Time Out for A Teeny Tiny Pat on the Back

This isn’t my usual blogging style, but today I’m going to give myself props for doing something I didn’t think I could do: I laid out an entire web page using CSS styles. No tables. Just CSS.

To people who program on the web everyday, this feat means jack squat. For people who use content management systems, ditto. Who cares if you can control where everything sits on your page if you can dominate the universe with javascript or you only need to type in a little box to update your web page? It’s only those of us who walk the middle ground between knowing HTML but not using it enough to be a programming guru – we are the only ones who can appreciate making the jump from a table-controlled layout to a CSS one.

If I knew anyone who fell into this category with me, I’d drop them a line. But I don’t. And since I haven’t blogged for awhile, I figured what the heck – kill two birds with one stone, right? Not that this post has anything to do with social media or marketing or any of the other things I usually discuss. Or does it? I started this blog because I wanted to try something new, and even though I was afraid of failure I gave it a try. I haven’t had a single comment since I started blogging, so I guess some people do count that as a failure. But I’m going to keep posting because someday, somebody somewhere is going to be inspired enough or pissed off enough to shoot me a comment. And I’ll probably blog about that accomplishment too – just like I blogged about today’s.

I guess what really prompted this post as much as anything is that I’m incredibly hard on myself when it comes to keeping my skills up to date. I think I should be an ace at copywriting as well as social media and throw in some html programming just for good measure. In other words, I think I should be able to do everything, even though that’s not humanly possible. The rate at which even one of these disciplines changes is so rapid that people who practice it every day are struggling to keep up. And here I am, trying to juggle no less than three, partially out of necessity, partially out of broad interest, and partially out of self torture. Is it any wonder when that I’m so excited about making one tiny step forward?

A friend of mine texted me to tell me that after a grueling set of interviews over multiple days with multiple people, she finally finished today. There was only one problem: she thinks she did the whole interview with a bugger in her nose. All that work and angst and preparation, and she’s afraid she blew it with one little bugger. We’re all too hard on ourselves sometimes, and we’ll all expect too much of our attempts at new stuff.

So the next time you make a small boo-boo, cut yourself some slack. Likewise, the next time you accomplish something – even something small – take time to congratulate yourself. And if you do either, come back and let me know about it on my blog. I’d love to hear about other people celebrating their small victories – or at least not letting the little things in life get them down.