My Summer Is About Self-Motivation: Summer of code to be a better person

There is something that I feel like I should clarify. I, like most people, have hobbies of my own. To be specific, I like coding and writing. Shocking how those are the two things that I am focusing on. Sarcasm aside, there is a bit of a problem that I have never addressed. I am used to doing work because it is needed of me. I am not used to the idea of doing work that I sanctioned for myself. I did work because I was told to by a superior, because there was a hole that needed filling, or because I was struck by an odd inspiration. None of these were bad reasons to do work, but it is not a complete picture.

When it came to hobbies, I noticed that I was missing something. Others had hobbies that they enjoy, and they were able to do amazing feats with them. People were able to accomplish tasks that were fascinating and inspiring. Yet, I did not think I was getting anywhere near that. It wasn’t until I saw the opposite of the achievers that I had a good understanding of what I was missing. Over the course of the last few years, I met people who would mutter about past dreams they held. They looked back with regret and longing at what they could have accomplished. Hearing this, I wondered why they just didn’t do it. What stopped them? Thinking about it, I realized it was the amount of effort they put into their goals. Those that I saw achieve their goals gave time and effort towards the accomplishments. Those that looked back with regret, did not. It wasn’t until this past year, where I almost spent equal time with each personality that it cemented what I needed.

This summer is more about just getting my coding and writing to snuff. I have dreamed of big things, like most people have. Yet, I have not put forth the effort that was required in making those ideas a reality. This summer is about changing that. This summer is about understanding the work that is needed to make myself better than what I am. This summer, I will begin to break the laziness that I have hid behind for too long. That is why I am doing what I’m doing.

To be fair, this is not a ground-breaking discovery. In fact, I’ve read countless quotes, stories, articles, and personal accounts that focus on this very topic. Well, it’s unfortunate that I tend to learn things only when I experience them. You can tell me over and over that the stove is hot, but I won’t fully understand it until I test it out myself. That is something that I’m also working on. As of now, I am working on my self-motivation. Here’s to becoming a real go-getter.

How I Will Keep Going: Very loose ideas

So, I said earlier that I don’t have enough of a base plan to feel like I am making real progress. This is still the problem that I am coming across. I have a general idea of where I want to improve on this, but I don’t have a solid base. So, to help me organize the ideas, I might as well write them down.

For the programming side of things, I need a project(or projects) to work on that will require me to keep at it. I want to continue work on the Yahtzee clone, but that is a minor project at best. It’s not something that will take up an entire summer(or if it did, I need to get my butt in gear). Mostly, I’ve been skirting around getting down into it. That might just be my big problem with it, as getting to work is what I need to do. Yet, I don’t have enough of a net to catch me after I complete that project. Now, I might not have to worry about that, as ideas tend to come when one is hard at work. So, my idea is that I will work on the clone for now, and leave the worrying to later. I am doing this in the hope that an idea comes about during work on the clone.

With the writing, I am going to have a bit more of a harder time. I will keep doing the updates as I am, but I need a project on this side to expand on it. This is where I am having more difficulty. I don’t have a solid idea on what the project needs to be about, and I’m not sure how to come across an idea. I always imagined ideas as some sudden burst that came to you at times that seemed appropriate. I never thought of the inverse, where I would have to seek out the ideas. Now, I have known that seeking out ideas is a valuable trait, but I have never needed to apply the idea too much. In hindsight. that is a slight on my part, and needs to be fixed. I am hoping that I can gain some of that experience while I scratch my head over the writing project.

Update To Plans: Figuring out where I go from here

So, I might have become a bit disoriented. I went charging into an idea that I had without having a full idea of where to go with it. I am not going to give up on the idea, as it is a good way to get my mind in the habit of doing the work I need to, whether I feel like it or not. It should also be a good chance to improve my skills where I think I should focus them. Now, where the problem lies is in how I went about this. I said to write and program every day, but I didn’t have many ideas on what to do with those. I didn’t have big project ideas that I could work on. This is creating a bit of a stumble block. Creating a post everyday about my progress is important to the overall idea(and I will probably keep doing it), but it doesn’t feel all that productive to the idea of improving my writing ability, or to finding applicable ways to apply the skill. Going through config files in order to set up my ideal work space is sort of procrastinating the core idea of coding.

These are not horrible stumbling blocks, but I do have to deal with them. The course of action that I will take to work on this is to make a plan. I should have a good outline on some projects that I ought to do with the particular fields that I have chosen. I need some core coding projects that will take a while to complete(and challenge me), and some writing projects that I can go more in-depth with the writing process. It’s simple, but should cover most of the problem.

The worst part is that there are others who have done this before me. There has got to be enough documentation about what others did that would have alerted me to an issue like this. I will try to make sure that I look through other people’s experiences with what I am trying to do. I should be able to handle most of the problems if others have experienced them before me.