird when I was writing with my left hand. I wish there was some sort of cat scan on my brain that day just to see what was happening. Anyway, I don't know if I'm ambidextrous right now, because I still prefer my right hand. As dexteric as I may be, I'm still about twice as slow with my left, although it has become much more neat.
One thing I want to say though, is that for me, the learning curve for drawing was much quicker. Within a month I could basically draw as well on my left hand, probably because drawing is all about visualization. When I draw, I tend to have a very sketch like style where I go over lines over and over again, so it doesn't matter if the precision is off by a little bit. Writing words requires precision that isn't needed in drawing. Have you ever noticed how people who are good at art almost always have terrible writing and yet many people who write very neat are horrible at art?
This was just a small example of learning something. I am in the process of learning animation, and in the future I plan on learning languages, work out more, and so on. My lifestyle is very forward looking and optimistic.
1 comment:
I was born left-handed and, as you can imagine, I do most of the things with my left hand. Apart from writing and eating, as I broke my left-hand while I was in the first years in school, when pupils learn how to write and I had to eat something still. Also, because of the same accident, I play tennis with my left-hand, but basketball with my right. I used to write my name backwards when I was litle and my parents taught me several basic things.
As you can imagine, I am now trying to write with my left hand again (after 16 years), especially because I work a lot on the computer and most of the time, I have to let go of the mouse in order to write something (I use the mouse with my write hand as it came a bit evident when I first tried it). A little suggestion: try do some other things as well with your left hand. For example, try eating; the position we use when holding the fork or the spoon is very similar to the writing position. In addition, you may want to work out your wrist and your tendons for a while, as, you being right handed, the muscles from the left-hand are not as accurate and powerful.
Anyways, good luck and hope you'll do better vevry soon ;)
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