Learning to set up a website I could manage has been an eight year project! Eight years ago when my website got a facelift I had help. My oldest daughter (who is a graphic designer) designed my website and my son who is the tech geek uploaded it for me. They used Macromedia which was all the rage then. I loved my website, but alas, things need changing and updating.
My children were living their own lives and I felt it an imposition, or so I thought, to bug them for free help.
With this pandemic and nowhere to go, I decided this was as good a time as any and my year to learn.
I received the motivation I needed when I was trying to help a ninety year old woman navigate Zoom for her religious services. It was extremely hard, yes, even intimidating and overwhelming for her to learn, yet to me it was such a simple process. As I was thinking about her, it dawned on me that that was exactly how I felt learning how to set up a website, intimidated and overwhelmed!
In my twenties it was nothing for me to pick up on new technology, I would just make space in my brain to learn. The older you get, the harder it is to allocate brain space to learn something new, either because you don't want to or because of the fear that it will end up in failure. I told my friend I knew exactly how she felt but that both of us could take baby steps or, as M. C. Hammer sang, "Break it down!"
Well, I had time... Couldn't go anywhere, so I made space in my brain. YouTube helped tremendously. Some videos I had to watch up to 4 or 5 times but, guess what? I did it! I still have a long way to go and because I'm not a designer, my site will probably undergo many changes until it's where I want it.
However, the end result was that we both succeeded. My 90 year old friend learned to Zoom and I feel she will be zooming to other places. I learned the mechanics of a simple website. We both learned a skill that will be very useful in the future.
The take away is: you are never too old to learn.
The key is: make the space in your brain, then take baby steps.
How about you? Is there anything you've wanted to learn but you have held yourself back for various reasons (or excuses)?