Apr to June Goals; Post 1 of 10 (Minimum): __**Consolidate**; Like “Nike,” Just Do It!__
Tags: webdev, beginners, learning, programming
Published: 2023-04-29 20:30:50

Sometimes, an individual—such as “Yours Truly”—just has to admit some bitter character-fault truths to themself. Key among these (perhaps the most important): admit failure or sub-par performance, and resolve to do better.

Several days ago, I turned 38. Yessir/ma’am/esteemed-NB, I’m getting old. So, no indeed, I didn’t “celebrate” the day. 

Instead, I was depressed, obsessing and brooding about the fact that by this age, “for crying out loud, I shouldn’t be divorced, in the current career stagnation I’ve been experiencing the past 8 years, not in the financial-security position I desire, etc.” Heck, I’ve even come around—or, I am coming around (as I’m still not 100% certain), re: the topic of kids. If I have enough resources, why not have a couple of cute 👶s (babies)?! 

And yep, by now, you’re probably thinking, “Oh…ok…(!) [dude], what’s your point?!” 
Answer: I need to “grow up,” shut up, and “stay calm & carry on” indeed! For in fact, that type of “woe-is-me” thinking is poisonous and self-defeatist. Reasons:

1)—For crying out loud, DO NOT COMPARE yourself to other people! Sure, some savants succeed by the age of 12 or 16, 20, etc. But others/most, in fact, succeed much later. 

2)—Related to no.-1 above: just strive to be consistent! Over the years, I’ve come up with various tricks to help myself, vis-a-vis productivity. E.g., my personal maxim: “A page per day keeps the deadline away!” So then, why not use them?!

3)—It’s ok to discover, hone, and successfully use your own styles, preferred methods, etc. And of course, you have to also know how to use the conventional tools that communities and organizations use. 

You can’t say: “Nope, I refuse to GitHub; I’ll just share my code updates via Google-Drive!” Nope, that’s not how it works, dear friend.

The key, then—given the above two truths: strive to strike a balance between your personal- and conventional working methods, styles, and tool-preferences.

## <<<—————/—————>>>

With all the above said, it is also important to note the following fact: even though useless/unnecessary “self-flagellation” isn’t good, one can in fact also use it as a launch-point/base for improvement-resolutions. 

In other words / for instance, we can/SHOULD: 

1)—Regroup and review; as ourselves: “What have I done right and wrong, and/or, given my list of goals “X, Y, and Z,…”;…

2)—What should I do moving forward; how should I improve my working methods and/or general lifestyle, so as to achieve those goals? And in this post, I am earnestly attempting to execute the above self-assessment. 

**_>>> Part 1: Review_**
—————————————————————————

Previous/current goals, and achievement-progress thereof:

**Goals:**

>> i) Master the MERN stack;

>> ii) Continue mastering data science methods via Python (and R);

>>iii) Continue building the HEX app with my two partners;

>> iv) General entrepreneurship activities, esp. the launch or SN-Ventures, a video—game and IT services business;

>> v) In tandem with that latter goal: start a techno-creativity collective; goal: to help East African youth and young adults vis-a-vis tech self-training, creativity, networking, entrepreneurship, etc.

**Progress/Performance:**

—->>> GitHub Link for Evaluation of Goals i, ii, and iii: 
https://github.com/dibleauzah
—->>> Please under goals iv and v for websites.

>> i) Grade: C+
>> ii) Grade: B-
>> iii) B-
>> iv) A
Website:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/sn-ventures-east-africa/
———————————
>> v) A
Website:
[Same as above; other URLs coming soon.]

## <<<—————//—————>>> 

**_>>> Part 2: Improvement-Resolutions_**
—————————————————————————

A)—Resume the “Back to the Basics” learning of HTML, CSS, and JS; and resume the MERN-stack learning.

B)—Continue the data-science training—caveat: via quick practical exercises, instead of attempting to tackle analyses of large data-sets, etc.

C)—Optional (longterm goal): slowly resume the HEX app building.

D)—Continue working towards the goal of launching a Nairobi location in Q3/August this year.

E)—Continue mobilization efforts with the “Vijana-Mashariki” collective.