Craft
Its easy to look at an artist and see how much natural talent they have and get jealous. You never see the years of blood sweat and tears it takes to become and expert. You don’t see the sacrifice it takes, and that is part of the marketing. It’s easy to see a star having an amazing life, but you NEVER see the work it takes to get there. Getting good, and I mean REALLY good at something takes years of dedication. Honestly most people don’t have the stomach. And as long as you can get a pizza delivered to your house and TV to your screens there is not much motivation. Honing your craft is both physically and emotionally painful. Emotionally because you have to constantly and honestly pick apart your work to see what sucks about it, and trust me something ALWAYS sucks about it. Take this commercial http://youtu.be/vsjjl8UGjkA I did the audio for a few years back, there are STILL things that bug me about it, no one but me catches them. It made me better going forward however because I was honest about what sucks.
But what do you really want in life? When you are gone does all the TV you watched matter? Certainly the relationships you had do, if they are meaningful. Crappy friends can sure drain your life away. But when you create something, you leave a legacy. If it is a business or art (or both) it matters. Spend ten minutes a day on your craft, write a little, compose a little. Whatever spare seconds you have. That is in fact the only reason I write these blog posts. Because I SUCK at writing, I constantly misspell words, I get grammar and tense wrong ALL THE TIME. But if I never practice, I will never get better. I don’t think I will ever be a Hemingway, but I certainly can improve. So it is a very selfish exercise. It surprised me to see how people read these, so thanks! And I can promise that the bad grammar will continue but hopefully the thoughts, intent is good and thanks for taking the ride with me!
“At one time I thought the most important thing was talent. I think now that — the young man or the young woman must possess or teach himself, train himself, in infinite patience, which is to try and to try and to try until it comes right. He must train himself in ruthless intolerance. That is, to throw away anything that is false no matter how much he might love that page or that paragraph. The most important thing is insight, that is … curiosity to wonder, to mull, and to muse why it is that man does what he does. And if you have that, then I don’t think the talent makes much difference, whether you’ve got that or not.” William Faulkner