Figure-It-Out-Yourself Blogging

November 14, 2009 | Posted by Kristen

“Figure it out yourself!” took lots of different forms in my childhood home. Things like “Read the directions.” “Look it up.” “See what the book says!” were all common directives from my mom as she homeschooled my siblings and me.

Like most people, I don’t think I would be particularly good at this left to myself. It’s a lot easier to have someone give you the answer than to have to find it yourself. I’m so thankful now, though, that my parents taught me how to figure things out on my own.

One example of the way this has served me is related to my blogging. When I first started blogging, my blog was hosted on WordPress’ servers. I knew that I wanted to host my own blog eventually, though, and so I needed to buy hosting, set up a new blog, transfer my old blog files to the new one, and customize my new blog.

I have absolutely zero background in website design and coding, so when I started this process, I really was starting from scratch. However, thanks to many Google searches, lots of FAQ and blog reading, much tutorial watching, and some trial and error, I have figured out how to FTP files (I didn’t even know what FTP was!), how to edit some CSS code, how to transfer files, how to redirect DNS, and much, much more.

It would certainly have been simpler to hire someone to do all of this for me, but it would have been quite expensive. Another downside of hiring someone is that I would be dependent upon that person whenever I wanted to change something. Now that I have these new skills, I can modify and change my blog without having to depend upon (or pay) someone else.

That’s really what self-reliance is about…freedom. When you can figure things out yourself, you don’t have to ask someone else for help, wait for someone else’s availability, or give someone else your money. That’s worth a bit of effort, at least in my book.
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Kristen blogs about saving money cheerfully at The Frugal Girl. In addition to being a life-long devotee of frugality, she’s a photography nut, a baker, a homeschooler, a musician, and more importantly, a wife and mom who loves God.

Categories: self reliance | Tags: figure it out yourself, self reliance | No Comments »