Originally posted on baruchadi.com

Learning takes time. Babies know that, so should you.

This article will focus on software engineering, but it can apply to anything in your life.

Baby steps

Everything takes time. Just like a baby who’s learning how to talk or walk for the first time, you will need time to learn & master what it is you are currently working on.

You need to understand that everything has a learning curve. Some are steeper than others, and you need to overcome that. You shouldn’t jump into the most complicated part of the skill you are attempting to learn, but instead, you should learn the simpler parts that together compose that complex skill.

A baby first learns to crawl, then walk, then run. It’s all about pacing, you need to go through the basics before you jump to the final goal.

You need to remember that No one is just born with that knowledge. Knowledge is earned, not given.

Dedication

When a baby first learns to walk, there are stages. In the beginning, the baby can’t crawl, or even support itself. Given that, it’s not expected from the baby to be able to run yet! You should have the same perspective about your skills as a programmer. If you just picked up programming, and you are just getting started, it is obvious that you won’t be able to do what the “pros” are doing yet, it takes time! Babies can take ~6 months to be able to crawl, and it’s different for each baby. Everybody is different. It doesn’t mean that you should take it easy and give yourself all the time in the world. Babies put effort every day to learn those things. Attempting to crawl, attempting to talk. This shows that you need put in effort and dedication if you want to achieve your target. If you keep delaying and procrastinating you’ll get nowhere. So get up, and do the thing you kept telling yourself you would!

Admiration & Motivation, Not Jealousy

Sometimes when we see someone successful, we tend to immediately jump to jealousy.

Wow, look at that guy. He got that amazing job, doing these amazing things, and I can barely write “hello world”

Well, let’s take a different perspective on that situation. This time, from a child’s point of view. When children see someone doing an amazing thing, take for example a soccer player, they would say something different. You wouldn’t hear them saying

wow look at that soccer player making tons of money and playing like a pro. I can’t even dribble.

No, they would take that person and make them their idol! They would instead of being jealous of that amazing soccer player, would make that player their inspiration! They will start playing more soccer on their free times and try to imitate their most amazing plays and moves. whether or not that child would take soccer to the next level and become a pro is not important, the important part is that the child will improve! No, the improvement wouldn’t be immediate, but by dedicating time and trying to be more like their idol they will eventually be good!

That is the same perspective I would recommend to use when you see someone who is a “pro”. Learn from them. If they are one of your peers or your coworkers, befriend them! Instead of making them an unhealthy rival, make them your friend and learn from them. If it’s a person that you just read about online and can’t befriend, learn from what they do!

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Hopefully, this article helped you understand how to assess your growth and realize that it takes time to perfect a skill. Remember that different people learn at different paces and that knowledge is earned, not given. We are all capable of something great, we just need to put in the time and effort to enhance ourselves.

Photo by Valeria Zoncoll on Unsplash