As a certified Health & Wellness Coach, who is passionately chasing after her dream to become a web developer, I've coached many clients who are on their own personal journeys toward a healthier and happier lifestyle. Eating right, exercising, and practicing self-care are common areas of focus for many. And although the underlying theme for my clients is the desire to build healthier, sustainable habits that will last a lifetime, many are wanting to make changes in their careers. I get that!
I've been teaching myself how to code on and off for a few years now. Yeah - there was no real commitment there! I'd follow along on a few videos online, and I even purchased a bootcamp course that I never finished. Life in general, my full-time job, travel, relationships...they all took precedence over coding. However, just recently I took some time to take a hard look at myself. I reflected on not only where I was in life, but where I wanted to be and the person I wanted to become. I realized that there was something about coding that kept me going back to it. I'm a naturally creative person, and the creative aspect of building web pages and creating personal projects definitely resonated with me. So I recently decided to show up for myself, and commit to a program where I can learn, grow professionally, and pivot into becoming a front-end developer.
Each day is a new opportunity to start right where you are!
It's been an interesting journey so far. I'm quickly going through the basics of HTML and some CSS that I'm familiar with. And picking up new things I didn't learn these past few years along the way. I'm finding there is one simple concept that empowers me on this journey that new developers may find helpful as well. That concept is, "Merge...then Maintain".
I compare this to driving in traffic. Sometimes, we encounter a situation where there may be multiple lanes that have to merge into a single lane. Our responsibility as drivers is to work ourselves into that single lane as safely as possible. And once there, we're able to maintain the proper speed and continue on our way. Starting out on this web development path is similar. There are many different paths toward learning web development. There are tutorials, YouTube videos, bootcamps, to name a few. So you start off by immersing yourself into learning. And once you've considered all the options and settled on a path that works best for you, you are then ready to commit and move forward at your own pace toward that final destination.
And when things are all said and done, you are in a different place from where you started, and hopefully you enjoyed yourself along the way!
What step on your journey have you committed to this week? Share your response in the comments.