Originally posted on Facebook HERE
Welcome to another weekly edition of “Looking Out My Back Window”. This is the 181st week, well over three years now. I greatly appreciate all the love and support since I started. Today, as always – my mind is all over the place, I have a lot to get done, a busy schedule at work tomorrow, Packer game to prepare for tonight (yes, I actually prepare for the games. There’s a ritual). And in the midst of it all I’m trying to learn something new. How do you feel about learning new things? I guess it depends on what it is and maybe even who you’re with, but in general if I’m going to learn something new my mind seems to think I should know everything about it the second I get going, and anything that messes with that mindset can be extremely frustrating. Even when I’m going in knowing nothing at all, I think I should just know instinctively how to do it all, or pick it up immediately. So – over the past year I’m trying to understand how to make decent quality videos for my YouTube page. This can involve many different paths, many varying opinions, and countless ways to proceed. There’s different audio and video software, there’s different cameras and microphones, there’s different ways to get the video and audio feeds to the software, and once you figure out how to do that you actually have to learn how to use whatever software programs you landed on as well. It’s a painfully slow process as I’m trying to get all that done in my “free” time, and there can be weeks, even months in between sessions – so once I’ve figured out how to do something, six months later when I want to do that again – I’ve totally forgotten how I did it, and have to spend another thirty plus minutes trying to figure it out again – ugh. Learning new things can be extremely frustrating. It’s also a good way to check your emotions. At some point, well – take yesterday for example. I had this idea to start a new “three minute review” segment for my DaveOnBass YouTube page. In my mind, I had used the video software before, and I would start by just doing videos using my iPhone to make it easy. I made ten videos. Then I figured no big deal editing and posting all ten of them, right? I have used the software before (last time was six months ago). Ugh. Problems, problems, problems. One thing they might not tell you about when you use a program like that is if you have a lot of other stuff open at the same time it can effect the playback through latency, but I digress. I got one video posted yesterday. But I learned a lot about the proper way to do things. And I learned even more today as I needed to add Picture in Picture to a post. That took a while to figure out, too. It’s easy to forget all the work we put in to get to where we are with the things we do on a daily basis, right? Riding a bike, driving a car, using the internet, playing an instrument, learning to read, write, do arithmetic, etc., etc., etc.. all took time. And now it’s all second nature. I think learning new things keeps us sharp, so as frustrating as it can be I accept that challenge and when it’s something I really want to learn I’ll try to learn everything I can about it and become an expert. Which means dealing with the process to get there. I’m working on learning how to love the process as well, and walk away when I get stuck on something. So often a break can help you revisit with fresh eyes and ears, and yesterday’s frustration can be today’s challenge overcome. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, so why not take a step today and learn something new? Expanded horizons are always a good thing, but nothing worthwhile ever comes easily. Expect frustrations along the way 🙂
