On a scale of 1 to 10, my social media acumen is about a 2.  Sure, in 2008 I eagerly embraced the idea of reconnecting with high school and college friends on Facebook, but my activity waned and posts became sporadic.  

Years later I downloaded Instagram, mostly to chronicle the countdown to my 40th birthday.

I have a husband who prefers to stay off the grid, one son who seems to have the same attitude, and another who has embraced social media like many his age.  Managing these different comfort levels with different apps is difficult, so I make it easy and refrain from posting most of the time.  

However, to be completely forthcoming, I’m an excellent stalker. 

When God called me out of my comfort zone

So when I felt the whispering of God that I should put my thoughts, struggles, and encouragements into a blog, I immediately got overwhelmed.

How do I create a blog?  

What’s the difference between hosting and domain?  

And what the heck is SEO*??? 

I was frozen

For three months I was paralyzed with ignorance. 

Of course, I tried.  I sat down at the web design site I chose and poked around.  Sometimes I made progress, but more than often I just got really — really — frustrated.  Denying my desire to throw the laptop through the window, I took a few deep breaths and walked away.  

This cycle repeated – poke, breathe, walk – over and over.  I received concerned sideways glances from my boys and they might have thought I developed ADD with how often I sat down and got up.  Many times I wondered if this was really something I needed to spend my energy on.  Lord knows I have enough venues to keep me busy.  We all do.

After about 5 months of struggling and learning, I finally had a very, very simple site I could share.  

I got by with a little help from my friends

In the process, I had a team of women with me on the journey of development who helped in various ways.  One of my dear college friends is a real writer.  A journalist and editor, she reminded me of middle school grammar lessons through her line editing.  She also sat down with me to help analyze my particular issues in blog design.  

Another amazing friend began her own blog a few months ago and gave me tips she learned along the way, including recommending that I look on YouTube for technical guidance.  (I told you I was a novice – it didn’t even occur to me to hit the assumed most widely used site for how-to videos.)

Several of my Bible study sisters took their time to give me feedback on site name, drafts I wrote, and the About Me section.

Other friends knew of my goals and asked how progress was going to encourage me along the way.  Most of the time I responded that I now empathized with those videos of the elderly when they were introduced to modern-day technology – completely baffled and utterly confused.

Have you seen The Elderly React to the Apple Watch?  They give genuine and comical reactions to this new watch that can access the whole world:

“Oooh, man a whole bunch of bubbles pop up here!”

“I can get emails on it, I can send emails on it, if I could just see it!”

“Way too much information on my arm — I could just go for the time and that’s good enough.”

Through my laughter, I can really empathize with their confusion.

Then it hit me.

We all have to start somewhere

The elderly and their bewilderment to the Apple Watch is just one illustration of frustration.  Another example is how people feel when they want to get healthy.  Just like I would sit down with great intentions of gaining progress on the blog but walk away with clenched teeth and tense shoulders, we might feel the same way after an effort to start eating right and exercising.  Walking away is so much easier than fighting through the challenge.  

Of course, you can approach a better lifestyle in many ways, but my blog-design experience gave me some pointers that translate to becoming more healthy:

Ask someone more experienced than you for help.  

You don’t have to pay for a personal trainer or make an appointment with a registered dietician.  Sure, that’s an option, but chances are you know someone who is passionate about the area where you struggle.  She will probably be honored to give you tips and tricks.  

Find an accountability partner.  

Tell someone your specific goals and ask them to encourage you.  This person can be at your same starting point and you can use each other to ensure you take your daily walks or journal your food truthfully.  

Or, it can be someone who is a few steps ahead of you on her journey and can clearly see the same struggles in her rearview mirror.  Whoever it is, make sure you can be honest and don’t feel like you need to paint a perfect picture.  Even the “perfect” eaters and exercisers are far from that.  Or maybe that’s just me???

Start simple.  

You don’t have to start exercising an hour a day and eating 5-7 fruits and vegetables if you’ve been binging on Netflix and refined carbs.  

What is the easiest lifestyle change?  Maybe it’s adding in a 30 minute walk a few times a week.  Do you drain a 2-liter of soda each day?  See if you can cut that out, or at least cut back.  

Identify one habit – just one! – that you can realistically change for good.  You’ll feel more successful, which will propel you to reversing the next bad habit.

Use technology to your advantage.  

The internet offers no shortage of fitness videos and recipes.  Those simple changes you identified in the section above?  Search those first.  

Googling “how to be healthy” might give you a list of anywhere between 10-100 tips, but it might also leave you feeling like a failure if the 26 Ridiculously Easy Ways to Be Healthy are not so easy when done all at once.  (Coincidentally, it is a good list.)  

Get specific in your search:  “walking plan for beginners,” “easy ways to eat more vegetables with breakfast,” or “good sources of protein.”  

Don’t feel like you need to conquer a comprehensive program immediately.  Keep it uncomplicated, surround yourself with an encouraging team, and educate yourself. You’ll find success in the small steps and can build from there.

And who knows, maybe one day I’ll add to the blog.  Maybe we will demonstrate exercises for ALL levels or add a recipe tab.  Or for extra entertainment, we can put a live stream in my pantry to see just how many times I pop in for “one” piece of chocolate.  But for now, I’m just keeping it simple.  

* Funny semi-related story: My real writer friend mentioned above caught plenty of errors while helping me edit.  The best might have been catching “an SOE,” when it is really “SEO.”  Further proof that I really have no idea what I’m doing here!

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