Programming, Positivity, & Pain: How do they connect?
Last year I started researching the effect that positivity had while learning to program. My coding to-do list looked little like this:
- Wake up on time. Coffee.
- Learn JavaScript- (What is a function??)
- Find cool tech people on twitter for motivation.
- Write down positive affirmations. Read positivity driven case studies & books.
- Stay positive. Work hard. Repeat.
Originally my research was purely positivity focused. I would tweet affirmations, motivations, and what I was up to that day. While positivity still remains a focus point on my page, I have learned ALOT since those early days.
- I attribute my first few months of success to those positive affirmations. Honestly, when I first stated to code, I was terrified. It takes a lot to switch career paths and dedicate yourself to learning something new with such a high learning curve. So, having the pressure to write something positive daily was good for creating the habit of positive journaling.
- It was to my surprise that affirmations actually do work. No, its not some hippie mumbo jumbo. When you tell yourself that you’re capable of learning and achieving success, one day you actually start to believe it. You see transformations in yourself that only a few months prior you were wishing you could have. Sometimes, you have to fake it until you make it because, if you don’t believe in yourself.. who else will? who else will push you to reach greatness?
- Positivity was the only thing that fueled me in the confidence department. However, I noticed a different feeling that ended up pushing me on the day-to-day that actually led me to fully dive into the code.
Pain. I stuck with programming because I deeply wanted to escape the pain of not feeling pushed in my current job, the pain of not being able to work from home, the pain of not expressing myself creatively in the ways that frontend development allows me. In fact, the pain that I was feeling gave me the determination to stick through the challenge of learning how to code & pushed me closer to the finish line.
To summarize my experience, its obvious that there were TWO feelings to chase when taking on ANY big challenge with a high barrier to entry.
- Positivity to fuel your short term motivation & confidence.
- Pain to fuel grit & determination to start a challenge and see it through.
When you keep the beginning and end in mind anything is possible. Remember your why. WHY are you putting yourself through the pain of learning something new?? Once you have your answer, reassure yourself with your motivations, your end goal, your breath of fresh air. Keep that mentality and eventually you’ll end up exactly where you promised yourself you would be.
A few resources that helped me through my past year of learning to code are linked below (p.s- these are affiliate links that help keep this blog up and running!)
