Absolutely loved this edition Avthar! Being a swimmer myself, this metaphor resonated with me:
"Reflecting and doing are like swimming and breathing. When you swim, you come up for air after every few strokes with your head down in the water. This allows you to keep on swimming with fresh air in your lungs."
I know reflection is such an important part to learning and you capitalize on that with why it is for surfacing our strengths. Great job explaining this! I had assignments in college to reflect that weren't fun because of being forced. They seemed so easy to do but I now realize the beauty in reflection is having the consistency to recognize patterns over time rather than just doing it once. I definitely need to pepper these questions into my daily journaling habit :) Thank you for sharing!
Thank you for reading Jen -- I'm really glad it's resonating with you!
As you said, it's not fun when we're being forced to do it, but when we do it out of our own desire to grow and learn more about ourselves, that's when it's powerful! Lmk how the journalling goes!
Avthar! This newsletter resonated 100% with me 😭. Thank you so much for taking the time to write and share it. Here are some of the thoughts that came up while reading it:
“But after struggling in certain CS classes and excelling in other non-CS classes like philosophy and design, I realized that while I’m a good, competent programmer, I’ll probably never be a great programmer, despite being passionate about technology and how it can empower people.”
> I find it hard to accept this line: “I’ll probably never be a great programmer”. I strongly believe that you CAN be a great programmer. That is, if you invest the time and effort to making it happen. E.g pay for a SE Mentorship program that feels right to you. But I guess you’ve decided to be world class in areas that you’re strongest in first?
“Reflect on how you can leverage your actual strengths in your current work, so that you can further develop your strengths and maximize your impact.”
> I feel like because I didn’t realize the power of self-reflection early on in my academic life, I focused too much on improving areas where I was weak at. After reading your blog, I realize that what I was doing was equivalent to swimming upstream in a fast flowing river.
Again, thank you SO much for these golden nuggets of knowledge. It was very timely for me to read it.
Maricris! Thanks so much for taking the time to read and for your comment!
(1) I've made the conscious decision to double down on my strengths and the things that feel natural to me. Mastery is my primary goal in my career, so I'd rather put energy into becoming world class as a writer, speaker and teacher. I continue to be interested in tech and programming and I'm learning more and developing my skills in those areas, but it's without a guilt of "not being good enough" and focusing more on how to use those skills to complement my other strengths.
(2) I made the exact same mistake. Often feedback focuses on what you're weak at and we live in a world that telling us we're not good enough and need to improve. Focusing on strengths has been a major shift, allowing me to have an abundance mindset, where I can make an impact with the skills I have, vs striving to make an impact once I've learned XYZ.
Thank YOU for reading and commenting again -- I'm glad that my experiences and way of thinking are resonating :)
Absolutely loved this edition Avthar! Being a swimmer myself, this metaphor resonated with me:
"Reflecting and doing are like swimming and breathing. When you swim, you come up for air after every few strokes with your head down in the water. This allows you to keep on swimming with fresh air in your lungs."
I know reflection is such an important part to learning and you capitalize on that with why it is for surfacing our strengths. Great job explaining this! I had assignments in college to reflect that weren't fun because of being forced. They seemed so easy to do but I now realize the beauty in reflection is having the consistency to recognize patterns over time rather than just doing it once. I definitely need to pepper these questions into my daily journaling habit :) Thank you for sharing!
Thank you for reading Jen -- I'm really glad it's resonating with you!
As you said, it's not fun when we're being forced to do it, but when we do it out of our own desire to grow and learn more about ourselves, that's when it's powerful! Lmk how the journalling goes!
Thank you, excellent read and sharing of knowledge. Will definitely implement the strategy.
Thank you Tina Lee - I'm grateful that you found it useful!
Avthar! This newsletter resonated 100% with me 😭. Thank you so much for taking the time to write and share it. Here are some of the thoughts that came up while reading it:
“But after struggling in certain CS classes and excelling in other non-CS classes like philosophy and design, I realized that while I’m a good, competent programmer, I’ll probably never be a great programmer, despite being passionate about technology and how it can empower people.”
> I find it hard to accept this line: “I’ll probably never be a great programmer”. I strongly believe that you CAN be a great programmer. That is, if you invest the time and effort to making it happen. E.g pay for a SE Mentorship program that feels right to you. But I guess you’ve decided to be world class in areas that you’re strongest in first?
“Reflect on how you can leverage your actual strengths in your current work, so that you can further develop your strengths and maximize your impact.”
> I feel like because I didn’t realize the power of self-reflection early on in my academic life, I focused too much on improving areas where I was weak at. After reading your blog, I realize that what I was doing was equivalent to swimming upstream in a fast flowing river.
Again, thank you SO much for these golden nuggets of knowledge. It was very timely for me to read it.
Maricris! Thanks so much for taking the time to read and for your comment!
(1) I've made the conscious decision to double down on my strengths and the things that feel natural to me. Mastery is my primary goal in my career, so I'd rather put energy into becoming world class as a writer, speaker and teacher. I continue to be interested in tech and programming and I'm learning more and developing my skills in those areas, but it's without a guilt of "not being good enough" and focusing more on how to use those skills to complement my other strengths.
(2) I made the exact same mistake. Often feedback focuses on what you're weak at and we live in a world that telling us we're not good enough and need to improve. Focusing on strengths has been a major shift, allowing me to have an abundance mindset, where I can make an impact with the skills I have, vs striving to make an impact once I've learned XYZ.
Thank YOU for reading and commenting again -- I'm glad that my experiences and way of thinking are resonating :)