Stand up paddle boarding.
Wanted to like it. Seemed like I would like it. Peacefully gliding over a serene bay. But I was so so slow!
We tried it as a family in a group with guides. The guides had to keep trading off who would paddle with me the old lady in the rear.
A cleaning-my-house schedule.
I’ve tried cleaning a room a day. I’ve tried a laundry or vacuuming or (fill in the blank) a day. I never felt finished or that the whole house was clean. I tried dedicating one day a week to cleaning house and found reasons to put it off.
What works for me: my kitchen stays pristine. I do laundry as needed. And I have someone clean weekly. I live frugally in order to have that housekeeping and I’d give up even more before I’d call it quits.
I truly admire those of my friends who have immaculate houses kept that way by either themselves or themselves and spouse. I’m just not there.
Snorkeling/scuba-I tried it. I could do it. I just do NOT like it and have no intention of ever doing either again.
I could spend the whole day listing the things, mostly physical and requiring coordination, that I am not good at. But tell me to write 50 words or 250 characters about any topic? I’m your pro!
Oooh, this reminds me … I am absolutely awful in a canoe. I don’t know why I’m so bad at it, because I’m strong and flexible, but I guess being uncoordinated must be my issue.
Oh gosh I feel affirmed in seeing how many other people do not enjoy snorkeling! I grew up by the ocean and I love the water, but like others I do not enjoy keeping my head under water and trying to breathe through the equipment. And also not really comfortable being with the fish and other sea creatures.
Top of my list though is any kind of needlework and sewing. Just not my thing and zero interest in it.
Throwing a ball! I’m decently athletic but can’t throw a ball far at all. Put that ball in a lacrosse stick and no problem getting it across the yard or down the field.
I sing in my church choir and do fine vocally as part of a group, but ask me to sing on my own without accompaniment, and my pitch is all over the place. No solos for me!
And plus one for stand up paddle boarding - I kayak and I can do all the balance poses in yoga (have been taking a weekly class for 10 years) but for some reason I can’t get comfortable standing on that board!
I enjoy going to the driving range or playing on a par 3 with my S and H, but haven’t yet found my groove with golf. Will keep trying but I don’t get out enough to gain any consistency. On the other hand, I was invited to join a women’s Pickleball group, and took to that game immediately!
Your experience would have challenged me too. I tried standup paddle boarding in a lovely protected way. In Waikiki Beach, we could borrow hotel equipment to use in the ocean across the street. The key was that there was a seawall that essentially made a gigantic salt water swimming pool. No waves, everything at my own speed. Looking back, it’s probably the only way I could have managed.
Downhill skiing! Hate the cold chairlift (and getting on and off of it!) and I don’t like speed. Cross country skiing, however, is fun. Exercise in the quiet snow covered forest.
Oh me too. I’d love to play the piano well. I had an acquaintance in college who could just sit at a piano and make stuff up that sounded like rag-time, or Bach or Mozart or jazz. I took piano lessons in middle school never practiced enough and got up to book 6 or so of whatever series it was. I was pretty good at the Czerny book of practice exercises and the easy part of Für Elise. I took up piano again when my son was in 2nd grade and I had him doing piano lessons, I figure I would be a good role model and practice. I loved our teacher, she really worked at trying to develop my ear and learning to pick out tunes and figure out what chords to go with a melody. We did some improvising. It wasn’t just going through the books. But I was no good. My ear is truly terrible. Eventually I realized that I could put the time into practicing and get good enough to play Christmas Carols or I could put the same amount of time into practicing watercolors and get really good. I chose the latter with no regrets. My son switched to clarinet as soon as the school let him join band.
I took beginner skiing lessons every year or two without getting better too. It doesn’t help that I don’t really like going fast or being scared which is what happened every time I ended up on a blue slope. I do like cross country and snow shoes.
I grew up snorkeling in the Indian Ocean. I love it. So peaceful.
I never had any interest in golf, and mini-golf wasn’t much better. Amusingly the family all got VR headsets a while back and we have a great time playing virtual mini-golf with my son in England, my nephew in Houston, my SIL in DC and my BIL in CA. The “Walkabout Mini-golf” programs are incredibly clever (out on a station, in upside down world, in a haunted house, in Japan, in Myst…) I’m usually the lowest score, but it’s fun and you really feel like you are walking around with friends and family. (Though I’m not sure my family would say that when I changed my avatar to Grommet.)
Hmm…
Gymnastics: I recall the gymnastics unit in 6th grade in PE and I liked doing balance beam, but it took me weeks of significant effort and I still couldn’t do a hand stand. But it was my first recognition ever in PE, as I got something like “Most Effort,” and this was in the days before everyone got a prize.
Canoeing: Went canoeing on a lake and didn’t make it more than a few minutes before I got nauseous from the wake of motorized boats that would pass by. My poor spouse had to row us back to shore.
Needlepoint: Thought this would be fun and I hated having to count out the stitches. I’m not sure if I even got to 20 stitches, I hated it so much.
Crocheting: One spring break my sister and I decided to learn to crochet. She ended up making at least 80% of 3’ long caterpillar stuffed animal. After 3.5 hours of active time, I ended up making a 3” amoeba-shaped coaster (was originally trying to make a blanket).
Running: I can do sprints, but anything further and I am dying and it’s been that way ever since I was a kid.
Computer Science: Intro to CS for Majors, Honors kicked my butt. I was never prouder in my life to earn a “C” and I actually received a “B” because I’m sure they knew it was also my last CS class (and I had worked my tail off).
Initiative with physical activities: Signing up for physical activity classes or starting to go to the gym, etc. I might research possibilities and think of when to do it, but then I don’t actually follow-through and do them.
Procrastination/Laziness: Whether getting a book on how to draw or a Great Courses video on an activity or a painting kit or getting more serious about photography (beyond point & shoot)…all things that I’m interested in, but although I have the resources to do the activities, I just, don’t. I guess that goes back to the initiative thing.
As far as snorkeling, I’ve only tried it once, but I was nauseous from the boat ride, and the bobbing of the waves didn’t help me in the ocean while snorkeling. And I’ve never tried skiing, but I’m going to try for the first time in late winter when we go to Alaska. I’ve been focused on making sure we come back with all of our fingers and toes intact, but maybe I need to make sure we come home from skiing safely.
This is a fun question. I am really good at some things and really bad at others. The great thing is that ShawWife and I are really complementary (and usually complimentary too).
I am not good with things, by which I mean physical objects. I can’t build things, even with instructions. I can’t change bike tires (not so good at care tires either). I can’t do anything particularly well if it requires fine motor coordination (though I have a superpower of being to catch things when they are falling). I can’t organize physical objects very well. I’m hopelessly bad at packing a house (I used to be bad at packing for a trip but figured out a routine that works). I’m not great at cleaning. When we still used paper, I found it nearly impossible to clean my desk. It would pick up a piece of paper, read it, get an idea, put the paper down and start working on the idea. When I was a grad student living in a cooperative house, I needed to learn to cook well (one of my roommates had been a professional chef before coming to grad school) and so purchased cooking equipment, cookbooks, and ingredients in Chinatown in NY and became pretty good, in part because some aspects of Chinese cooking are like chemistry (if you fail to follow the order and timing for hot and sour soup, it can be pretty bad), but it takes me a long time to slice all of the ingredients with my Chinese cleaver. I’m generally not good at details. And, ShawWife owns the power tools. It is fun dealing with contractors and telling them to explain it to my wife as she will be in charge of construction decisions.
ShawWife and I say that she handles the visible (things) and I handle the invisible (planning, investments, insurance, travel, software, networks, etc.). There is some compensation for not being good with things: I’m unusually good at abstract conceptualization and my academic and consulting careers have been based upon this. As I grew a consulting firm, I have learned to be good with certain types of planning (not an easy skill for me) and hiring folks who take care of details for me. We never run out of stuff at home because it arrives at our house before the last one is empty. I even have found power tools that I think ShawWife would love and purchased them. I recently organized all aspects of a self-directed bike tour in France for an upcoming anniversary including finding a way to use miles to pay for our flights juggling dates to make that work, lined up all hotels, etc. – and awaiting us at home for when we pack are an extra pair of bike pants and cycling jersey for ShawWife and sleeves for both us (for when it is cold in the morning). Just don’t ask me to fix a flat or grease a bike chain.
I am terrible at any sport requiring hand/eye coordination. The thought of pickleball fills me with dread!
Piano. I hated practicing and even when I did practice, I was terrible at it. I begged my mom to let me quit, but she said that she wouldn’t let me quit music education any more than she would let me quit English or history classes.
So I proposed making a switch to the flute once band became an option in junior high. She agreed to that. I loved playing the flute and was very very good at it. I didn’t mind practicing it for sometimes hours a day. I’m so glad she was open to that compromise.
I am no good in water if I can’t touch the bottom with my feet. That said, I love to snorkel as long as I have all my gear (including a fully inflated snorkel vest & fully inflated swim buoy) with me, but there’s no way I will go under water.
I took surfing lessons once, and once was enough because that required core strength and arm strength (and balance) that I don’t have. And that whole going under water just is not for me.
I can’t ski moguls or black diamond routes but used to do the greens and blues. I really hate ski boots because I always get toe cramps and calf cramps, and it’s so expensive that I’m just done with skiing. We would go on ski vacations when the kid was little because H enjoys skiing and wanted to pass on that interest. Unfortunately for him, it’s not that fun for us.
Making small talk is a challenge for me. I can only do so much of it. I wish I were better with that skill.
So there are lots of things I’ve never tried and am pretty sure I’d suck at. Like I e never tried to ski, even though I’ve always wanted. I suspect I’d be terrible. I’ve always wanted to knit like my grandmother, or do something crafty, but again, have never tried. I’ve never tried yoga, would probably be bad.
But totally random thing that I’ve tried, over and over and I’m just terrible at? I can’t hang pictures straight. I can use all the tools, but somehow, I just can’t get it. In my office we aren’t allowed to use nails, everything is command strips. Every single thing I put up of the walls is off. And none of them are off the same way.
And to make it worse, I’m OCD enough that it really bothers me. But I can’t fix it. If I try, I make it worse. It’s so bad I just don’t look at my walls or I get twitchy.
Roller skating. I can’t balance myself over roller skates. Forget about roller blading.
Many people can roll their R’s when they speak. I can’t.
Roller skating is much harder than roller blading! Speak from my personal experience. 
Guess no roller derby is in our future 
!
Same. I have several pictures around the house that I adjust on the daily 
Another lousy skier here. H grew up in a warm, Mediterranean country, learned in his twenties, and loves it. He wanted me to love it, and so I learned at thirty. The setting was glamorous, St Moritz, and I did okay, but I was terrified every day. My little group of eight beginners and one instructor had dwindled to just me and the teacher by the end of the week. It was icy and hard to stop. Another newbie woman, a little older than I was, had a spectacular crash on the next to the last day that required ski patrol help to evacuate her. Yikes! I learned but had no desire to ski again.
Okay, so I have been since. H wanted the kids to learn young and be natural skiers. So they did and they are, and I went on those trips but every time insisted I was a beginner and started over.
Age of Aquarius, I think I am also bad at small talk.
I’m smart enough to know to never to try skiing. I’d tear or break something really bad within the first 30 minutes guaranteed. I have zero ankle mobility, mostly genetic/structural issue.
But re: yoga! If you want to try it, do so! You can always do home based workouts, so nobody has to see how good or bad you are. But I admit classes are more fun, though $$$. I went for several years once/week. Anything that required strength I was relatively good at (arm balances!), but anything that required flexibility? There were many poses, where I was easily the worst in the room. It’s all good. Nobody is supposed to be paying attention to anyone else and yoga is all about respecting where your body is at that moment in time. No judgement. Unfortunately, our studio closed about 6 years ago and I’ve fallen out of the habit.
Another thing I’m terrible at - hanging out with women. I got my hair cut yesterday, and all of the women were just chit chatting together, and I just can’t seem to get how that is an enjoyable activity. Most of the time I’m OK with this, but yesterday I felt like I was an alien from another planet.