Transform goals into action: The Conscious Developer Guide
Tags: webdev, react, node, css
Published: 2021-03-29 13:48:35

Everything is instant. In the midst of the digital age, we've seen a shift towards fast fixes. Fast food, fast network, fast fashion. As a society, most of our daily activities hinge on some sort of technology that delivers quick, efficient results. We are addicted to instant gratification.

Let's take a few steps back. What does that mean for ourselves? We _expect_ success. In fact, I would bet you were just about to skip to the bottom - and that's a natural reaction.

![Alt text of image](https://media.giphy.com/media/ZYCPezSSUTswFL9QcZ/giphy.gif)
<figcaption> As humans we were built to spot the most necessary information for our survival.</figcaption>
<br></br>But most of us are not out in the wild, banking on whether or not we'll get back home safely. We are sitting, quite comfortably, in an era of resources and information. 

That brings us to the missing part of the equation. While we run towards the grandiosity of our fast-paced lifestyle, we forget to remember that nothing worthwhile has ever been achieved in an instant. Our creativity, attention and focus has become so eroded that our very solutions; technology, fast results, entitlement to success, have become our demise.

This can be even greater when your entire career is dependent on technology. Now with coding bootcamps and fast-track courses becoming the norm to a developer's path, it comes as no surprise that there is an overwhelming number of aspiring developers learning every new tech trend but still struggling to understand a language to its full depth.

I'm admittedly one of them.

So, a bootcamp and a few jobs later, I've decided to embark on a more _conscious_ journey to success.

![Alt text of image](https://media.giphy.com/media/26gs78HRO8sOuhTkQ/giphy.gif)

Taking inspiration from [Radhika's post](https://https://dev.to/rmorabia/study-habits-for-programmers-part-i-let-s-make-a-study-plan-4h41), I broke down my top developer weaknesses into goals, and those goals into actions. 

### Outcomes:
* Master NodeJS
* Grasp React Logic
* Get confident with CSS animations
* Improve problem-solving skills

(While some of these are more specific than others, the general idea was to narrow down my weaknesses into an end goal.)

_Let's go into a little more detail._

### Master NodeJS
1. Timeline: I give myself a month.
2. What: Create a nodeJS app (can be anything).
3. When: Minimum 1 hour per day.
4. Resources: [Theodinproject's Node course] (https://www.theodinproject.com/paths/full-stack-javascript/courses/nodejs)

### Master React logic
1. Timeline: I give myself 6 weeks.
2. What: Create an interactive react app (can be anything).
3. When: Minimum 2 hours per day.
4. Resources: [Scrimba's free React course] (https://scrimba.com/learn/learnreact), [The Beginner's Guide to React
](https://egghead.io/courses/the-beginner-s-guide-to-react) and 'The Opinionated Guide to React'. 

### Get confident with CSS animations
1. Timeline: No strict deadline - focus on consistency.
2. What: Create one simple animation a day.
3. When: Minimum 5 times a week.
4. Resources: [CSS for JS Devs] (https://css-for-js.dev/), [CSS Animation articles](https://cssanimation.rocks/), [and another amazing resource from Josh](https://www.joshwcomeau.com/animation/css-transitions/).

### Improve problem-solving skills
1. Timeline: No strict deadline - focus on consistency.
2. What: One codewars / leetcode problem a day. Combined with revision of resources below.
3. When: Minimum 5 times a week.
4. Resources: [Algorithms course](https://www.coursera.org/learn/algorithms-part1), [JS Algo - Colt Steele](https://www.udemy.com/course/js-algorithms-and-data-structures-masterclass/), [Advanced Js - Hussain](https://www.udemy.com/course/javascript-advanced/).

Of course, if you follow me on github you would also be aware that I'm in the midst of another side project - my very own static developer blog! The aim is to start blogging about my coding career as soon as that's finished.

But for now, we will take it one step at a time, one day at a time. Feel free to follow me on my journey as I code and write about code.

Remember - you will never always be motivated, so you must learn to always be disciplined.