3 Tips that made me a better jogger and how I plan to use them to become a better developer.

3 Tips that made me a better jogger and how I plan to use them to become a better developer.

We all want to be great at whatever we do, whether it’s at work, at play or something in between. The funny thing is that it’s much easier than you think.

I joined the Citi Runners early last year, I’ve been jogging off and on for a little while but nothing serious. Enough of the mandatory preamble. Let’s go!

1.) Always Be Running

Sure I stole this from the ABC blog post (which is amazing and you should read after reading this).

Like most things in life, you get better by doing. Not thinking, wanting or even hoping but by doing.

I now have a strict schedule of 3 runs per week and I stick to it. If another member can’t make that’s great for them, I’m going. This has improved my stamina and pace by leaps and bounds.

<bash> Read the first technical tip of ABC for great perspective on this, however let me quickly add that whenever I take a hiatus from coding, it’s hard for me to get back into the groove of things. I have to recheck a few tutorials and documentation to refresh my memory so by ABC; I cut that out completely.</bash>

2.) Keep Pushing (the most important)

Once I gained enough stamina to maintain a respectable pace, I began to rest on my morals and coast(even though I was finishing ahead of my friends, they keep saying “Rory you can go faster!”). I thought “Well, I ain’t coming in the last batch of runners anymore. I’m going great.” Not quite.

I then noticed that I wasn’t improving, I just wasn’t crap anymore.

On one faithful Wednesday night, I decided I’m going to keep up with Mr. B. (Mr. B is ranked 2nd out of Citi Runners) That I did, it was tough. I was short of breathe for the last 10 minutes but I fought and I made it. The great thing is, after you do is once. You know you can do it again and you strive to. I didn’t stop there, now ever time I jog. I push myself. I have seen this with other runners, they were in the back of the pack and just by changing their mental state to “keep pushing” they have vastly improved.

<bash> I will keep learning new things, keep challenging myself with new and exciting projects. Take chances, get rejected! I recently applied for the Code of the Caribbean Fellowship (I normally don’t apply to programmes like these) but with my new found mantra of keep pushing I sent in an application. If I’m not successful, that’s no problem. If you can’t join ‘em, start your own (right?)</bash>

3.) Be confident

I believe this is related to #2, as I remember that faithful Wednesday night and every jog since then. I had the confidence that yes, I can keep up, I can even jog faster than these guys. Just by starting the jog with that mindset more times than not. I did just that.

<bash> I believe this will be hardest part for me, starting to believe my code is great code and if it’s not quite there yet, it would be soon. Getting the confidence in myself that even if I don’t know everything about Rails, that I know enough to get the job done and also to help others.</bash>

Honorable Mentions - Code only

1.) Ask for help - My rails crew has and will be great help along the way. Chris, Joseph, Matt and Marc. Joseph has really inspired me to focus more on coding the Ruby way, and it’s been great. 

2.) TEACH/SHARE- In the coming months, I will be starting a small Ruby workshop, where I teach Ruby to friends and children from my community. Very excited about the project. Quick shout out to Chris and GoRails for the inspiration.

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Looking for a Rails Developer?

I specialise in building web applications, with a leaning towards Ruby for server-side stuff.

Whether you’re looking to realise an idea, or build an app from scratch send me an email (roryw.ruby@gmail.com), and I’ll see if I can help.