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"I don't know if I'm cut out for this"

I remember thinking this a thousand times when I started coding. The truth is nobody is cut out for anything.

By the end of this short newsletter read, I will give you a better idea of how to get a coding habit (or any habit) to stick, and an understanding of how your past forged your current life path.

Nobody is born with a natural ability to code, and nobody is inherently a "genius". The seed of life is rooted in luck.

I see luck in three different ways. All of them fall under the umbrella of "the circumstances of birth"

Imposed Identity

This is who people told you to were:

• "You're such a smart kid"
• "God, you're so lazy"
• "You can't focus"

These statements leave massive impressions on us as children and are no fault of our own.

Imposed Behavior

This is how people showed you to act:

• Go to work -> Come home and eat junk food
• Do nothing all day -> Complain about the world
• Find your passion -> Live a free and intentional life

When you are born you know nothing. So all your behavior is mapped to your parents. How they behaved shapes your behavior today.

Imposed Environment

This is where you were born:

• The upper class in the United States
• Poverty in a third-world country
• A farming family in rural China

All of these dramatically affect who you are, your opportunities, beliefs, morals, and how you see the world. To claim you are above the influence of your environment is an egotistical claim.

Um.. I thought this was a newsletter about software 🤨

Sort of... I think it's shallow to talk about software all day while forgetting that we are human beings.

With that being said. I don't know what your circumstances of birth are, but here is the good news:

Now that you're older and your brain isn't occupied by cartoons and play-doh you can impose identity, behavior, and environment on yourself.

Here's how I would do each one.

Identity

When you think of things like:

• I'm not good at complex things
• I never follow through with anything
• I am not as talented as other people

You are reinforcing the identity that was imposed on you

Impose new identities on yourself:

• I am a person with the determination to create a better life
• I am the kind of person who writes code daily
• I am persistent and see things through

At first, it will feel forced - until it doesn't.

Sometimes we are the creators of our own problems.

Behavior

Instead of getting home from work and plopping on the couch just like your old man did try to challenge that habit.

The best way to change behavior is to add friction to bad behaviors and reduce friction to desired behaviors.

Example:

"I want to code for 30 minutes before I watch TV"

1. Place your laptop open to a code editor for when you get home
2. Put a lock on the tv with the password "IHaveCodedFor30MinutesToday"

Increase and reduce friction until something sticks.

Environment

In this case, I always view the environment as people.

Who do you want to be?

What does that person do daily?

Do the people in my life exemplify any characteristics that I aspire towards?

These questions are way easier said than done, adding and removing people from your life is painful. We're all human. It's a painful thing to do for all of us.

But the most painful things are what cause the most change.

Find friends who code.

Find friends who push through.

Find friends who say "no you're not" when you say "I'm a loser"

___________________________

As always shoot me an email at swdlodonnell@gmail.com. I respond 😳

Thank you all for reading.

I will see you next week 👋