This year, I’ve decided that I need to challenge myself by learning new things. I’ve never had a problem with learning new things that are DIY-related. I love trying out those new things, whether it’s a new tool or a new process. Home-related DIY is my passion, so learning new things in that area is just good fun to me, even when I make mistakes. Those mistakes help me to grow and expand my DIY skills, and while some mistakes do frustrate me along the way, the overall challenge of DIYing and learning new things excites me.
But in other areas, I resist learning new things at all costs. I’ve been blogging for 17 years now, and while others have expanded into other things (mainly “influencing” and making videos), I decided long ago that I’d just stick with blogging. The written word and still photos are my jam. I love the process of sitting down and writing down my thoughts, writing instructions for DIY projects, etc. There’s something very cathartic about this process that I’ve been doing almost every weekday morning for the last seventeen years.
And yet, when I personally want to learn something new, I don’t go to blogs or websites. In fact, I avoid written instructions at all costs. Instead, I go to YouTube. I personally learn from videos much easier than I learn from written instructions.
In fact, it’s a joke in our family (because we all seem to have that problem) that written instructions are useless. It’s been a running joke all of my adult life that when I purchase something that needs to be assembled, I get everything out of the box, assess the project, and give it my best effort. Only if it doesn’t work out the first time (or actually, the fifth or sixth time), or if I run into trouble that I just simply can’t figure out no matter how much effort I put into it, do I finally get the instructions out of the box and peruse them just enough to find out what I did wrong. But I don’t think I’ve ever read a set of instructions through, from beginning to end, for any item I’ve ever purchased. I’m a “figure it out yourself” kind of person. Written instructions are just there as a backup when all else fails after several attempts.
But if a video is available, I’ll watch that. If the packaging of the item I’ve purchased comes with a link or a QR code to a video showing how to put the item together, I’ll always make use of that. Videos are how I learn best. If I can see someone else doing something, I can learn it very quickly.
I’ve made videos in the past, but they’ve been sporadic. One of the reasons is that I’m an old dog, set in my way. For seventeen years, I’ve been doing projects, taking pictures of the process, and sharing those pictures and instructions. Going from that to actually taking videos of the process seems so foreign to me. Forcing myself (and reminding myself) to take videos completely messes up my workflow that I’ve worked on perfecting for seventeen years now. Plus, when I try to take videos, I notice that I forget to take photos of the process, so then I find myself at the end of a project without the necessary photos to document the process.
Plus, finding the perfect video editing software to use, and then spending hours and hours learning all the ins and outs of that program, seems like time that I could be spending (and would rather spend) on actually making and building things.
So here we are at the start of a new year, and that always motivates me to make changes. Last year, I made a huge personal change (the no sugar thing, which I plan to continue this year in a modified, not-quite-so-strict manner), and I did really well with it throughout the year until we got to December. In January of last year, I dreaded making that decision. It actually made me panic a bit to make that resolution and put it out there into the world for other people to see, but I challenged myself and made myself do it. So this year, I decided that my new personal challenge for the year would be to push myself to grow and expand my knowledge in how I share information. I’ve chosen two different things that I want to learn and grow in this year, starting with making videos.
We’ve had really cold, wet weather for the last few days, so this was the perfect opportunity for me to spend hours on end at my desk and force myself to learn new things. I wanted to start with video editing. I purchased Adobe Premier Pro, and I’ve spent the last three days trying to learn that program. The basics were easy, but that program can do so much! That’s a good thing, but those extras have a pretty steep learning curve. But as of last night, I’ve finally finished my very first video. And by the time it was finished, I felt like I had a pretty good grasp of the program (the basics, at least), so I don’t feel like giving up. I feel excited about doing more.
This first video isn’t great, but it’s a start. And just like learning how to use a new DIY tool or process, I know I’ll get better as I do more. Trust me, I wanted to give up two days ago. There were little things that I just couldn’t figure out. But you know what I did? I went to YouTube to find out how to do them. 😀 So the fact that I keep going back to YouTube means that I need to keep pressing forward in learning this stuff. I don’t love it, and when it gets really challenging, I’d much rather give up and go work on a DIY project for my workshop or our bedroom. But part of being an adult is forcing ourselves to do not only the things that we love, but also the things that we don’t like but are necessary.
I mentioned two things I want to learn this year, and taking videos and editing them with Adobe Premier Pro is just the first one. I’ve also purchased a course to help me learn the basics of using Sketchup, which is a program that is used to draw illustrations, project plans, and so much more. I’ve dabbled in Sketchup in the past, but ended up getting frustrated, and always resorted to going back to my old ways of doing hand-drawn sketches of rooms and projects that I wanted to build. But I’m determined that this is the year. The time is now to expand my knowledge, to press myself to learn new things, and to not give up when things don’t immediately work out perfectly. My first goal with Sketchup is to do a detailed drawing of the layout of my walk-in closet before I actually start building out that room.
So really, this is my personal New Years resolution for 2025, even though it’s business- and blog-related. It’s very much a personal goal to make this a year when I push myself beyond my comfort zone, do the hard things, and learn new skills, no matter how frustrating the learning curve can (and will) be. I don’t want to be an old dog who refuses to learn new tricks. No matter my age, I want to keep learning, expanding, growing, and challenging myself. I’m thankful that our awful weather these last few days has given me the perfect opportunity to start on this journey.
And with that said, here’s my first video of 2025. Again, I have so much to learn, not only when it comes to editing videos, but also when it comes to actually videoing the process of my projects. I have a ton to learn this year, but we all have to start somewhere, right? It’ll be fun to look back on this first video at the end of the year and see how (or if) I’ve improved in my skills of videoing and editing videos. But this is a starting point.
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
