Once upon a time I had a deviantart

... And there weren't many things on it.  See why?  I've never been particularly skilled at visual art.  I'm a good musician, I'm a mediocre writer, and I'm a lousy painter.  That's okay, though. Everybody has their skills and their weaknesses.

Yet, I want to be skilled at everything.  Chances are you, the reader, do too.  Nobody wants to be bad at something (maybe not entirely true.  I'm a bad liar and I don't really mind that).  At the same time,  you don't want to wind up a jack of all trades and master of none.  That's why it is important to really work hard at one or two things.  The rest you can dabble with in your free time.  

When you want to really get good at something, you have to put a lot of work in.  Don't be fooled by these guys that have innate ability and claim to never practice.  They do.  Once you get good at it, it will stop feeling like practice.  Take the guy who comes home from work every day and fools around with his guitar while he has a few beers.  He doesn't think he is practicing, but he is. He will be slightly better at the end.  So if you're good at something, keep doing it.  Never tell yourself that you don't have to practice.

It's also important to decide what you really want to get good at.  How will it help you?  I've done considerable amounts of reading and can recite a seemingly endless amount of facts about popular music from the last 70 years or so.  But what good is that going to do me?  If vh1 brings back rock and roll Jeopardy, I'll be set.  If not, oh well.  I'd much rather be fluent in French and German.  That would actually be useful.  The things that you master must be balanced between your passions and practicality.  This balance will yield the best usefulness for your skill.  If you are torn, you should listen to your passionate side.  This is where the real drive to master a skill comes from.  If you really want to, you can find purpose for anything.  I could become a music history teacher if I really wanted to.

Dabbling is necessary as well.  You don't want to get burned out on things.  Taking some time to goof around may be just the thing you need, especially if you are finding yourself at a wall in your skill mastering.  I think, this weekend, I'll dig out my art supplies and look at some of the stuff I made.  Maybe I'll even update my deviantart.  Is that even still a thing anymore?