Think about the person whom you'd most like to care about your resolution. (And note that the 3 challenges I recommend at the end of this article each come with their own peer groups.) Last exercise. So find a peer group - or even curious family member - and get them to earnestly root for you in your quest. Most often, it's the people in our lives who keep us pushing forward. When you are extremely busy with work, or you're sick, or you've had a major life change - how are you going to stay motivated? This positive peer pressure can be critical. Because if your goal is to - say - create an entire website using only C++, or to reach 1 kyu on Code Wars in less than a year - people may not understand that goal or why it's challenging.ĭon't make it any harder for people to care about whether you succeed. Or do you at least have friends who understand what you're trying to accomplish so they can cheer you on? Do you have friends who can embark upon the resolution alongside you?Īwesome. Factor #3: Support - Can You Leverage Positive Peer Pressure? It's better to set a modest goal than trap yourself in a self-imposed death march. Remember that developers are notoriously bad at time estimation. Is it a long shot? Or is it something you can already visualize yourself doing? If so, you may want to go ahead and tackle those first before adding even more onto your plate with a New Year's Resolution. Think about the commitments you've made in the past.ĭo you already have outstanding commitments that you haven't delivered on yet?Īre those commitments still worth pursuing? If you can harness the power of a public commitment device, a New Year's Resolution can propel you to the next level. You don't have to put yourself out there if you don't want to.īut again, there is risk and there is reward. Remember that New Year's Resolutions are completely optional. Otherwise people may just start shrugging off your grand proclamations. Failure is not fatal.īut you need to be careful not to develop a reputation for being a "flake." You need to deliver on your commitments most of the time. It's OK to back out of public commitments once in a while. You are telling the world you're going to see this resolution through. When you make your resolution public - either by telling your family about it or by proclaiming it on Twitter or LinkedIn - you are putting yourself on the hook. Factor #2: Accountability - Do You Really Believe You Can Do This? Remember to tune out the hype surrounding different tools and projects. You should keep brainstorming until you find a resolution that does put a smile on your face. This probably isn't a resolution you're sufficiently excited about. Now - if you didn't feel your cheeks tug upward into a smile during this exercise, I hate to break it to you. What's different? How do you feel about yourself? (After you finish reading the rest of this exercise, of course. You will struggle to actually sit down to put in the work. If you're not already passionate, you probably won't be able to manufacture enough passion to persist through the crush of distractions. Your resolution has to be relevant to you. If your New Year's Resolution is to get better with machine learning, you should already be reading academic papers about neural networks for fun. If your New Year's Resolution is to write your own compiler, you'd better be genuinely interested in compilers. Let's take a more detailed look at these three factors, and exercises for each of them that you can use as a "gut check." Factor #1: Relevance - Do You Really Care? There are 3 things that go into a successful New Year's Resolution: ![]() Resolutions are a powerful tool for getting results. Resolutions are a type of "commitment device." They're a contract with your future self. Do New Year's Resolutions Actually Work for Developers? In short, this article will give you everything you need to kick off your big, triumphant 2020.
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