In this day and age, it’s quite easy to do just about anything that you want to do. As a matter of fact, it’s easier to do things than not to do them. And even better, there are so many measures in place to help start you out, teaching you how to run them. Easy and straight to the point. If one teacher isn’t good enough, you switch and get someone else. It’s literally as easy as clicking a link on a social media platform.
As in, if you don’t want to learn something, you have to go out of your way to avoid it. The other day, I talked about how whenever I try to train my social media algorithm to stop sending red pill content my way, I still get it every few days. Still, no matter what I do, I have to work really hard to clean my feed of that form of content. In the same way, educational content will also come to you. They’ll keep coming, and you’ll either take advantage of them or you will simply go out of your way to avoid them.
What’s inspiring this post? So, a friend reached out to me that she needed my help with some graphic designs. Yeah, imagine my shock. I’m not a graphic designer, so why would you come to me? I don’t think I’ve ever promoted myself as a professional graphics designer. However, she said she knew all that, but she needed my help. Her assumption was that since I used a laptop, I would have access to more software that would aid the graphic design process.
I laughed. Having access doesn’t equate to usefulness. If I have all the designing software installed on my PC, if the PC itself was optimized for the most advanced form of graphics and video editing, it would still mean nothing at all if I didn’t know how to use them. They would simply be useless to me. The only graphics design software I have is Canva, and that’s what I use for my thumbnails. Any other thing, I’d have to call a professional.
So, I simply told her to try using Canva. The job she was asking for looked complex, and seeing how she needed it for a business, it was best that she employed someone who knew what they were doing. But that was actually the problem. She was looking for a favor, she needed the design, but she didn’t want to pay for it. Well, in that case, do it yourself! That’s the thing, she didn’t want to. She didn’t think she could do it.
If it were for my own business and I didn’t want to hire a professional, I would have learned how to do it. It might not be the best design out there, but it will very well be good enough. I’ve learned how to use social media to source whatever kind of information or content that I want. Thanks to Hive, I’ve gotten way better at creating thumbnails on Canva, and that has also helped me to learn the vast capabilities of the app. Where did I learn it? Online.
This year, I decided to also begin my content creation journey, making videos telling my stories across the platforms. I didn’t know anything about video editing then. But only a few months in, and now people are saying I’m like an expert at Capcut Pro and even asking me to teach them because of how immersive my videos can be. How did I learn it? The majority of it all was gotten online, and a little bit from my baby sister, lol. She started using the app way before I developed an interest.
I find it disheartening when you offer to teach people something, or give them tools that will teach them, and they’ll simply say they can’t ever know that thing, just because they want you to do it for them. A guy once told me that he couldn’t ever understand the mechanics of video editing, it was just too complex for him, and he couldn’t be bothered. Yet, he wanted to be a content creator. For a starter, will he always be able to pay a professional? Eventually, he would have to do certain things himself.
I’ve always said that most of our limitations simply exist in our heads. The things we can or cannot do are simply because we choose to accept that we can or cannot do them. There is no other way to do that. Once you accept that you can’t do something, you’ll do anything and everything to keep up that belief, and even fight anyone who tries to force you to test yourself. This is why it’s always encouraged to never say never, because you can’t really know when you’ll learn something new.
Stop dismissing yourself even before you’ve gotten into the ring. You’re not doing yourself any good.
