So this is it. The first post. I’ve had dozens of ideas on posts I could write. Of all the things I could choose, I think I’m going to have to write about writing. More specifically, how I got here to writing this post.
I’ve been thinking about starting some sort of blog for over a year now. I knew I would someday, but first I had a mountain of questions I had to answer. Of all of my interests, what topic would I write about? What would I call it? Would my site name be good enough? Was I really ready to take something to the masses of the internet? Not to mention all the anxieties of it all. What if my writing is awful? What if I realize in a year from now that my insights were actually really bad advice? I don’t know anything about web design. How am I supposed to make something that doesn’t look like garbage?
I dabbled with some ideas and started some sample posts here and there, but it wasn’t really going anywhere. I told myself I was making some slow progress on things, but it was just a disguised form of procrastination. It was a way to make myself feel like I was making progress without ever having to make the jump, commit to anything or start getting any real experience or feedback.
What I really need to start this journey is to put something out there. Something. Anything. Even if it could be improved. Even if I realize in a month from now that I want to go off in a completely different direction. Even if it’s junk.
At least to start, I want to start blogging about my journey and insights in developing the soft skills needed to thrive in the software industry. Hard skills are the technical things that you need like how to code in Javascript or knowing when use a map instead of a list. Soft skills are more about the mental, social and political aspect of the job.
In light of this being my first post ever, here’s the first soft skill: Stop waiting for the right time to come. It never will.
Brains are funny. They are really good at repeating the past. What feels comfortable and natural today is what we’re already in the groove of. This creates a really big problem if we are waiting to start things until it feels right. Up front they never will. If you start small and keep going though, they will. Things feeling normal and comfortable is the reward for pushing past the feeling of discomfort up front. This is not a new idea, but it is one I’ve tried and can say does work.
In practical terms, pause for a minute and think about what it is you really want. Perhaps you work on the backend, but wish you did frontend work, or there’s some process that if you just took the time to automate, you’re life would be so much easier. Maybe you really want to get promoted, move to a different team, work at a different company or switch careers entirely.
Some things are small, and the only thing holding you back is just deciding that you’re going to go free up a few minutes and do it. Other things are much bigger and are more of a marathon than a sprint. Here’s the key. Start small and start somewhere. Think of one thing you could do. Then tomorrow think of another and another. As the old proverb goes, a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. Talk with your manager about your career goals, develop a proof of concept for your big idea, start up a conversation with someone on a team you’d like to be on, start learning about or practicing skill sets that you’d need to be promoted to the job you want to be in, or start a habit of watching for job posting at companies your interested in.
Really it doesn’t have to be big and it doesn’t have to be good. It just has to be something. You don’t have to answer all the questions up front and you don’t need a plan from A-Z. Don’t worry how to get all the way to the end. You’ll know what step B is when you’ve taken step A, and once you’ve taken step B, step C will be much more clear. Just start.