Photoshop Elements 10

I purchased Photoshop Elements 10 a couple of weeks ago. I was/am determined to learn this program. I have not had any experience with any Photoshop programs in the past so I am completely new to this. I was so proud of myself, the day that it came in the mail I immediately loaded it onto my computer. This is compared to when I got Lightroom 3 and it took me a year before I finally loaded it onto my computer.

Well, two weeks later and I am only half way through the first chapter of Teach Yourself Visually Photoshop Elements 10 that I bought at the same time as the program. My problem is that I just want to automatically know how to do all the "cool" stuff, without taking the time to really learn the program. So then I get frustrated and give up and it just sits there. Sunday, I decided this is ridiculous, if I really want to  learn this program I need to start at the beginning and practice some discipline. So I have decided to set aside 30 minutes every day to work on learning it. To make this work I set the timer on my phone for 30 minutes, open the book, open my computer, and I just go until the timer goes off. After three days of doing this I am through Chapter 3, and I really look forward to these 30 minutes every day.

I know that I have the luxury of having an extra 30 minutes a day to work on this and a lot of people with younger kids may not be as fortunate, but I truly believe if you want something bad enough you can find those 30 minutes.