You’re on a mission. Excited, fired up, and ready to conquer a two-four-ten-year degree ✓ (my AS degree check-marked done) or a self-paced curriculum at Launch School (current task). It might be your first day/month, and the excitement still pumps adrenaline comforting your mind from distractions. Or, as most of the students do, you’ve been hit by life. Priorities made good excuses. You have been doing your best not to flip the boat juggling problems-solutions with relationships, personal finance, and survival. Hear it from someone who got kicked out of their mother-in-law’s house and became homeless for two weeks:

Regardless of the importance of priorities, there is a way to do it all.

How?

First, kill the “I can’t” mentality. That’s an excuse for those who never commit to their promises. If you’re not doing something, use “I don’t”. Save your integrity. You are not a victim of circumstances. Think, I create my destiny and my great life by making the following steps. I don’t enjoy being in the current situation. I am doing all I can to solve the problem I put myself into. After we become adults, even natural disasters destroying our homes happen by our choice. We chose to have a house there, and we know there are risks involved. Take responsibility.

This is my problem, and I have a solution.

For the enlightened, apply the PEDAC process. If you don’t know what it is, read this article from Launch School.

If you want a summary of practical tips, skip to the next three dots.

Here is how life got in the way for me, and how I dealt with it.

I’ve been unemployed since June 2022 and expected to land a remote graphic designer position within a couple of months at most. It’s been 11 months now. When the income is not coming, the expenses still do. In January, 5 months after faithfully sending in hundreds of applications, and landing sketchy sales jobs interviews, I gave up. There must be something wrong with my portfolio, resume, cover letter, communications, keywords, etc. I don’t know! When in doubt, go back to the prompt and read the problem, “I need money to survive”, so how do I get money? Get a job. How do I get a job? Apply for a thousand more the same way? That approach failed my expectations by 3 months. It’s a failure, I am not going that route.

Moved on to solution number two. Get help to get a job. What can guarantee me to get a job? ISA — Income Sharing Agreement. Not a guarantee, per se, but close enough. If they get paid after I get a job, they must have some interest in helping me get money ASAP. That’s how I got to meet Chris, the Founder of Launch School. They have a DPP — Deferred Payment Plan you have to qualify for. DPP basically says that Chris will pay for you until you get a job, and then you pay him back. Don’t quit though, or else you’re in big trouble (pay your debts immediately). I started out great, thinking I’ll swim through the curriculum like a fish in the water.

I did pretty well until life smacked me swiftly in the face. Problem number one — money. Bank dropped to $3. Freaking out, but hanging in there. Luckily, I could teach horseback riding lessons at my mother-in-law’s ranch and pay her only $300 to live/board my horses there.

Booked two lessons for another life-smacking Sunday (April 16, 2023). Half an hour before my morning lesson, Lily (Fernando’s mom, my mother-in-law, and the landlord of the ranch) asked to talk. It didn’t end well. She asked for a $400 increase in the rent, and I managed to screw up. While I was thinking of how we can pay, she voiced that I was a disrespectful manipulator, she doesn’t like me and threatened to call the police if I don’t leave right away. I don’t deal with drama and conflicts. We left. Launch School was not a priority. Problem number two — housing.

That’s how I and Fernando ended up homeless for two weeks (thanks Starbucks for free wifi) until we could miraculously rent an apartment in Tucson. Donated plasma (a portion of the blood) for money. My LS study Time Logs suffered quite a bit. Now I am fortunate to have a pillow and a $12 side table we picked up from a local seller on OfferUp. Learning doesn’t need a lot of stuff.

Luxury learning environment: roof, pillow, water, and a computer on a mini-table.

Here is what you need to keep learning despite the challenges of life:

1. “I am” and “I do” mentality of taking responsibility.
   Ex: I am finishing the Core and a Capstone.
   Ex: I do this for a better life for my kids.
   Ex: I am smart and capable.
   Ex: I am supported by hundreds of students that completed this curriculum.
2. “I don’t” and “I won’t” definitions of integrity.
   Ex: I don’t put up with other people’s drama.
   Ex: I won’t repeat mistakes I made in the past.
   Ex: I don’t let failures of the past dictate my future.
   Ex: I won’t stop moving forward.
3. Trust in God. You have a purpose to be great and achieve what you deserve. Sometimes, what you see as a smack of life is actually a blessing that marks a milestone in your beautiful life.

Without this mindset, my life’s slaps would have taken me out of balance into an excuse of “I don’t have time”. It’s not about time. It’s about priority. Because of mindset, integrity, and trust, I understand what part of life’s “Algo” to code next. For proper programming of this mindset plugin, listen to Ed Mylett’s interviews with world-class performers in various fields.

As a more hands-on tool for those who have mastered the mindset, you can read an article about time logs that help me recognize that I missed a day of coding, track performance, and keep coding a priority.