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How do you stay motivated to learn and progress?

CodeNewbie Staff on June 16, 2022

Hey CodeLand! Throughout your experience at this year's event, we hope you get a chance to explore CodeNewbie Community on your own a bit and eng...
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Sarah Dye

Having a strong why. One of the things I've learned is that a strong why makes it possible to tolerate any how something that is thrown my way.

Another thing that helps me stay motivated is just listening to podcast interviews from other devs. When I need a motivation boost, I listen to an episode of CodeNewbie. Hearing other devs talk about their stories and what it took to get them where they are now reminds me that I can do it.

Then there's listening to an fun song or music you like. My favorite motivation music is the Wonder Woman theme. The score always gets me motivated and ready to tackle anything that comes my way.

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Dulya Perera

Exactly, listen to the dev podcasts help lot to stay motivated💆‍♀️.

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Elijah Ishaku

Well said, a strong why reminds of what makes everything worth it and you keep moving no matter what

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Anja
  • watching Tutorials for things above my skills to see what I can do if I learn and practice more
  • pick projects that are about topics I like or find really useful

But all in all I struggle with motivation and hope Codeland helps a bit :)

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Teniola Olowookere

I resonate heavily with the watching tutorials of things that are above my skills part. It makes me more motivated; more like an adrenaline rush?

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Anja

Yeah exactly! Maybe it's because of the overexcited techno music people use in the background as well. 😁

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Teniola Olowookere

Yes 🤣🤣 It gets me all excited and bubbly!

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Kithmini

Sometimes, I get tired and feels like I don't want to do it anymoe likewise. But I stay motivated cauz, I want to achieve my targets. Everything I want to do depends on my career. Therefore I stay motivated.🙊​🤭​

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Silvia España Gil

I would say two things:

  • My goals: I always try to remember myself why I have choose this path for me. If I'm feeling to overwhelmed I give myself time just to fuel up
  • Looking back: One of my favourite exercises is to look back to exercises I've done just to see all I've move forward. That is such a motivator and a REAL reminder that I'm growing
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Dulya Perera

I have been following several dev communities. So that I'm always seeing the new things which make myself to have a curiosity, thinking and questioning that how they did that thing, such thing exciting in this world, how possible it be?? etc. Then I start to follow up the tutorials if exists or else I'll google it. Exploring and Doing Experiments are kept me motivated. So I will never ever stop searching and experimenting.

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Maria Silva

Learning to code at home with a self paced workshop can be really isolating. One of the things I started doing was listening to The freeCodeCamp podcast, stories like "from successful plumber to full-time developer" are so inspiring! Those stories keep me going! Another thing I recently started doing was participating in #100DaysofCode to keep myself accountable and to keep going everyday.

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mariessad • Edited

I have to break into tech to live the life I want! So I am motivated because to me there are no other options. I have to work hard and keep going to reach my goal of getting my first Developer role, and then continue on learning forever because that is the life of a Dev.

ALSO, it's important to take breaks so you don't burn yourself out! There is seemingly a never-ending amount of things to learn, take your time. Progress happens with slow and steady work over time.

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Gulshan aggarwal

I feel failed sometimes or losses motivation but reading people journey in the tech, their struggles always inspires me. I even ask to myself if they can do at the age of 35 or 40 then, I'm just 21 why I can't? These line charges up me & I become more focused because of the new energy.

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Cherron

The main thing that helps me is making it a point to do something code-related everyday for at least 5 minutes. Whether it's pushing a commit, researching a framework, or reading through some documentation, that 5 minutes usually turns into much more. I also try to engage in various dev communities and seeing everyone achieve their goals is a huge inspiration and motivation.

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Jay

My motivation to learn and progress in software engineering, starts with keeping a routine. I am currently going through the #100Devs program called "Learn with Leon" on Twitch where we are encouraged to use electronic "flashcards" (Anki) to remember concepts, use "spaced repetition" to continually review your flashcards daily and reinforce our learning, to code at least two hours daily if your schedule and family obligations allow it and learn how to ask for help when we are stuck either on Discord, Twitter or Stack Overflow.

On days where I am not motivated, this routine for me helps me remember my purpose which is getting back into the tech field and keeps me on track.

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Matt Eves

Having a project / goal that I'm working on has helped motivate me, especially where it is a group project and not just my own. This has meant I'm accountable to others which has added motivation. The trade-off is I work full time in a non-coding career, with a young family and all the associated "stuff" that comes with those things so the trick is finding the healthy balance between everything 😅

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Alexander Bourlotos

I am employed as a dev but I wouldn't say that I'm doing anything currently that makes me feel fulfilled in life. Not just for myself, but I'd like to put value into the most time consuming part of my day. I want to be able to be proud of the things I do so I can talk with confidence and pride to others that show interest.

Learning new things always fills me with a sense of accomplishment, so I keep doing it!

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Valeria Cerpa Salas

I am motivated to learn and progress remembering what first motivated me to start this learning path. I think about that moment and I also think about the vision I have of myself after finishing this learning process, where I want to go, where I want to work and what I want to do. I also think about my family, since they are my main motivation to move forward.

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Bobby Trejo

Honestly at times it can be hard to stay motivated. But I feel its best to have a goal or something in mind that you are working towards to help drive you to succeed.

Currently doing a self-taught route and utilizing online resouces mostly free, but some paid as well.

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𝕁𝕦𝕝𝕚𝕒 👩🏻‍💻

I stay motivated because I have kind of a clear goal where I want to be in the next months / next year. And only consistency is the key to achieve my dreams.
🙃

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Stephanie Poon

Breaking down goals into manageable chunks, but also being kind to myself if I don't comprehend something straight away. If something doesn't make sense, I will do more research and try another method or just take a break for a little while to come back to what I am working on at another time.

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Anya Brun

The more I learn, the more confident I am in myself. Also, it gives me an opportunity to connect with other people who are learning the same things or who know more than I do and are open to sharing their knowledge.

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Mayank Pawar

I always keep one thing in my mind and that is "Why you started all of this? What is your motive?" and that single statement keeps me motivated and determined whenever am doing any type of unproductive task.

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Hattie

I have a list of projects I want to make. Maybe my skills aren't there yet, but I know that as soon as I learn enough to do one of them, I'll start building. So it's partially excitement to learn new things, and then also the anticipation of creating one of those things.

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KJ

I stay motivated by trying to remember that 'Rome wasn't built in a day'. Learning the basics might seem tedious at first, but once you step back you will see all the blocks you've spent time stacking and building, have turned into a house. Step by step, block by block and brick by brick that house will turn into a neighborhood, then a town, then a city. Finally you'll look back and see that you built Rome. Keep trying, keep going. Take it one step at a time and remember to breathe!

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Danielle (she/her)

Staying involved in the community has helped me stay motivated to keep learning. Attending events like Codeland, participating in #100daysofcode, joining tech-focused Discord servers and slack channels - especially for learners, following other devs on Twitter and LinkedIn and participating in the conversation are the ways I've been able to get involved and stay motivated.

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Bex👩🏿‍💻💜

Thinking about why I want to be successful and how bad I want it. Staying in my comfort is not really comfortable. Making sacrifices to live my dream life is definitely worth it. Anytime I learn, I think about the outcome and the future. That motivates me to learn even more.

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Dallas Viars

Knowing that my success in learning and gaining employment as a developer will help improve the quality of life for my family keeps me motivated. The times where it is hard to focus on new things I try to help people solve their coding problems. It's such a fun and satisfying activity (I also love problem solving in general).

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itsNatalye

Practicing, codecademy classes, and youTube tutorials

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Lishia Ellis

I stay motivated by looking at my two children and trying to provide a better life for them. I want to become the best software developer I can be so that I can give them the best.

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Erik Shelton

The main thing that keeps me motivated is a strong internal desire to have a career I enjoy, and the ability to comfortably support my family.

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Ana Monteiro

Understanding that each day I learn at least one more thing which helps my personal journey. Also documenting everything that I'm learning so I can see the progress I'm making.

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Rebecca Key

Revisit your old code: it's the best documentation you have on showing yourself how far you've come!

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M.Fahad Imtiaz

By thinking that I'm not perfect and need to learn .

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Ayu Adiati

Always remind myself to take break and not bite off more than I can chew 🙂

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D'yara Williams

I remind my self that consistency is key. And remind myself that without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.

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Argem Flores

Learning from productivity gurus and Stoics for personal growth and sharing with others. Keep moving forward, always. 😊

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Ramón Huidobro

I try to remember that when I'm stuck, taking a break is critical to unlock my brain and let background information processing take place :)

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Ben Halpern

Getting to a point where something is sort of finished, even not fully finished is big!

Hard to stay motivated if you leave too much stuff completely unfinished :)

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maulik

Loving the work I do keeps me motivated and I think getting bored is also ok, it motivates you do something new and explore other interesting areas.

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Hussain Codes

3 things I try to do:

  1. Managing frustration
  2. Consistency
  3. Taking care of myself
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Kasope Johnson
  1. Remind myself I'm in this for the long-term and so need to keep moving
  2. Might sound crazy, but I have a goal of being one of the most accomplished and influential software engineers in Africa
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Robert McAbee

The thing I keep coming back to is that it's just plain fun. It's super rewarding to build a beautiful UI or to create some complex logic, but at the core, I just love to code.

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Sheena

I create mini habits, implement the pomodoro technique, and track my progress with a 100-day goal journal. Motivation ebbs and flows, so I remind myself of the small wins throughout the day.

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Amaraee

I follow some web developers on YouTube and IG as well. Watching videos of them solve problems encourages to solve mine

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Christopher Aaron

A daily, morning reminder of how far I've come as a programmer. 2021 me would be proud!

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Christopher Aaron

"Remember how far you've come."

A simple one-liner that's always effective in motivating me.

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Azubuogu Peace Udoka

When I think about life after bachelors degree, and considering where I come from, it motivates me to keep going to make a better life for myself and my family.

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Liza Zacher

I stay actuated with learning and progressing because I know that sometime in the future that motivation will assist me in providing a better life for my two children.