Being a Newbie

Starting this blog as the Boomers’ Social Media Tutor has forced me to learn a lot. Sure, I can write, but the rest of the process has frankly been rather intimidating. Each night I promise myself I will actually figure out the logistics of the posting process. Then I find something else to do instead. Something I know how to do, like cruise around on Facebook or work a crossword puzzle.

Being that my role as a social media tutor is helping the newbies to Facebook and LinkedIn (and other social media sites once I figure them out), I find myself identifying more with my clients. It can be so frustrating to be in that learning curve that you want to quit. We tell ourselves that we really didn’t need to learn that new skill anyway.

Yet there’s a part of us that yearns to be proficient in whatever new endeavor is calling to us. Maybe it’s learning a new language, a new sport, or a new craft. We see others who have mastered what we seek to master, and we wistfully watch from the sidelines.

Finally, we decide that we truly want to learn that language, sport, craft or whatever it is that speaks to us. Even though our first attempts are like a baby’s first attempts at walking, we pick ourselves up and try again, accepting that only time and practice will result in mastery.

Finally, on a Sunday morning, I forced myself to sit down and start by writing a second posting, which is this one on being a newbie. Then I started to follow the basic instructors from Marie Leslie (of Marie Leslie Media) who is my blog guru along with being my web designer.

I am willing now to take those first stumbling steps. I feel like the toddler who has taken the hand of my older sister who is patiently walking me through what to do new.

How do you break through your resistance to learning and actually take those first tentative steps? Who do you turn to for help? Is it a person, a book, a website, or just your own inner wisdom?

I know that as I learn more from my blog readers about how they approach learning something new, that I can do a better job of helping people get more comfortable with the social media sites they seek to understand and use effectively.