Today's Question:  What does your personal desk look like?        GIVE A SHOUT

ARE YOU LIKE ME? OR DO YOU HAVE DISCIPLINE?

  Kevin Curtin        2011-10-25 10:27:28       2,541        0    

If you are anything like me, you've started more things than you have finished. 

We're innately curious about the things around us and inspired when we come across people who have mastered their trade. We see people create cool and beautiful things and think, "Man, that looks easy, if I put in a little time I can do that in no time." What follows is a few days or weeks of focused and dedicated learning. During this time we make some progress, but not much. In fact, the progress that we do make only gets us to a point where we can truly begin to understand the complexities of the task we are undertaking. Things that look so easy as an outsider begin to take on odes of complexity that we never knew existed. We realize that this is actually going to take work to accomplish! It's at this stage that we usually lose interest  and let ourselves get lost in the gap between where we are and where we want to be. Soon after, we stop finding time for our new project and almost forget we ever started.

Fast-forward 1 or 2 years and we realize that if we had simply stuck with it and continued working, we would be that guy that inspired us in the first place! The 2 years that seemed like an eternity when we were just starting out feels - in hindsight - like a small moment in time. Why not just stick with it in the first place? If only it were that easy... 

I think this happens to a lot of people - actually, I think it happens to most people.  I've had this experience with learning instruments, blogging, carpentry, coding, and a host of other things. The main obstacle to following through on projects like these is discipline. Having the discipline to sit down and practice while you could be doing things that come natural and are easy is difficult. Its hard to justify the tradeoff because - as is the case with any skill worth having - the payoff isn't immediate.

4 weeks ago I began (again) teaching myself Ruby on Rails. I am hoping to  avoid the pitfalls of  looking too far ahead, knowing that if I do I will fall into the same trap that I have in the past. I am tackling this project 1 day at a time, trying my damnedest to stay disciplined and learn something each day. If anyone has any advice to save me from myself, I'd love to hear it.

Source:http://www.kevinjcurtin.com/home/2011/9/18/are-you-like-me-or-do-you-have-discipline.html

WORK  COMPLEXITY  LEARNING  EFFORT  DETAIL 

Share on Facebook  Share on Twitter  Share on Weibo  Share on Reddit 

  RELATED


  0 COMMENT


No comment for this article.