My half-brother needs a new job, ASAP. My half-brother is also the biggest technophobe I have ever encountered, by far. It borders on a true phobia, and he has it in his head that he simply cannot learn anything related to computers, including how to word processing and email. At my insistence, he has gotten help from a workforce navigator at the public library, but rather than learning, he is simply dependent on them for almost everything. (Everything else is on me— you can guess who wrote and maintains his resume.)
Which brings me to my point: don’t become a victim of learned helplessness. We all have things we’re naturally better at and things that are more of a struggle. I’m not a giant technophile, either, but when a dear friend moved out of the US, I learned how to use WhatsApp and Signal to stay in touch with her. I have a strong preference for Zoom because I’m very familiar with it, but I have taken pains to learn to navigate Teams for places that favor it. Sure, there might be some cussing as I learn these new things that don’t come naturally to me, but since not learning them is not an option, I jump in and do what I can, with a reward for myself (see bit.ly/46Zx1FV) for when I make strides or get results.
These things have high potential to become self-fulfilling prophecies, too. If you’re convinced that you can’t learn a new tool, you probably can’t. If you know in your heart that you aren’t going to master a skill, you won’t. But the opposite is also true: if you know that, despite challenges, you are capable of succeeding, you will be.
How, then, can you convince yourself of your capabilities? Start by writing out a list of your successes, especially those that were extra difficult. Remember, as much as you possibly can, what it was like to take on this new challenge. What did you do when you got discouraged? What are some characteristics you relied on when you felt overwhelmed? How were your loved ones able to encourage you?
These lessons are things you can reuse or repurpose for the daunting task in front of you now. Did your old piano teacher praise you for learning a hard passage? Praise yourself when you make progress! Did you create a cheat-sheet for yourself with a new system? Try another one now! Did you own up after a mistake and learn from it? You can do that again!
I won’t tell you that these tips make it easy to overcome new challenges, but I promise they make it possible. You can do this!
Image credit: Jolyon Yates
