With any good thing in life, moderation and balance is key. The tech world is a captivating and enthralling place to be. You can easily get lost floating through all the different possibilities that it has to offer. Starting out is always so invigorating. You become entranced by its new information and find yourself in a rabbit hole of knowledge. Before we dive too deep though, we should be mindful of the longevity. Being able to run a race is only worth it if you can cross the finish line. One thing to keep in mind while running that race though, is to enjoy the scenery along the way.
Everyone is different and everyone will have a different story about them. Getting into anything new, in general, takes time to integrate into your life. Instead of letting it consume you and letting other things in life fall to the way side, take time to enjoy the experience and the thought of it being an everyday routine, like waking up and brushing your teeth. There is no need to digest everything at once. Some people may stumble across something tech related and become intrigued, some may be exposed to it by friends/family, others may even take initiative and go to some form of schooling for it. Regardless of how you get into it, finding balance is what will make it a life long endeavor.
My personal experience started with me wishing one of my best friends luck at his new journey towards being a full stack web developer. It came suddenly, as he was a musician who was recently discharged from the service. He wanted a change in life and had a friend who exposed him to coding. He was interested enough, and at the right point in his life, to take a dive and fully commit to a bootcamp. From there my interest was piqued and I began to research more about it in my free time. It wasn’t until a year later that I finally decided to start dedicating time to it. Before I knew it, I was enrolling in a bootcamp and blocking off 15 weeks of my life to fully commit.
Even from the standpoint of fully committing for 15 weeks, doesn’t sound like a lot of balance. However, there are multitudes of ways to view balance. You can never fully balance everything equally all the time. Life shifts all the time and things need to be rebalanced. Taking my time to remember to get exercise is a good example of balancing. Being submerged in coding all day long, you begin to become so engrained with it. It really starts to become part of your life in a way that needs balancing on its own.
Stepping into a role of a full stack developer comes with a lot of milage ahead of you. Milestones of accomplishments and hours of patience and understanding go hand in hand with balance. Without balance and growth, you become stagnant and in the world of tech where it is constantly growing, you will find yourself lacking.
Spending time on personal achievements in your field will allow you to grow exponentially. Whether that be a side project that you are working on in your free time, an idea that lands a new project led by you, or even small personal achievements in your job that drive you to continue to succeed. Learning to balance your goals will lay a foundation for the rest of your journey in tech .Just as the tech industry is always growing, so must your knowledge of it. The rate at which things are updated and new technology is being released, really gives you no time to digest everything. Taking time to dedicate towards honing your craft will be apart of your daily balance.
Finding that right balance in your life will be key to making this a life long endeavor. Taking time to set the foundation and become immersed in it is great, and often the right way to go. Remembering to balance that with your personal life will be another challenge, but very rewarding once you find the balance between two worlds.
