Practice... lots of fucking practice

I'm thinking about careers in art at the moment. It's really a tough thing to consider because while I've wanted to study art for over a decade now, I've always been a little too chicken shit to give it a real chance. Back in the college years I was faced with a choice, I had narrowed down my major to two possibilities: art and philosophy. In the end philosophy won out because I figured that art was something I could teach myself. Perhaps I am right to some extent? I don't know, but while I don't regret the decision to study philosophy, I sometimes feel that a career in art may have been somewhat easier to persue when I was younger and had more drive.
On the other hand, I do have a BA. I've considered graduate schools on a couple of occassions but my grades have kept me out. The irony is so palpable it hurts. So I've continued to tumble down the road of life without really doing to much to stear myself and I am having a hard time mustering up the courage to change all that. Like a fool I keep waiting for something to happen that will equate to some epiphany, some sign that there is something on this earth that I was meant to do.
But I'm now starting to learn that you have to take risks in order to succeed, you have to be able to fail to make progress. I'm certainly not at the end of my rope, but I would like to know what's going on a little bit further up.