For the last week and a half I’ve been totally stressed out about something I needed to do for a client. It was very technical and just outside my reach, I thought. Very technical, very jargon-based, etc. So I looked at it a little, I talked to a couple people who should know more than me, I contacted technical support, and I stressed. Today, I took the plunge, logged in and really looked at what I needed to do. And you know what? 10 minutes later it was done and I knew it had been done correctly.
So what? Well, I’m not the only one who goes through this. Sometimes when something feels daunting, the right answer is to just try. Make sure you don’t have anything that could really screw you up first (for instance, back up the source code before you start editing – learned that one a long time ago) and then go to town.
What I also learned is those “experts” I consulted used jargon because they didn’t know it well enough to say things in plain English. So if someone throws out a lot of jargon, ask them to explain and if they can’t, they aren’t really an expert. Also, trust yourself. You know a lot more than you give yourself credit.
Next time I will try it. After all, how else do you learn?
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