As part of my daily posting, I’m going to complete The Daily Post Photo Challenge each week.

Whether you take photos with an iPhone or a full-frame DSLR, you’re welcome to participate in our photo challenges. A new theme is announced every Wednesday.

I’ll give myself 2 weeks for each challenge in case I need to come up with an idea for the theme. To keep me on track, I use a repeating reminder.

The first theme for 2018 is growth. I don’t do New Year’s resolutions, so I’ll share a little journey.

The other night, as I was soldering the project HackerBox #0026 I kept thinking back to my first attempt at soldering, when I put headers on a Raspberry Pi Zero. I remember being hesitant and scared, because I was teaching myself how to solder. I was worried I’d either fry the board or burn myself. It felt like it took forever. Everything worked though.

That was only 13 months ago, but it feels like years. I’ve gained a lot of experience with the soldering iron and now know I had nothing to be afraid of. Learning new skills can be scary.

“What if I screw up?”

“What if I’m no good?”

Don’t let the voices of fear prevent you from trying, especially if it’s something you’ve always wanted to do. Do some prep work, read up on the topic, and dive in. Or find someone with experience to help and teach you.

Here’s the back of the circuit board I soldered this week. A lot more complex, but it was second nature.

Is there something you’ve always wanted to learn? What’s stopping you?