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2017-01-19
tags: #mingling
With the Help of a Colleague Failing to Set the Right Web Developer Goal Before Regrouping and Setting the Right Goal
By w̶i̶e̶l̶d̶l̶i̶n̶u̶x̶.̶c̶o̶m̶ author Morgan Jassen
This is a short story of how I failed to know what my most important Web Developer goal was, but then with the help of a colleague how I learned what my most important goal was, and got back on course.
My colleague in this post, the questioner, is Dan ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielacron/ )
I participated in a Web Developer Mastermind session. When it came time for my turn to set my goal and decide a next-step task, I told the questioner my goal was to "learn JavaScript".
Then the questioner and I decided that a good next-step task, since I wanted my first project to be a calendar app, would be to make a minimally working program in JavaScript that does the following:
- performs a console.log(),
- takes some (hard coded, at this stage) calendar events,
- puts the events in an array, and then
- prints the events to the console.
However something unexpected happened. The next day, I was still not motivated to learn JavaScript. But I know the questioner would follow up with me next week, therefore I was still motivated to have something to show for my efforts toward a goal by the time next week came.
The quick failure turned out to be not bad for me, but good. Immediately I knew what I needed to do. I needed to apply to Web Developer jobs. I realized: "The most important thing for me right now is to get a more challenging, higher-paying Web Developer job."
I don't know why I didn't set this as my initial goal when asked during the first Mastermind session. I think it's because sometimes we don't know what is important, until we've talked it through with a peer, been questioned on it, and been held accountable for our goal.
Then I realized to myself: "Better late than never! I'll set my next task towards my goal to be to find, and apply to, 15 web developer jobs in the next week."
Then I planned what I'd say to the Mastermind questioner when I faced them the next week. I planned to tell them that mid-week, with the help of the challenging and accountability-oriented (i.e. "good") pressure from the Mastermind, I had been able to realize that then my top goal as a Web Developer was to get a higher-paying, more challenging Web Developer job, and that my next-step would be to send out applications to 15 suitable positions. Then I'd listen to what the questioner had to say.
In conclusion, this was a story of how, as a Web Developer, I failed to realize what was my most important goal. But how then, with the help of a colleague I realized what is was, and got back on course.
[2017-02-23 Edit: Added Paragraph near top with Colleague's name and link to their LinkedIn profile.]
[2019-03-11 edit: Moved to: https://i̶n̶v̶e̶s̶t̶o̶r̶w̶o̶r̶k̶e̶r̶.̶c̶o̶m̶/2017/... .html.]