🥊 Mentorship Minute: Roles and Goals

Lets stop labeling ourselves and instead focus on what matters.  We are not beginners or advanced practitioners at anything.  That language is dangerous and is not helping us get what we want. For example, if I immerse myself in some activity, who am I or you to judge what level I am performing at.  When we have an obsession for something,  our personal growth can be so rapid and our memory can be so terrible that often we do not give ourselves credit for how far we have progressed. What I am suggesting here is that we be more careful with the language we use and the labels we place on ourselves. For example, today when we woke up if I chose to integrate something into my life like becoming a mobile application developer and I put in the work to get those skills then today I am a mobile app developer.  I am not a beginner or advanced, I am just growing.  What would prevent me from being a mobile app developer?  The day I put on my lazy pants and stop integrating that role into my regular routine is the day I stop being a mobile app developer.  All the days in between is a choice to play the role of mobile application developer. Does that make sense? What is preventing you from taking on a role or being more effective in areas of your life? Here is some homework, list the roles you choose to  play in your life each week.  Don't  say that you "have to" play a role.  You and only you can put your body in motion so take ownership over that and realize there are some things you choose to do that perhaps you don't like and some other roles that you enjoy. Identify those areas where you want to become more effective in that role and identify some other roles you want to cut out.  Now that those roles are defined (on paper!) we can now determine what is the one most impactful activity we can focus on this week to enhance or eradicate that role's concentration in our life.  See how easy that was to set a goal, purpose fit to our unique scenario. For example if you drive to work every day and you don't want to be a driver of cars, there is a few things you could do.  Talk with your employer about the mutual benefits of working at a home office part of the week, find carpool with someone, or even begin the hunt to find a job that is more amicable.  Bottom line is if you drive to work and you don't like doing that you are actually choosing not to talk with your boss, not to find a carpool buddy or not to find a better employment situation.  See how that works, either way you choose to be the captain of your ship. Determine your roles and set your goals.  I love the clarity in this process. If you are looking for a framework to operate in consider one like the 100 days of code challenge.  It has a set amount of time, there is accountability and best of all you experience immersion.  Imaging how a daily activity like that would improve your role as a programmer.   Don't worry if you don't code, there is a #100daysof   anything you could imagine. After the week is done review the roles you chose to play in your life and your results.  Did you prioritize what are the most important things?  Did you detect more roles that you want to improve or remove? I hope to hear good news from you in the coming weeks. Ben McNeill 💚https://profitablepython.fm👽 Ben McNeill is a personal brand coach for python software developers, practicing petroleum engineer, and podcast host of the Profitable Python show. His passion is solving problems with code 🐍, meeting amazing humans, and demonstrating leadership through self mastery. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/profitablepythonfm/message