Said by Billy Jean King...

... "Be bold! If you're gonna make a mistake, make it a doozy!"

That's always been one of my favorite quotes & I use it a lot when encouraging the ringers under my baton, or my students, or whoever I'm trying to encourage at the moment.

My husband is a photographer. Not a professional one (yet), but definitely an above-average hobbyist. He's got fancy equipment & is creative, so he really enjoys taking pictures (LOTS of pictures).

Today, he sent me a link to this article which, despite the title, is Safe For Work. I enjoyed the entire article, but wanted to call out one part in particular:

Nobody likes feeling like a noob, especially when you're getting constant pressure on all sides to never stick out in an unflattering way. And, in this godforsaken just-add-Wikipedia era of make-believe insight and instant expertise, it's natural to start believing you must never suck at anything or admit to knowing less than everything — even when you're just starting out. Clarinets should never squawk, sketch lines should never be visible, and dictionaries are just big, dumb books of words for cheaters and fancy people. Right?

I think finding your own comfort with the process (whatever that process ends up being) might just be the whole game here — being willing to put in your time, learn the craft, and never lose the courageousness to be caught in the middle of making something you care about, even when it might be shit and you might look like an idiot fumbling to make it. What's the worst thing that could happen?

That really is my philosophy on my career as a handbell solo artist in a nutshell. I've made lots of mistakes - my first public recital here in the Bay Area was pretty much a total disaster of the Epic Fail variety - but I perservered and now feel like I actually have a handle on things.

This is NOT to say that I don't recognize areas of potential improvement. (Oh, how I do!) What I'm saying is that, if you live your life in fear of failure, you will fail simply because you never try anything new. I know I'll improve - because I keep at it, despite the odds, despite the knowledge that it would just be easier to give up and play "safe" music instead of being all pioneer-ish and "pushing the envelope" and all that jazz.

But really, where's the fun in that? ;-)

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