We all have 24 hours in a day. The richest person on the planet and the poorest person on earth have the same 24 hours.
On one hand, that's obviously true. On the other, it's a pretty cruel way to blame people who are juggling everything, every single day, for being "the only thing standing between themselves and success." That juggling act involving a current job, family, friends, household responsibilities, and physical and mental health.
Before we get started: have a little compassion for yourself. Not the kind that weakens you, but the kind that accepts that, like so many others, you're going to have to "do what you can with what you have, wherever you are." Expecting perfection from yourself will only work against you.
You're on a journey to break into, or deepen your roots in, the tech world, and it won't be easy. You might want to quit. You may have already quit and started over more than once, or had to pause or slow down because life got in the way.
I know you have the will to make it work. But how do you not give up, or let the goal slip away?
Enter Motivation and Discipline.
The Motivation Stone
Motivation is what inspires us to act, and it's deeply personal. It's internal, and it's there to help us push through obstacles.
What motivates you? Money? The anxiety of commuting and the chase for a remote job? Moving abroad? More time at home with family (pets count)?
If money is your motivation, a raise at your current job might dampen your drive to dedicate a few hours a week to studying. If what moved you was the idea of working remotely, the possibility of switching industries for a hybrid role might make you question whether you even want to stay on your current path.
So, first things first: know yourself. Be clear about what you want to achieve. Dig down to the root of your motivation, and use those moments when it sparks to build your goals.
The Chamber of Goals
Goals give your efforts direction. They're necessary for any action plan to actually work. When people talk about goals, the SMART framework almost always comes up:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Realistic (or Relevant)
- Time-bound (or Trackable)
So when you figure out where you want to go, it's time to set goals. The more letters of that acronym you can check off, the better.
An example of a goal that won't help you get there: "Learn to code." Too vague, and you'll never know where you are in the process.
A SMART goal for studying programming, on the other hand, might look like: "Study for at least half an hour every weekday and one hour on weekends, dedicating a total of five hours per week to [insert that course, bootcamp, or topic here]."
Now you have an actual route. Fire up your GPS and go.
The Prisoner of Disorganization
Motivation is beautiful, and also a limited resource that collects dust fast. It's no coincidence that gyms fill up every January, when the New Year's resolution is still fresh, only to slowly empty out as the months go by.
Unlike motivation, which is inspiring and internal, discipline is more about external factors. It's what helps us stay focused and consistent in executing the plan.
We're talking about real life here, so getting rid of distractions is nearly impossible. The neighbor's dog will bark. The ice cream truck will roll by. Dinner won't make itself. The neighbors absolutely will blast whatever's on their playlist at full volume all Saturday long.
That's why we need organization.
You need to build a routine for studying, practicing your skills, and working on your projects. That's exactly why your goals need to be SMART: it's a lot easier to fit half an hour of studying into a packed day than to promise yourself a full weekend of study sessions.
It's also a lot easier to go half an hour without checking social media than a whole day. And easier to study during nap time or the kids' cartoon hour than to wait for a house full of silence.
With realistic planning and by exercising the discipline muscle, you can focus on continuous improvement and stop chasing the "ultimate productivity hack" of the week.
The Goblet of Determination
While discipline is about following the schedule and rules you've set for yourself, determination is what keeps you moving toward your goal and pushing through the frustrations along the way.
In his book "O Avesso das Coisas" (The Back of Things), Carlos Drummond de Andrade defines a fighter: "A true fighter is one who knows how to fight themselves." Determination, in this context, is the coach guiding you through the ring. Your opponent: frustration, that mix of discomfort, anger, and disappointment.
Feed your determination with the knowledge that failure is part of the learning process, and with celebrations of small victories.
Finished a module in your course? Time to make a good cup of tea, watch an episode of that show you're following, or lie on the floor with your dog.
Keep your end goal in mind. Remember why you started this journey. You can adjust the route as long as you don't lose sight of the destination.
The Riddle of Persistence
Persistence is a virtue; stubbornness is a flaw. When it comes to programming, you're going to need a bit of both.
Programming involves a lot of trial and error. A lot. Countless times you'll get stuck on something and break your brain trying to solve a problem.
The moment you finally fix the bug, even if it was caused by a single misplaced comma that ate up precious hours? Pure glory. That satisfaction. That little bug (or giant bug) is not going to stop you.
Refusing to give up on learning, bit by bit, is what allows you to develop the ability to solve increasingly complex problems.
Here's another trait of the tech world: it's in constant evolution, and persistence is what you need to keep up with the changes and keep learning. Experience and skill are what separate the merely stubborn from the truly persistent, and those only come with time.
The Order of Enthusiasm
Without any hint of genuine enjoyment for what you're doing, it's hard to stay persistent, find motivation, or build discipline.
Enthusiasm is a positive, contagious emotional state: when you do something because you want to, not because you have to or need to.
I mean, you may still need to do it. But now your motivation is more constant, and discipline doesn't feel like such a chore. Like starting to work out on a doctor's recommendation, only to find that what was just another item on the to-do list has become something you actually enjoy, and you miss it on the days you skip.
Enthusiasm doesn't come to everyone in professional life, and that's okay if it never comes for you. Not having a dream job because your dream is to not work: that makes me laugh, because I relate to it quite a bit. What's worth remembering, though, is that we spend a lot of hours at work, and if it can be something you at least somewhat enjoy, your life will be a little easier.
Feeling enthusiastic, even about something completely unrelated to your career, is energizing and inspiring. It's a good feeling that lets you be more creative, more innovative, and even more dedicated.
The Hallows of "I'll Start Monday"
This is where the post wraps up. I can't summarize it in a sentence or two, but I hope somewhere in here you found something to inspire you or reinforce something you already believed.
I'll leave you with two quotes I love, ones that guided me through my own career transition into tech and that still keep me going:
"Don't give up on a dream just because it will take a long time to achieve it. Time will pass anyway."
"The illiterate of the future won't be the person who doesn't know how to read. It'll be the one who never learned how to learn."