I recorded another episode of my podcast last night, and the guest gave me such an inspiring speech that I almost wanted to release the episode straight away. I won’t, for fear of all the coughing and dad jokes (it will follow soon enough) but the words are still ringing in my head.

How you master your craft is to just get on and do it. We spoke specifically about writing and all the crap that goes on around it, but it could easily be applicable to any other art form you choose. You simply can’t become good at something without practicing and just keeping your head down and moving forward.

A while ago, I came to the realisation that there are no shortcuts to being a good photographer. Much like sitting in the chair, you just need to get out and take photos. You don’t need fancy glass, a new camera or anything else. It doesn’t matter where you share the images, pick Glass, or Instagram, or send them out my email if it suits you. If you want to take good pictures, you have to take pictures, and lots of them.

In writing terms, it simply doesn’t matter what blogging platform you use, what newsletter you decide to do, nor what computer you choose to do it on. If that is what you aim to do, and be good at it, you just need to keep on doing it. Consistently. Constantly, and not worry about anything else. If this doesn’t sound appealing to you, perhaps whatever it is that you are trying to do isn’t that important to you after all.

Spending money doesn’t make you good at something. The equipment you use doesn’t make you good at something. The way you look doesn’t make you good at something. Only you make you good at something, and it’s time to get on and do it.