Use what I have learned to learn again.

If I had written down, every single time I have searched for sentences like: "how to learn programming", "How to become a programmer", "Fast way to learn programming" etc.

I would have filled up a whole notebook, and when I'm sitting and writing this, I realized that most of the videos/articles I have read, all come up with the same "best" solution. Get your hands dirty: "Just do it" And then again, and again I find myself, sitting in front of my computer, and following some YouTuber doing a "tutorial" on how to write one project, to get a job.

I have tried a lot of these, following "along code" (I think they are called?) And they are great, like really great for showing you, how to waste 10 min to 5 hours, on nothing.

That said with a bit of ignorance, since I have learned something from them, I have learned how to structure your code in terms of file structure, what goes into each file, and so on.

But I have not learned to code, even though I have sitting hours and typing in the same as the YouTuber, since my brain is not learning, but copying. And for some odd reason, I tend to throw away what I have just copied.

How I will NOT: Lose myself.

Look
If you had one shot, or one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted
One moment
Would you capture it or just let it slip?
Yo
Eminem - Lose Yourself

This is where I am right now. Not only do I personally invest in this second chapter of myself, but also my family, my job and my self-confidence are all invested in this.
So for me, it's time, to sit and make a plan on how I do not screw up this one opportunity. And you might ask yourself why I call this one opportunity. Well, Im knows myself enough to realize that, if I sit here for one year, and cannot print("Hello World") In Python, I will lose all my motivation.

Make a plan, Stick to a plan.

So I have made up this plan I think will guide me to the throne.

1. Do body exercises once every week

   1. To keep focus, and gain from your (learning)pain, it's important to have a healthy body to absorb all the new things coming in. And with a kid, that's just turned 3 years old, and another one coming in January, it can be a bit hard to find the time to do it, so I also need to be realistic. So that's the reason I will only force myself to go to the gym once, every week.

2. Only do corsera course in the provided job time

   1. Even though the course I take is good, it's still a teacher that sits behind his desk and tells me how to do things. And that's not how my brain works, as I said. My brain throw away what it had copied. Well of course I get a lot out of the course, but I tend to remember only 20% of it if I do not practice it right after. Dont, know if I got some kind of ADHD or something like that. but I tend to lose concentration after a certain time, and when that first kicks in, I start to not listen and my brain goes banana in all different directions.

3. Free-time coding should be project-based.

   1. I have learned over the year, that the things I have just jumped myself into, are also what sticks into my head. take for example the absolute first VBA Script I made. My knowledge about VBA Script before that was basicly how to change a value in a cell using Range("A2").Value = 5 But I jumped right into the fountain, and after one-two week, of Google, watching videos and reading documentation I got something done. The result of this was hard work, hours of debugging, hours of frustration, and at last a crazy BIG HIGH FIVE to myself. Because I did all the things by myself. And that boosted my motivation and self-confidence.

Keeping track of my progress

So to keep myself in short robes, and give me some kind of measurement of how things are going, I'm gonna document my work in this blog.
I will document my journey, explain to myself the cliff I come across, and how I managed to get over them(or beside them), and do some self-code review, once in a while to boost my motivation...

So a long post, of my plan for not wasting this opportunity and a boost in my motivation. And hopefully someone, someday step by and get the right kick they need in their journey to keep going forward.

Programming is not easy, but everybody can learn it. And I'm here to prove to the past me, that I will also manage to go from non-coder to a programmer.

Mattias