Ida Clare, Start Where You Are!

One of the problems with being a know-it-all is that I don’t really know it all.  Unfortunately this becomes evident when I have to learn something new. 

And I don’t know about you but I don’t like being a beginner.  I have new Serif software I’m trying to learn and it is kicking my roundly comfortable butt out of my comfort zone.

Like Frank Sinatra in the iconic New York, New York song:

I want to wake up in that city
That doesn't sleep
And find I'm king of the hill
Top of the heap

Like that guy, I want to wake up knowing that I’m king of the learning curve and top of the software heap, but here in Big Thicket, it ain’t going that way.

So what I have to learn over and over again is to accept that with being a beginner, comes discomfort, not knowing, and imperfection.  If I can calm down and relax, I might also enjoy the process of learning something new.

A wiser person than me said, “Start where you are.”  Why in the world would I think I should know how to make that software do what I want with no instruction, no teacher or no advice from someone who has gone before me? 

Instead of listening to my diligent, persevering, inner student, I am listening to my whining, complaining, inner critic browbeat me because I’m not learning it fast enough, I’m not retaining what I’ve already learned, and since I’m not doing it perfectly, I shouldn’t just do it at all.

What my critic inspires me to do succumb to overwhelm and move right into being paralyzed and stuck.  No thanks!  I'll never get to the top of the heap from over there.  I have to start where I am: in the land of not knowing.
                                                . 
So today, I hope you will join me in starting where you are.  When you begin at the beginning, you get an opportunity to be teachable.  And I get the opportunity to not be a know-it-all.

Hugs,

And since I now have that song on my brain, here is the video.