Stages of a growth mindset

A comfort zone is that place or situation you feel Okay in. You feel you just know something and you can stay there. If in school, its when you are position one in a class all through and no one else will be. That becomes your comfort zone.

For me, I have been in my comfort zone for long. This is about my programming experience. I had learned PHP, Web design skills(HTML and CSS) and some Java skills, back in campus, and I was comfortable. My PHP and Java skills could do the basic functionality, and I felt awesome about this, I was like a pro whenever I showed someone some basic web server skills in PHP. I never wanted to learn a serious programming language and dive deep. This was my comfort zone.

Hindrance of Comfort Zone

These are some of the things that I missed out:

1. No growth in my programming career
2. Missing out on new opportunities
3. Lack of what to share with my friends like something, it was just the normal stuff that I knew.

The new mindset

Two weeks ago, I joined Andela pre-Bootcamp workshop, and the environment was so tense for my comfort zone to handle this. I had to literally develop new skills on how to learn the new skills. We were introduced into project management skills, python programming, test driven development, git and version control, code of conduct in the workplace and the importance of collaboration. This was like a real-life challenge to me, I had never done a serious python programming and not even knew what TDD was.

I developed a mindset of learning new skills very fast. Understanding what was required of me, I came up with a way to tackle the required expectation and execute the task. I developed a mindset that was ready to learn and withstand all the pressure is very important for you to grow. This is basically what I did.

My achievements after the new mindset

1. Understood what is test driven development
2. The importance of collaboration
3. Switching to Linux operating system from the windows environment
4. You should be diverse in learning programming, i.e. be flexible to learn other languages.
5. Communication is a key to growth
6. Project management tools like pivotal tracker and how you can achieve a lot by integrating with Github.
7. The good increasing learning curve
8. The positive change of attitude to do more and more practices of programming.

Why you should avoid the comfort zone

1. If you want to change in life. For me I wanted something different, I wanted to change my current situation.
2. To be happy. This is a big thing in everyone’s life. Who really doesn’t like being happy, I guess its everyone.
3. To meet amazing people. Amazing people are constantly on the move, improving their current situation. I wanted to meet these people, hence I had to grow my mind.
4. To succeed. My life goal is to be successful and I knew I couldn’t get this in my comfort zone. I needed to change. Eric Thomas said,

“ When you want to succeed as bad as you wanna breathe then you will be successful ”

Stages of overcoming comfort zone

For me, these are the stages I underwent to get out of my comfort zone

1. First comfort stage, What should I do? why I am here? For me, I got a challenge from Andela Bootcamp. Decide on why you want to be out of your comfort zone. Have a desire why you want out. This will keep you going.
2. Advance to the zone of proximal development. Which is a stage that you got the challenges and you are ready to overcome the challenge? This is my current stage. I faced a lot of challenges, but I was willing to keep going. Two weeks after the workshop, I knew how to develop an API using python, Test-driven development and many more. Though am still struggling with TDD, I got a burning desire that is keeping me going
3. Impossibility. This is the zone that your mind has achieved what you thought was impossible, but now you faced the impossible part. This is where you come up with different ways of adapting to solve problems. I haven’t reached here yet.

I am recently getting new skills in Andela Bootcamp that has shaped my growth mindset. Recently I published how to manage project a project with Github integration, check out what I learned.