Written by: Tom Sawyer

Sssshhhh!  I have a secret to tell you, but you have to keep it quiet.  After I tell you this you can’t tell anyone.  No, really it would be better if you told EVERYONE so they may know this super secret.  Are you ready?  Here we go – hold on to your seat because this is going to blow your mind…really blow your mind.

Computer technology, things like taking your computer apart, installing software, configuring software, adding peripherals (printers, cordless keyboards, etc.) and other things dealing with your desktop or laptop isn’t all that difficult.  Additionally, if you have to get on the internet to pay bills, set up a service or even design your very own page, it is not above your level of learning.  I can’t absolutely guarantee this, but I’m almost certain you can learn to do these things without too much sweat.  I’m going to tell you how in three easy steps that will not cost you anything.

1.  Adjust your mindset.

I don’t like to hear people purposely talk above someone’s head and people in the Information Technology (IT) field have a bad habit of doing this.  Sometimes I think the goal is to keep people intimidated by IT and keep the money rolling in.  Sure, the “professionals” will be able to do most things faster and more efficiently and that should be the case because they work with IT everyday.  But don’t be fooled into thinking you must depend on IT “professionals” to do everything you need.  As long as IT is uncomfortable for you, it will cost you more money to use.  This doesn’t even take the level of frustration you feel.  I know this to be fact because I have been there.

Stay positive, know that you can do this.  From “Positive Mindset…the Keys to Success”: Winners don’t seem to be any more intelligent than losers, nor do they seem to be any better educated.  Social status doesn’t seem to be a factor either.  When you come right down to it, the profile of the average winner and the average loser is the same….except for one thing.  Winners have a positive mindset….losers are, almost without exception, negative people.

Just think like a winner.

2.  Use your best friend.

You know who your best friend is right?  I bet you don’t.  When you are on your computer, your best friend isn’t Bill, Susan, Mark or Lisa.  Your best friend, when you are on your computer, is Google!  You can ask Google almost anything and it will always have an answer for you.  Try to ask Google a question just like you would ask a real person and see what happens.  Type “How do I setup Microsoft Outlook?” and see what happens.  Now you know I tested it out and Google returned 19 Million results!  We both know all of those probably will not give you the information that you need, but Google has your back.  The most popular and hopefully, best matches to your question, will be on the first page Google returns.  Just ask Google.

* If you want to save energy there is an alternative for you.  www.blackle.com is supposed to be Google in a black screen which saves energy.  Of course I did some quick research on this and it may be more hype than anything else.  How did I find out about this?  Uh, I Googled it.

We are almost there, there is one more thing you must do to overcome some of your apprehension about technology.  This is something my mother used to say all the time.

3.  If at first you don’t succeed, try try again.

You ever heard the term “Nothing beats a failure but a try?”  We, me included, just have to keep trying things over and over again to make progress.  Trust me when I tell you, every little victory will add to your confidence and soon enough you will be what many people call tech savvy.  Seriously, just stay at it and you will see results in no time.

I’m not an expert or anything – I’m not sure anyone truly is – but if you have any questions we can help you with feel free to ask in our comments section.

Tags: Technology

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 at 12:01 am and is filed under Random Buzz. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.