if you constantly tell yourself you should be better, or should be doing more, or should magically know how to do things without practice, then you’re going about it all wrong. I work crazy hard at the things I want to be good at and I don’t expect to be an expert in them without a lot of work, and possibly never in my lifetime. I don’t tell myself I should be better at painting. I just paint, and then figure out how I can do better the next time. Too often though I see people who, despite not investing any time in learning to code, have this unrealistic idea that they should be better at it. They should just know how to code a small project from nothing. - Zed Shaw

I think the ‘Magical Should Thinking’ is just what I did for a long time. And that’s the reason why I always feel upset when I learning programming or music or just anything else. I thought I should do better, I should do more. But actually, I can’t make it. I blame myself, I think maybe I could not make it forever, then I just wanna give up.

So what I could learn from Zed?

  • Just do it, just practice, keep on practicing
  • Focus on how I can do better the next time
  • Even if I make something that’s not good, that’s ok. I just need more practice. it’s just an opportunity that I could improve myself.

What could I practice now?

Today I try to start to write my English blog now. Even if seems hard to me, but I will try. Try to write down some simple sentences, try to write down my thoughts. At first, I could only write down one simple paragraph this morning. But in the evening, I never thought I could write down so many words. I even searched for some podcasts to improve my English this afternoon and maybe I will write some notes on learning English, too.

If I worried about I could not write a good English blog, then I would not try to take the tiny step to write down my first paragraph, then all these things will not happen. I am happy to experience that, if I start to do it, I could find more joy and interesting changes that I never thought before.

I wanna celebrate my first start. And I am happy that I could meet Zed Shaw, he gave me a lot of encouragement and inspiration. I will try to practice more.

Changelog

  • 20180422 zoejane update - 31 mins
  • 20180422 zoejane init first paragraph - 20 mins