By doing it, the thing that you dream of doing, you give yourself a huge competitive advantage at succeeding at it.
Since the age of six I wanted to write. My favourite assignments at school were creative writing exercises. Not that I did all that well; I tried to impress my teachers with how clever I was and that never makes for good writing. And, in time, I didn’t think I was good enough to write anything of any consequence. So, I did anything that felt close to writing, but never made sure I never wrote. Cooking, advertising, marketing, TV editing, philosophy, all of it had a creative slant, but none of them required me drafting an imaginative story. Oh, and I talked about writing. I talked about it endlessly, telling anyone who’d listen how I was going to write a novel. And some nights, usually when I was drunk, I would write the first paragraph of my novel. A hundred words. The next morning I’d wake up, read it, and give up. Go back to pretending that I would do it one day.
Doing it, requires you to do that thing.
The only way a novel gets written is by sitting down and putting the words down. Painting requires taking paint and putting it on a canvas. Making a film requires filming people and pulling it together into a story.
And, as soon as you do it, as soon as you start, you’ll instantly be miles ahead of where you were, and be miles ahead of everyone else who’s still talking about doing that thing you’re doing.
Don’t worry if you’re rubbish, if what you make stinks. Just do, and then do more, and then do even more. And, if you do it for long enough, you might make something good.
That what it takes.
Doing it is hard. That’s why everyone else is still talking about it, or doing courses on it, or asking their friends about it.
But if you want it, if you genuinely want it, at some point you have to start doing it.
Thanks.