I create new things every day. I use the limited skills I have and make something new, piece by piece. Through perseverance and practice I’ve gotten better over time. I’m not perfect by any means. I’m working my way up into better things, expanding my skill set and training my brain. It’s amazing how much you can accomplish when you work at it every day. It doesn’t matter what it is, continuous effort and focus on improving will help build your skills over time.
Sometimes there are skills we just aren’t naturally proficient at. I cannot play a woodwind instrument. Any instrument that requires a reed (saxophone, clarinet, oboe) is beyond me. Drums I’m worse at. My tempo is pretty good but I can barely coordinate both my hands. Which is funny when you consider how much I write on a regular basis, how much wear and tear my keyboards get. I can’t shuffle cards. The whole thing with the thumbs and the brrrrt and there it is? Nope. Can’t do it. I’m crap at anything car related.
We have things we’re not good at but, if I put my mind to it and practiced every day, I could probably get reasonably good at any one of those things. I’m not proficient at them but I haven’t practiced and studied them either. I doubt I’d ever be a master mechanic, play in a philharmonic orchestra, or deal in Vegas. I doubt it but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t. My doubts override my abilities in those fields and I leave them to others. Literally, when I play cards other people shuffle. I’ve gotten to where I can shuffle a little but it’s not great.
Perseverance. Noun. “Steady persistence in a course of action especially in spite of difficulties.” I’m paraphrasing, of course. I write despite the fact that I don’t have a lot of time to. I work at things despite all the technical hurdles that crop up, the walls that jump out of nowhere. College work, art, music, filmmaking, writing, programming, engineering, mountain climbing. All these and more require perseverance to acquire greatness. All.
The Quick, Not The Dead 