‘Boldness has genius, power and magic in it’ (Goethe)

I saw this quote a while ago and it really struck me as I’d never thought of boldness having such qualities before and yet, now I think I might understand it a little more as at the weekend, I took a chance at being bold in my own small way.

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you may know that I’m a songwriter who has been in a few bands over the years and I’ve even released three albums, however, every gig I’ve ever played has always been with a band. Until Saturday night a few months ago, when I was at a friend’s party deep in the hills outside Granada. There was a simple sound system and a couple of guys playing acoustic guitars and it sounded perfect as the sun was setting. And then after being encouraged by friends, I thought why not play a couple of songs myself?

If not now, then when?

It was scary playing my first ever solo, albeit short, set of three songs, but I think it went really well. After my hands had stopped shaking at least, which can be quite a challenge when you’re playing the guitar. It had only taken me 3 hours of being at the party and 18 years since I started playing gigs.

Of course, in the big scheme of things, it’s not saving people’s lives or anything ‘significant’, but I faced my fears of never having done it before and so for me, it was my tiny bit of boldness and the confidence I have taken from the experience has emboldened me to try something else perhaps even bolder in future.

So if you could be as bold as you wanted to be to experience some of Goethe’s genius, power and magic, what would you do?