Keep Practicing

You've probably heard the saying 'tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand'. This is true for all knowledge and training; doing the course is all well and good but you need to be involved in doing whatever it is to really understand and become skilled in something.
You've started your self-improvement and are doing a professional qualification. Now you need to 'do' the thing that you are learning for real, to get the necessary experience. If you are in a role and this is the training that will enable you to step up into that promotion it may be that your company will let you take on some or all of the responsibility for your new skill within their organisation. Whether you are going to get paid more or not, take the chance to grow yourself. Making yourself more valuable will pay you cash dividends in the end, if not immediately. If you are moving direction completely market yourself as a voluntary worker. If your new skill is to develop a website in WordPress, find someone that needs one and do it for them; no charge. The benefit to you is the experience you will gain; the benefit to them is the finished product. When you hand over the reins of the new site to it's rightful owner ask for a testimonial; see if you can get one both on email and posted on LinkedIn. The next one, charge a nominal amount and repeat the request for a testimonial at the end. When you have completed five, start charging a regular rate and possibly at that point you will be able to think about making your hobby into a business!? Never stop asking for testimonials.
Now add some persistence to the mix. Napoleon Hill lists it as one of the essential steps towards riches in his book 'Think and Grow Rich'. Having interviewed more than 500 successful people over a twenty year period, this was one of the defining characteristics of successful people, including; Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, Rockefeller and Thomas Edison. You may be familiar with the expression of it taking someone ten years to become an overnight success. He quotes a number of actors and singers during the early 1900's who gave their talents freely until someone snapped them up and offered them significantly large sums to perform in paid roles.
Couple persistence with experience in moving towards your dream and you will be successful too. Persevere to use your new skills. Keep offering them until someone accepts your offer and then build from there. Few people have achieved success without experiencing numerous setbacks. Harry Potter was rejected by twelve publishers before being published! Apple, Harrison Ford and Simon Cowell all have their own stories of making it, no matter how it seemed it was going to be otherwise at one point in time.
Remember; 'We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit ~ Aristotl
By Julie Holmwood