I consider myself to be a fairly smart girl. I even consider myself to be decently knowledgeable when it comes to technology. But there are certain things online that never fail to make me feel a little bit dumb. One of those things is trying to change my website design.

For example, whenever I try to read web design tutorials, I find myself getting lost. I can’t follow what they’re trying to tell me to do and I end up getting frustrated. But I’ve learned a few tricks over the years to help me with this problem.

Here are some of the things I do to avoid getting low self-esteem from my inability to use web design tutorials to my advantage:

• Breathe, relax, try again. Patience is a virtue but we all too often lack it when it comes to ourselves. I take a deep breath and let myself try again.
• Turn to another online resource. For example, when I was downloading free templates and got stuck trying to use them, I turned to a template forum instead of a tutorial to get the help I needed.
• Remember my strengths. So I’m not good at understanding web design tutorials; I’m great at explaining web tricks to others. I know my weaknesses and celebrate my strengths.
• Ask for assistance. I have a tech guy that I turn to when I want to understand something better online.

It’s frustrating when you’re trying to do something online that you think you should be able to do and you just can’t. Relaxing and working around the problem is much better than creating stress for yourself because of it.

Technorati Tags: web design tutorials, free templates, template forum