I believe firmly that everyone should have three outlets for the stress in their lives: Something physical, something creative, and something they're really really bad at. For me, those three things have changed throughout the years but have most consistently been climbing or martial arts, storytelling, and video games or bowling. I recently re-experienced bowling with my girlfriend and my best childhood friend and it was probably the most fun I've had with a group of people (I know, I know, but two people is a lot for me) in a long time. It also served to remind me just how important it is to do something you're truly terrible at everyone once and a while.

The reason for a physical outlet is pretty obvious: It's an extremely effective means of relieving stress, anxiety, and anger and it keeps you fit. Anytime I exercise for stress relief I find it so much easier to motivate myself to do it, and by that token, I manage to keep myself in shape a lot easier (assuming my life is particularly stressful, I suppose). So you're killing two birds with one stone: keeping fit and relieving stress. The creative outlet, to me, works as sort of the mental and emotional counterpart to exercise. It's the medium through which I can not only work out issues I'm dealing with at the time but keep myself sharp and well-sorted both in mind and spirit.

So now that we've talked about the obvious outlets, we come to the question you've clearly been attempting to ask me through your computer screen: Why on Earth should I do something I'm bad at? After all, we're taught that being bad at things is bad, and letting people see you do that can be embarrassing and even upsetting at times. Here's the thing, though, nothing positive ever really truly comes without some kind of counterbalance. So you've got your physical and creative outlets and those are great, they help you to relax while also improving you in general; what's the downside? I've found that if I spend too much time with these outlets, especially in my case with storytelling, I begin to take myself far too seriously. In a way, I become more rigid, and because of that more fragile. I'm adding to the list of stressors the more seriously I take myself, and things can get pretty difficult after only a brief period of time if I'm at a particularly stressful stage in my life.

Doing something you're bad at, especially with a group of friends who are all equally as bad (for example, the high score among the three of us all day was 72) is one of the best ways to counteract the results of too much of the other two outlets: it helps remind you to not take yourself too seriously. Sure, it can be tough to bring yourself to do it, and if you aren't keeping the right mindset it can even make things worse for you, but keep an open mind and a good attitude and it'll do wonders for you. Promise.