A Daily, Consistent Practice Makes the Difference in Learning to Code

Once, not that long ago, I struggled with JavaScript and was unsure if I would ever become competent. Now, I’m not only competent, but growing confident.

While it shouldn’t be amazing, it really is amazing how a consistent, daily practice can strengthen your skills. It wasn’t very long ago that I struggled with JavaScript, to the extent that I felt I hadn’t really earned my certification. It was frustrating at best, downright disappointing at worst, and there were days when I felt like I would never actually get it.

But I stuck with it. I put my head down and started this journey a little over a hundred days ago, and I’m now in a place where I’m coming up with ideas and coding them. Successfully! It’s incredibly encouraging.

For example, with gyms and studios shutting down due to this pandemic, I thought about ways I could add value to the clients involved in my online programs. While following up with a participant, I came up with the idea to offer a simple add on, something my clients could quickly call up to augment their workout for the day, or to call up at random for whatever reason. As the idea baked, it seemed to me that it might take me some time to code to get it right. I announced to my programs’ participants that COREBot would be on and off for a few days while I worked on this new command.

Turns out, I was able to knock out the command in a matter of minutes. I created two supporting JSON objects from which the command would pull, and that took some time due to coming up with the various exercises. But the function itself? Perhaps no more than 10 minutes and three lines of code, two of which were variable declarations.

I love this. I yet have those days where I ride the struggle bus over a long and broken road, but those days are fewer and farther between than they used to be. With each passing day, I’m growing more confident in my skills as I improve in my practice. I’m well on my way to becoming a JavaScript ninja, and soon enough, I’ll be a full stack developer.

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