Meeting the Challenge

Why has it taken me three months to respond to Kristan’s lovely invitation, overcome my fear, and become a blogger here?

• Fear of technology.
• Fear of glitches.
• Fear of the unknown.

I love technology, but it scares me. Change scares me. The unknown scares me. Glitches with no solution scare me. And beneath all that, the fear of looking like a fool scares me. I’m working on overcoming all of this.

Machines always seem to have a mind of their own. I don’t control them. I can’t even ask them what’s wrong, what they need, or why they won’t cooperate.

So I put the blog for Inspire Me Today on a back burner, even though people have been urging me to blog for years. I procrastinated. The lure of more readers was tiny compared to my fears. What if the “submit” button was missing or the directions included technical jargon that I could not decode?

I was afraid of failing. I was afraid of making a mistake and looking stupid, a fear that should have dissolved at least forty years ago.

I crossed one item after another off of my “to-do” list while I ignored “Blog for Inspire Me Today.” I let my conscience nag at me. Finally on Friday, January 13, 2012, I told myself to give blogging an hour. Find out what the problems are, I said as I finished my morning journaling. Once you know what you’re up against, you can ask for help.

I keep getting better and better at asking for help because I’m surrounded by friends who do that. My boyfriend trouble-shoots. He’s always on the phone answering questions and assigning jobs. A neighbor, who is a research librarian, helps college students find information efficiently. Sales clerks answer questions, bag boys carry groceries to the car, and the clerks at Starbuck’s know me as the woman who wants half-caf—half decaf. We are here to help each other, but no one can help until I dig into a task and identify problems.

Kristan, thanks for keeping the opportunity open while I found the time and the courage to take up blogging.  If this goes through, I’m living proof that blogging is fun, entertaining, and sometimes even inspiring.

Conquering one challenge always give me the courage to try another. Are you the same way? What challenges have you faced recently and what have you done about them? Write back and let me know, okay? I’d love to know how the readers here are meeting and conquering challenges, so please share. Thanks!

Photo Credit: Max Elman