It's Never Too Late (To Learn a New Thing)

Greetings, y'all! 👋😄

It's the end of another weekend, and nearly the end of January! I hope this month has treated y'all well. 😊

Work is going well. I'm finally finding my groove, and the quality of my deliverables is improving (not that they weren't decent quality to begin with, but there's always room for improvement 😉). I'm still struggling a bit with meeting deadlines, but even that is getting better. 

My healthcare provider and I met again recently to discuss how the ADHD meds are working out. At my previous appointment, we changed meds, and I found the new one had fewer side effects and seemed to be more suited to my needs. I felt that the dosage needed adjusting, though. It was "almost just right". At this latest appointment, my provider agreed and prescribed a different dosage for me to try for a month. I've been on the new dosage for almost a week, and I think this will be "just right". 🙌 

Earlier in 2023, the State of Louisiana, through the Louisiana Workforce Commission, partnered with Coursera to offer residents the opportunity to learn new skills and even get professional certifications through Coursera, at no cost, through the state's "Tech Ready Louisiana" program. I had seen commercials for the program, but hadn't looked into it until a coworker in Brazil talked about a Coursera course he was completing. The conversation reminded me about the commercials, so I looked up the program, and was delighted when I saw what was available. I signed up for the program and started browsing the course catalog to find courses that I thought would help me with my current job, as well as increase my chances of getting a better job in the future.

I started with a Microsoft Office 365 course to "get my feet wet" and upskill from what I already knew. My next course covered Excel, from basic to advanced, which really helped me understand how Excel can be used for more than just accounting. 

For my third course, I chose Google's Project Management course, which is a professional certificate course. I'm not sure what I was expecting from this one, but it's the first one that I've felt "meh" about. I'm not sure if it's because I don't find the material engaging enough, or if I'm just not feeling "project manager-y". I started the course in November, and I got through the first module, but with Thanksgiving and Christmas, plus the changes at work, I put it on the back burner and only went back to reset my deadlines. I decided yesterday to get back to it, since the holidays are past and things at work have calmed down some. I'm still feeling rather "meh" about it, but I'm committing to finish it.

While I was in Coursera, I decided to see if I could enroll in more than one course at a time, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could, so I went to my saved courses and enrolled in another Google professional certificate course: Data Analytics. 

This course seems to be more suited to my interests and learning style, and I'm excited to get started on it. 😊 

I started taking these courses before I started treatment for ADHD, so I'm curious to find out if I have an easier time learning and completing the graded assessments. In the previous courses, I did fairly well, but I struggled a bit with the Excel course's more advanced modules. I figured out early on that the problem was information retrieval, but without any kind of medication, all I could do was push through and hope for the best. Now that I'm getting treatment, I'm hoping to see a big improvement.  😊🤞

Now that 2024 is well underway, I feel good about the possibilities. 😊 I'm always optimistic about the future, though. 😄

Be blessed, and be a blessing! 😊

Megan