They say the last steps are the hardest, well you should try the first. Last year I have been thinking a lot about the content I wanted to produce. Whether it was a video or simply words on a digital paper, the results stayed out. This year the emotional threshold was reached and my goal for this year is to write a blog post a week and produce more video content.
Therefore I’ve finally created a personal website after all these years of being a software developer. Pretty strange if you ask most people. How can a software developer not have a portfolio website or something? I have tried to make one several times but I was never satisfied with the result. Especially since I have been freelancing for 1,5 years now. But if you ask me a portfolio website can be overrated. Sure it helps when people Google me, but if people don’t know your name it’s not that big of a problem. I rather build an online presence on a medium where the people already are hanging out. For me, that’s mostly LinkedIn and so far I’ve been getting all my clients through it.
So why start a personal website then? The problem with LinkedIn is, is that it’s not a website designed for writing articles. It’s about short flashy stuff and messaging. Articles don’t get read often since visitors attention span is way too short. The articles I’ve written on LinkedIn got lost in time. So I thought it was time that I should spin up a personal website.
It’s my goal to write a weekly post about the new stuff I’ve learned that week. Almost every week I have an Eureka! moment. Something that is a true epiphany to me. And since I’m becoming more and more aware that I love to teach others new stuff, it would be a good practice to start sharing my epiphanies.
Week 3
So week 3 it is huh? I’ve finally lowered the barrier of posting new video material on LinkedIn. I’ve created a professional video that I’m now offering developer coaching. I want to learn how to coach people and what area is better to start than the area of my expertise? So I’m proud to finally have gained the balls to post a video about it.
The Eureka! moment of the week was definitely while reading Atomic Habits by James Clear. It’s a fantastic book so far, about the psychology behind habits. And damn I’ve been struggling sometimes with certain habits. Like the writing content that I would like to become a habit. But also the Netflix addiction I most certainly have as well.
The book gave me a clear insight into the way we execute our habits. Let’s take as an example my Netflix addiction. This simple model gave me insight that the cue that leads to my craving for watching TV, literally comes when I walk into my bedroom. It’s the place where my work desk is, but also my bed with a huge TV screen. This made me realize why it’s sometimes so hard to open my laptop at night to work on something useful instead of binging away. So the cue is walking into my bedroom, the craving is to relax and get hypnotized by the TV, the response is then my action to lay down on the bed and turn the TV on and the reward is that I get to lay down, watch TV and do nothing.
Sometimes people call the TV the hypnotize box and oh my, it is so true. It’s so easy to choose for watching TV for 4 hours. And there is a reason I don’t want to be addicted to it. I want a better standard for myself. One where I don’t feel dependent on Netflix to feel good. I don’t think Netflix is a hobby and I don’t want it to be one of mine. Releasing tension doesn’t come from watching TV. It comes from expressing yourself. This can be done by drawing, writing, dancing, singing, playing an instrument or by playing sports. Of course, there are more ways, but these are by far better ways to release tension than by digital entertainment.
So while I am still struggling to gain better control over my bad habits, I have found that gaining insight into the science behind habits helps me a ton. I’m planning to give more information about the science of habits, so stay tuned!
Peace.
Sjors