Okay, so I was thinking about Michael Jordan the other day, specifically that crazy 1988 season where he nabbed Defensive Player of the Year. It’s kind of nuts when you remember it, right? A scoring champ also being the best defender? Doesn’t happen often.
Getting Down to It
It got me reflecting on my own stuff. Not basketball, obviously, but just the idea of focusing hard on the part of something that isn’t flashy, the part that takes real grind. For ages, I’d been putting off really learning how to use this complicated photo editing software properly. I knew the basics, could slap on a filter, but the deep stuff? The layers, the masks, the path tools? Forget about it. It always felt like too much hard work, not the fun part.
So, thinking about MJ locking guys down in ’88, I figured, okay, let me try and apply that kind of focused effort. Not the talent part, but the sheer willingness to dig in on defense, which for me, meant tackling this software beast.
My Process, Step-by-Step
- Day 1: Just Commit. First thing I did was just decide, no more messing around. I blocked out an hour every evening. No excuses.
- Finding Resources: I didn’t go for fancy courses. I just started watching free tutorials online, the really basic ones first. Stuff I thought I already knew, but probably didn’t, not really.
- Practice, Practice: This was the grind. I’d follow a tutorial, pause it, try the technique myself on a random photo. Mess it up. Rewind. Try again. Felt clumsy as hell. It wasn’t about making beautiful pictures yet, it was just about learning the moves, like practicing defensive slides, I guess.
- Focusing on One Thing: Instead of trying to learn everything at once, I’d pick one tool or concept, like ‘layer masks’, and just work on that for a few days until it felt less alien.
- Dealing with Frustration: Plenty of times I wanted to just close the program. Things didn’t work, I couldn’t replicate what the tutorial showed. Had to just take a breath, walk away for five minutes, then come back. Like getting scored on, you just gotta reset and get back on D.
The Outcome (So Far)
It’s been a few weeks now. Am I a pro? Heck no. But I can actually use the software now. I understand layers, I can make decent selections, I can retouch things without making a complete hash of it. It’s not the spectacular, game-winning shot, it’s the solid, fundamental skill that makes everything else possible. It’s like Jordan wasn’t just scoring; his defense made the Bulls truly dominant.
So yeah, thinking about that ’88 DPOY award kind of kicked me into gear. A good reminder that sometimes the real progress comes from focusing on the hard, unglamorous work, the ‘defense’ in whatever you’re doing. Still got a long way to go with this software, but at least I’m in the game now, not just watching from the sidelines.
