How Do You Keep Your Motivation to Learn and Grow?

How do you maintain your motivation to learn and grow? How do you keep going when you get discouraged or tired? With new things coming out all of the time, how do you keep from getting overwhelmed? These are the questions we will answer in today's episode of Dev Questions.
Website: www.iamtimcorey.com/
Ask Your Question: suggestions.iamtimcorey.com/
Sign Up to Get More Great Developer Content in Your Inbox: signup.iamtimcorey.com/

[@niksatan]

I feel overwhelmed and frankly ...old and too slow... Thanks for useful video.

[@nafisrahman5791]

Hey nik. Keep going, we're all in this together. Feel free to reach out

[@niksatan]

@@nafisrahman5791 Of course. I know we all feel it sometimes

[@carminoski]

I think that a lot of people feel the same

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome. Keep moving in the right direction and keep looking back at how far you've come rather than how far you have to go.

[@giorgosfilippas259]

Great video! I have and another tip. When you have learned a lot of stuff and you are tired you can gain energy and satisfaction by looking back, even at the baby steps. I will say something from my experience as as employee. When I I'm overwhelmed by writting complex code and I get tired, when I go back home I watch a video on a single c# feature I had learned in the past. It helps A LOT!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks for sharing!

[@xxwarpigxx]

I always run into this problem, I have like burst of motivation but I got burnout pretty quickly and can't maintain my learning or maybe I say something like "half an hour is not much, may as well do nothing" and end up doing nothing, but as you said "Discipline is doing what we need to do even if we don't want to" and maintain it even if its at a lower intensity because doing something is better than doing nothing

[@IAmTimCorey]

I am glad it was helpful.

[@joshpeck443]

This was perfectly timed. I started a new role as an Enterprise Solutions Architect coming from product management. I was extremely motivated at first, absorbing all of the AWS content I could, but the farther I get into AWS the harder it gets to understand all of the services and when to use them. I was very motivated but lacked the discipline to maintain my studies as I gained more responsibilities at work…almost three months in I wasn’t sure if I was going to last. I know now that my motivation went away, but now if i can replace that with discipline to keep learning about a new service each week, i’ll know which ones to use and how…. and then I can get my certifications!

[@vigneshmoorthie922]

Do you mind if ask how you went to become a enterprise solutions architect? Like how many years of experience did you need and did you need certification?

[@joshpeck443]

@@vigneshmoorthie922 I fell into a job really. I wasnt certified, but a lot of places do require it. I would say it’s not about the certification, it’s being confident that you can bring value to a team. I was able to show value and my work ethic, the team picked me up knowing I could learn the skills needed for AWS

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks for sharing.

[@carminoski]

My bigger problem: focusing on one thing only instead of jumping around from one thing to another just because I feel (like a lot of people feels) that world is running super fast, everyday there is something new that comes up, feeling the risk to become obsolete in 1 year or 2. Considered the complexity of the world we live in, the fact that it's impossible to know and to master everything, the main inssue is how to choose a path that has the potential to be successful in the next five years. There is a range of options of things to pick but, in tech world, what is advertised to be the new big thing, many times, after one year or two, simply dies, and so there is a high risk of having wasted time. Great video !

[@caseyspaulding]

Agreed. Love learning but the direction is hard

[@IAmTimCorey]

The good news is that learning C# won't be one of those "it dies in 2 years" technologies. It has been around for over 20 years and it is only getting stronger. So has the web. Put those two together and you have a pretty good path. Learn C# well, then learn web development well. Now you have the skills of a "full-stack" developer and can choose which side to focus on (front-end or back-end) based upon your desires. But either way, you have the skills to dabble in the other side as well, which makes you really valuable to an employer. Flashy things will come and go, but having a solid understanding of C#, HTML, CSS, and vanilla JavaScript will make your skills practically future-proof.

[@Campesguy]

The age old question. If I had the same level of endless motivation I had back in the college days when first learning code, I would be a 10x engineer by now. Unfortunately, the real world industry beat that out of me eventually lol. I'm thankful it's not entirely gone though as I'm still here kicking.

[@IAmTimCorey]

I think that's just life. I also don't have the same level of physical energy that I did when I was in college.

[@fakeITDevTeam]

feels like you understand us for what we are currently- or will- experience. thank you

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@joaopaulorodriguessantos3687]

What a priceless lesson! Thanks, Tim! I appreciate your videos and this one was perfect. I believe we all suffer from a lack of motivation and discipline sometimes, and this video helped me to keep pushing forward my goals.

[@IAmTimCorey]

I am glad it was so helpful.

[@DavidMares-dc3yk]

"if you don't use it you loose it" i try to think about practical uses of some C# concept and try to use the concept 20 times. I think that is better than learning for the sake of learning. I prefer to know 20% of something and ignore most of it than watching yet another 10 hour tutorial haha

[@IAmTimCorey]

Practice is really important to learning.

[@Rcls01]

Enthusiasm for different technologies and things you can learn is what drove me to a new level in my skills after I got promoted to a lead software architect position. I wanted to be the one who knows the architecture, the solutions, the technology options so I can be helpful. Then it really plummeted once I realized that the people around me had no interest in learning new things. They just wanted things to stay the same so they can stay relevant. But at that point I just left for a new job. Your motivation is also affected by external factors, a lot. If you have children, some days be exhausting. Next day you just want to relax. When working for a customer you can get frustrated by things you know you can be improved, but they don't want to adopt them. That makes you lose enthusiasm for the project and so goes your motivation. At that point you just grind it out, do the work and don't really want to invest in trying to help them achieve excellence.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Yeah, motivation is fickle. That's why discipline is so necessary to make good progress.

[@ElSanto0044]

This is exactly what I was looking for. I'm on vacations learning JavaScript and my motivation faded away pretty fast. Thank you so much, I'll put in practice what you said. Glad that I subscribed to your channel.

[@IAmTimCorey]

I am glad it was so helpful.

[@analyth]

Thank you Tim for this video and your hard work to teach us. Love it!

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@TheVentureaaron]

Great advice. Thank you.

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@andreasvanbergen9696]

Tim, I could not agree more.... Thanks for sharing this! Some lessons you have to repeat.... as you did now for me...👍

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@alfredo456852]

Great video Tim, thanks for posting it!

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

Great video, and advice! Thanks Tim.

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@unhandledexception1948]

great video, so true in regards to bouncing around while learn new topics, zapping thru topics....

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks!

[@ronaldjohnson4470]

Excellent advice Tim. I have ran into that problem before.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks!

[@pawel89pawel]

Thank you for the video amazing content (as usually). You are yet another person who talks about the importance of discipline. Through discipline to freedom. Getting there one inch at a time 😅😅😅. Hope to maintain my course of action. The idea of taking breaks is really helpful. For couple of months I was coding for 16-18 hours at work and after but I had to slow down to maintain my productivity and sanity. Looking forward to learn more from you.

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@facundovega1726]

With all of this uncertainty around Chatgpt and what will happen with our jobs sometimes it's hard to have motivation to keep learning while thinking we are gonna be replaced...

[@IAmTimCorey]

Don't worry about it: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fHbWkpuhjZyNfJo

[@Kikyoas]

Thanks!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thank you!

[@codefoxtrot]

I also found it helpful to go back and finish things I started, that I never really completed. That may have been a recommendation from your 'How to make 2021 count' video, which feels like yesterday, but is already 2 years ago!

[@codefoxtrot]

In general, life is about accomplishment, we move from one accomplishment to the next. Thus it's important to try and see projects through to completion, and celebrate that accomplishment.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Tracking progress is a great way to fuel more progress.

[@Smileymans]

Full kudos to that video. I needed that 😉

[@IAmTimCorey]

Glad it was helpful!

[@GabrielBauermann]

What a great lesson.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thank you!

[@nathansodja]

I am a salesforce dev now and apex, which is c# like is kicking my ass, I love that I have a lot to learn and feel beat at the same time, but I gotta keep going, that's how I became a JS dev and added SF to it, I just gotta keep going, more GRIT!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Slow and steady. Don't forget to look back occasionally to celebrate your progress and take breaks to recharge.

[@PaulSebastianM]

Discipline = being your own coach.

[@praveenprasanna2521]

Hi, I'm beginner to the Maui Blazor hybrid app, when I starting the application I got weird thing, which is a loading... screen after the splash. How do I remove that page?

[@code-knight]

Tim, I have a question. I am highly considering buying your C# Masterclass, but the one thing I'm hung up on is I'm not sure if it 100% fits my needs. Does the course go in-depth with EF Core, and if so, does it focus on a code-first or database-first approach?

[@IAmTimCorey]

I don't go into depth with EF Core. I cover it in about an hour. The C# Mastercourse is for giving you a good foundation in C# development. It isn't about going into depth on topics. The course is already 70+ hours. It is meant to get you started and give you the 80% you need for any given topic. From there, you can start developing professionally and you can know what you want to go into further depth on.

[@code-knight]

@@IAmTimCorey Thanks for the swift and honest reply! I think I'm starting to see the point in my career where it's maybe time to stop relying so heavily on courses if I want to specialize in things. It's seeming more and more like the best way to get really good at EF Core is to just get my hands dirty with it myself, rather than looking for "the perfect course".

[@Lightw81]

My motivation has motored off. I don't want to learn another technology to update a database so I've retired.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Well, that is a solution.

[@Lightw81]

@@IAmTimCorey in fairness your videos on Blazor are tempting me to dip a toe back in the water as a hobby programmer!

[@talldarkhansome1]

Just go watch a real video on discipline. This is just a 5 minute prep talk. He's not a counselor.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Never said I was a counselor. This video isn't titled "Counseling from Tim". This is the Dev Questions series, a series about questions developers have. As a developer with over two decades of experience, I have some wisdom to share about what I've learned as a developer when it comes to motivation and discipline. If you want a deep dive into discipline, sure, go watch a more comprehensive video on it. The thing is, most people don't need that. In fact, those that think they do are often just avoiding actually doing the work. The best way to gain discipline is to practice it, not learn about it.

[@RicardoOliveiraRGB]

I'm motivated to grow my knowledge about C# but I'm kinda unsure cuz there are so many big topics, like wpf, asp.net, maui etc that I'm lost in which one would be better for me. All topics are so big that it's not easy to master, so I don't know which path to follow

[@IAmTimCorey]

I've got a playlist called "Start Here" that provides videos that will give you a path for whichever topic sounds best to you: kzbin.info/aero/PLLWMQd6PeGY2_L2WC6_VYVEoAb4KhDPDW

[@claus7555]

I will take a ⏸️