I had a great phone conversation today with a past student who is currently experiencing a state of demotivation due to the current job environment he is in. I wanted to quickly share the most important thing I had to share while I talked with him.

There have been many times in my career (at least once a year) where I go through a period (usually only lasting 2 weeks) where I seriously question why I am in software development. During these periods, it does not matter how great the job I am in is working out, I find myself not particularly drawn to be a software developer. Now before I go further, you need to know that I absolutely love being a computer programmer. I feel it is a blessing to be able to pursue the profession that you feel you have been blessed with a gift and desire to pursue. During these periods I unplug, read some books, chat with my wife about directions that I could go if I were to leave the field of software. When I was younger, it was very easy for me to get into these periods and completely withdraw myself and pout about the current “state of things”. Thankfully God allowed me to have a desire for reading and learning, and it was during one of these times that He taught me a lesson about the behaviour that I was taking on. He helped me realize that it is ok for me to go through these “valley” moments. What is important is how I respond to them. I learned that keeping myself reading and learning about things other than software during this time helped me to anchor my mind on what I was actually striving to achieve for myself and my family. I realized that the one thing that I can’t get back, and thus should not be wasting, is my time. I can get out of a slump, I can work harder, I can recoup monetary losses by sheer grit determination, but nothing I can do will ever be able to reclaim wasted time.

It is very easy to forget that time is our greatest non-renewable resource. I want to encourage you to not allow a day to go by where you do not learn something new. This does not need to be something even remotely related to your career. New learning stimulates the mind and can often be a tools that allows you to break free of ruts, habits, and negative thinking.

Make your minutes count!!

Develop With Passion.