“Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.”― Aristotle

I was recently asked what the most difficult problem I've encountered while learning to program has been. Surprisingly, the answer that sprung to mind was not any specific techinical challenge or concept I couldn't get past, though there have been plenty, rather the thing I've found to be the most challenging is remembering to be patient with myself.

You see, to be a good learner you must understand that learning takes time, and there is simply no way around it. It's true there is no speed limit to learning, however there will be many times when you will simply not understand something right away, and you will certainly never progress as fast as you’d like. This is the point where many people give up, especially early on, telling themselves that they simply lack the "talent", or some fundamental quality that would make them easily overcome the challange at hand.

The truth is proficiency in almost anything takes time, and you will find very few people in the world that started out great. There will always be those rare exceptions who had a piano dropped on their head and could instantly play Mozart, but you're far more likely to end up with a serious concussion, a broken piano and no musical talent. When looking for inspiring personal stories make sure they are individuals who gained their success by sweating it out, which coincidentally is the majority.

There is no easy way to gain patience, ironically it also takes time, however knowing really is half the battle. Below are a few things you can do to prepare yourself for the long haul.* Rid yourself of the "blame the talented mentality". This is when we attribute great skill or success to innate talent or luck, instead of the much more likely long hours of practice and hard work, don't give yourself that escape route.* Prepare yourself mentally by setting realistic goals and expectations early on.* When you do hit roadblocks be sure to take a step back and give yourself some perspective. Try to find parts of the problem you are familiar with and build on those.

I hope this post helps prepare you for the next journey in your long life of learning.
Next up in this series will be "Growth is Hurts".

Feel free to continue and add to this conversation with me over email ichabodcole@gmail.com.