Starting out is easy, the hard part is to continue.
Anything for a while is easy:
- Work out for a while
- Study for a while
- Diet for a while
- Work right for a while
- Take good care of the family for a while
- Save for a while
- Programming for a while
For a while, everything is a piece of cake.
But what will get you there is not being brilliant for a while.
What takes you there is being consistent for a LONG time.
James Clear has an interesting take on this.
On the image below you can see how a tiny gain makes such a huge difference when compounded for long enough.
And also the opposite, how a tiny loss will throw you to 0 in the long run.
Liz Fosslien also illustrates this very well.
How seemingly small steps lead to big changes over time:
And finally, an illustration by Jack Butcher.
Where you can see how you put in a lot of work for some time and see no results and thinks "This is pointless", and then, all of a sudden, you get some traction (this is especially true on the internet):
Most people will never see curves like this in their own lives because they give up too soon.
The urge to give up quickly comes from the several examples of other people on the internet having results much faster, so one thinks that, if they are not getting results fast, they are just doing it wrong.
This is totally not the case.
These people are outliers, they just seem common because their word spreads fast on the web and makes you think that’s the norm when it’s not.
Everyone talks about their successes, few talk about their failures, simple human nature.
Everyone has their own rhythm, and the rule of thumb here is that you have to give a lot before asking for anything.
It’s very easy to get started when we’re excited.
Then it becomes a routine and the excitement is gone.
Only those with the discipline to go through the excitement abyss will reap the rewards of their effort.
Learning Programming is Non-Linear, so you might feel stuck here and there, but this shouldn’t discourage you from learning and persevering.
By showing up every day you are already ahead of the majority of people.
You have to survive long enough in any game to start being noticed.
And a big chunk of any success is being present.
So don’t give up too quickly.
The hard part is to continue.