One small step for you, one giant leap for yourself
Tags: watercooler, webdev, beginners
Published: 2022-06-30 06:23:20

Many people are following my articles and the articles of many others because they want to become developers.

Sometimes I receive messages or read tweets from people asking how they can become a developer in x time.

And frankly, there is no correct answer to that question.

Let's take this question for example:

"How long should you boil an egg?"

![Two eggs with faces by Klaus Nielsen](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1655703842438/UKocouYGQ.jpg)

People will give you answers from anything between 3 minutes and 8+ minutes, depending on what they like.

This exact problem happens with development as well.
Let's say you asked this question to a developer who studies it. Their answer will always be "x school years + y", as a self-taught developer who spends 60 hours a week might say one year.

And for me,

I say what most developers would say: "It depends."

But foremost, I would say, you [never stop learning](https://daily-dev-tips.com/posts/never-stop-learning/).

## One small step

My main advice would be to keep it fun for yourself. Don't forget this is not a sprint. It's a marathon.

You want to become a developer who enjoys their job in the long run.
You need to take things one step at a time to achieve that.

![One big pair and one baby pair of shoes](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1655703913746/psHuxA4aIX.jpg)

How big those steps still depends on how big of a step you can make.
Again, someone with tall legs might do bigger steps than someone with short legs.

However, the result is always the same. By learning day to day, you will improve so much over time.

## One giant leap

Small learning accumulates over time, and some of you might even have read [James Clear, Atomic Habits](https://jamesclear.com/).

This graph comes from James's book and shows how a 1% a day improvement will accumulate over time to contribute to one giant leap.

![1% improvement a day exponential graph](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1655703312704/VcZsNkwy0.jpeg)

For some people, this approach sounds like a waste, but I challenge you to try it out with anything you do.

Try making the steps smaller but more consecutive; you will also see this exponential growth.

## What not to do

I've seen some horrible advice around the internet, where people tell you, you can become an x developer in only one week.

Trust me, it won't work, and you will only get frustrated and annoyed by the results.

![Frustrated person behind laptop](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1655703969789/3f4Jxb8Lm.jpg)

You also can't dedicate 100% of your time to learning. Well, maybe you can for a week, a month. But by the end of that, you'll be mentally drained.

So keep that momentum going, and grow day by day.

## My story

Before, I've talked about [my process](https://daily-dev-tips.com/posts/how-writing-700-articles-changed-my-life/) but a small recap.
I decided to start blogging daily, it's a good habit to form, and by doing so, I learn, re-learn and experiment with development-related things.

To me, it's a great way to improve over time. 800+ articles in, and I picked up many great things from writing these articles.

A bonus is that by writing them down, I actually get to remember them better, and I can always look back at how I solved a specific issue.

But don't get turned off by the writing part. That's my preference. Your way of learning might be by reading about it, creating a project, or watching a video.
Choose a method that works for you.

## Conclusion

By improving ourselves only 1% daily, we grow exponentially as humans. This is a perfect way to tackle any skill we want to master.

And by taking that one small step every day, you are making giant leaps over time for yourself.

### Thank you for reading, and let's connect!

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