Shoot for Magnificence

I’m looking at a couple of different things I’ve got going on at home, my self-review at work and helping my daughter with her science project (something for which neither of us has any enthusiasm), and although these things as well as many others in my life are thrown together in a slapdash way, they always come out okay. They’re not great, but they’re decent and they’re acceptable to other people.
This begs the question: What would I be capable of if I were really trying? I think great things. I also think the same applies to a lot of other people. So often we’re required to do things we don’t want to do and just make an effort to get past the problem. So I want to do something great and I want to do it deliberately.
There’s a school of thought which says that you’re not going to get greatness if you force it. I can understand this, but I also know that the truly magnificent things in this world weren’t created accidentally. Someone was shooting for magnificence. I want to create something incredible before I shuffle off, like an epic novel. I don’t necessarily want to tie myself up with an outline or anything, because I’ve always had trouble working from an outline, but maybe a real skeleton of a first draft to which I could add a lot in subsequent drafts. I’m going to get started.
By the way, if any of you out there have a lot of unfinished drafts hanging around, go finish them. Maybe they won’t turn out to be great art but you’ll get some experience in finishing things, not to mention writing. This all goes toward mastery of your craft. Stop reading now and get to work.