Brushing Teeth, Cleaning Up, and Cultivating Patience

This post was originally published on May 19, 2020 on my blog.

Throughout this journey of full-time teaching myself how to program, I've been aware of the very necessary act of cultivating patience.

As I've been playing the long-game in my coding life - being cognizant of the fact that it's going to take hours upon hours of practice and learning to eventually attain mastery - I've also noticed how much cultivating patience has seeped into my non-coding life, in those small, seemingly insignificant moments.

Before this journey started, if - for example - I'd spilled my dog's food kernels on the ground, I'd immediately feel impatient at the prospect of picking up each little morsel. Now, I'm conscious of being way more patient as I watch the mess dwindle into clean again with each picked-up piece.

Now, I practice finding joy in the full two minutes of brushing my teeth when, before, I'd be rushing myself along, waiting desperately for my toothbrush's signal that time was up.

Now, as I'm cleaning up the pieces of one of the three jigsaw puzzles we have (and that I've assembled countless times since occupying myself during lockdown), I don't get annoyed or impatient with the clean-up.

Instead, I'm motivated to keep going with each small action taken - inspired by the results gained with each passing moment. We may not be able to see the progress at the very instant we take the action, but boy are we proud of ourselves at the end.