It upsets me sometimes that so many people stand back from what they really want to do because they don’t think they’re good enough, or don’t have the skills, or won’t ever be a great painter/swimmer/public speaker/writer/jewellery maker/jumper knitterer. So why bother.
But the more creative people I meet, the more I know this: rarely do you start out good at anything. You become it.
And not through anything particularly sloggish. But by just doing it.
Now. No run-up or special conditions.
And by getting messy. And being bad at it.
And while you’re getting good you fake it. You pretend you know what you’re doing, until you do.
Because it’s in the faking it – the role-playing – that you become it.
Take Michelangelo. His rivals persuaded Junius II to hire him to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. They knew Michelangelo didn’t use color and had never painted in fresco. They were sure he would turn down the commission because he’d be too scared to fail, or he’d accept and stuff it up. The former they’d use as proof of his lack of talent. The latter…well, the amateur results would show him up as a failure.
Michelangelo accepted the gig. And this is what happened.