How I Stay Motivated & Continue Growing!

00:00:00 hi i relatively often get asked
00:00:03 how i stay motivated how i learn new
00:00:06 things and
00:00:07 which hints i can share when it comes to
00:00:10 how you
00:00:11 can be more productive or learn more
00:00:13 things so in this video
00:00:15 and also in an article which you find
00:00:17 below the video in written form
00:00:19 i will share some of the techniques that
00:00:21 work for me and that i found to be
00:00:23 most helpful when it comes to growing
00:00:26 learning
00:00:26 and staying motivated so hopefully it
00:00:28 helps you as well
00:00:36 so i came up with seven techniques where
00:00:39 i felt like they were most helpful to me
00:00:41 now of course if you got other
00:00:44 techniques or hacks or ideas
00:00:47 besides that what i'm going to share
00:00:48 here please share them with me as well
00:00:51 either in the comments of the video or
00:00:53 in our brand new academic community to
00:00:55 which you also find a link below the
00:00:57 video
00:00:58 well and speaking of a community this
00:01:01 kind of already is my first technique
00:01:04 of the seven techniques i want to share
00:01:06 here find
00:01:07 a learning partner or find a community
00:01:10 online or offline
00:01:11 who's there for you who walks that way
00:01:14 together with you
00:01:15 now what do i mean with that well it
00:01:18 obviously helps if you're not alone
00:01:20 i learned web development on my own i
00:01:22 was the only one interested in it
00:01:24 in my entire circle of friends and my
00:01:27 family
00:01:28 and when i started working it the
00:01:30 internet wasn't that much of a thing
00:01:32 was just coming up and we didn't really
00:01:35 have a good access to it at home
00:01:37 so when i learned it i learned it with
00:01:39 books i learned it by
00:01:41 looking up the source code of some of
00:01:43 the websites i did visit
00:01:46 and well yeah i learned it on my own now
00:01:48 over time of course
00:01:50 as time went by things changed and i
00:01:53 found people who are interested in
00:01:55 similar things
00:01:56 and and actually that is when i was able
00:01:59 to learn
00:02:00 way faster the same for this this
00:02:03 business i built when i started working
00:02:05 off as a freelancer
00:02:06 and also doing these online tutorials i
00:02:09 did it on my own
00:02:10 now of course i'm doing it together with
00:02:12 manual and
00:02:13 having a partner to whom you can talk
00:02:16 with whom you can share doubts and also
00:02:18 successes
00:02:19 is really helpful helpful from a
00:02:21 motivational perspective
00:02:23 but also helpful regarding a technical
00:02:26 perspective
00:02:27 now of course it helps if you have like
00:02:29 a girlfriend boyfriend family friends
00:02:32 who might not be interested in the topic
00:02:34 you're learning or you're working on
00:02:37 if they can push you if you're lacking
00:02:40 motivation if you feel like
00:02:42 you're you don't want to continue if
00:02:43 you're not sure if you're still on the
00:02:45 right path
00:02:46 in that scenario anyone to who you
00:02:49 relate
00:02:50 can help you and that's great and you
00:02:52 should absolutely have
00:02:53 people like that around you but it also
00:02:57 is important to find people who share
00:03:00 a similar passion for the actual topic
00:03:03 you're learning
00:03:04 because then you don't just have people
00:03:06 cheering you up if you're down
00:03:08 but then you also have people with whom
00:03:11 you can talk about
00:03:13 technical issues new ideas check and
00:03:16 validate if you understood something
00:03:18 correctly
00:03:19 share things you built or problems
00:03:22 you're facing
00:03:23 so you got a brand new level of
00:03:25 discussion a brand new
00:03:27 area where you can grow and simply
00:03:30 exchange experiences and
00:03:32 that's also one of the main reasons why

00:03:34 we started our academic community
00:03:37 of course that's not the only place
00:03:39 where you can find people to learn
00:03:41 but we hope it's it's a great place
00:03:43 where you feel welcome
00:03:45 and where you will definitely find a lot
00:03:47 like-minded people
00:03:49 interested in the topics we're covering
00:03:51 here on this youtube channel
00:03:53 and also in our courses so i definitely
00:03:56 want to invite you to join this
00:03:58 community
00:03:58 it's totally free hosted on discord
00:04:01 because chances are
00:04:02 that there you can find learning
00:04:05 partners
00:04:05 with whom you can learn and tandem so
00:04:08 that you can
00:04:09 grow together and basically check each
00:04:12 other's results and knowledge
00:04:14 or that you can share doubts there and
00:04:15 also share successes
00:04:17 we all need to share successes as well
00:04:20 we want to
00:04:20 show what we build we want to show what
00:04:22 we achieved
00:04:23 that motivates us but it also can be
00:04:26 very motivating to others
00:04:28 to see how ours are growing and what
00:04:30 others are achieving
00:04:32 so find a community find learning
00:04:34 partners
00:04:35 possibly in our catamine community link
00:04:38 below the video of course or somewhere
00:04:39 else
00:04:40 and then stick to it work together with
00:04:43 your partners don't let them
00:04:45 down continue your path and you will
00:04:47 grow a lot
00:04:48 now that's the social aspect of learning
00:04:51 and growing
00:04:52 and i would argue it's the most
00:04:54 important one because
00:04:56 no one and i really think no one
00:04:58 absolutely no one
00:05:00 can get things done and can grow forever
00:05:03 if you're on your own so definitely take
00:05:05 this seriously
00:05:06 however it's just one of the seven
00:05:08 techniques or one of the seven
00:05:10 things that matter another very
00:05:13 important thing that matters is
00:05:15 realistic time management now you can
00:05:18 find
00:05:18 plenty of resources about time
00:05:20 management and
00:05:21 i don't want to dive into concrete
00:05:23 techniques on how to manage your time
00:05:26 i want you to be realistic because there
00:05:29 is a phrase where there are different
00:05:31 variations of that phrase
00:05:32 which basically says people tend to
00:05:36 overestimate what they can get done in a
00:05:38 day
00:05:39 and they underestimate what they can get
00:05:41 done in a year
00:05:42 and it's very very true for everyone
00:05:45 including me
00:05:46 including you people really often find
00:05:49 themselves in spots where
00:05:51 you plan to do this and that and then
00:05:54 there's other thing
00:05:55 tomorrow and turns out you were only
00:05:58 able to get
00:05:59 one of the three things done now the
00:06:01 result is
00:06:02 you're frustrated you go to bed in a in
00:06:05 a bad mood
00:06:06 and you're not happy and you feel like
00:06:09 you're lacking or you're simply not
00:06:12 progressing
00:06:13 now on the same hand if you look back
00:06:16 where you've been a year ago chances are
00:06:19 that you will think
00:06:20 whoa quite a lot of things changed i'm
00:06:23 now able to do this and that and that
00:06:25 out that too
00:06:26 and these are all things which i wasn't
00:06:28 able to do a year ago or which i didn't
00:06:30 have
00:06:30 back then bring that back into your
00:06:34 memory
00:06:34 and set realistic goals i'll come back
00:06:37 to the short-term thing
00:06:39 regarding the long-term definitely plan
00:06:42 more
00:06:42 than you think you can get done be very
00:06:45 ambitious
00:06:46 regarding your long-term goals in a year
00:06:48 from now

00:06:49 it will be a totally different world so
00:06:51 definitely
00:06:52 be highly optimistic regarding what you
00:06:55 will be able to do by then
00:06:57 you want to be able to build websites
00:06:59 know this programming language
00:07:01 and learn spanish by them well that's
00:07:03 your goal
00:07:04 it is doable of course you're not going
00:07:06 to be a master in everything
00:07:08 by the way you never are a master in
00:07:10 everything anytime in life
00:07:12 but you will be able to achieve it so be
00:07:15 ambitious there
00:07:16 now when it comes to short-term goals so
00:07:18 what you want to get done
00:07:19 tomorrow or in a week or today
00:07:22 be realistic maybe even a bit
00:07:25 pessimistic but that would be the wrong
00:07:27 word
00:07:28 you shouldn't think that you're too bad
00:07:30 to get something done
00:07:31 you just should be realistic regarding
00:07:33 the time you have available
00:07:35 if you're writing down a to-do list for
00:07:37 tomorrow and you have five tasks on it
00:07:40 maybe consider crossing off the two
00:07:43 least important
00:07:44 tasks there because chances are you'll
00:07:46 only be able to get
00:07:47 three things done anyways also when you
00:07:50 think about the near-term future let's
00:07:52 say
00:07:53 you have a goal you want to be able to
00:07:55 build a basic online shop within the
00:07:58 next week
00:07:59 maybe just double that time frame
00:08:02 because
00:08:03 it just turns out that we are too
00:08:05 optimistic in the short term
00:08:06 so force yourself to take longer than
00:08:10 you think you do
00:08:11 if you then don't need the time great
00:08:13 you get a motivational push
00:08:15 if you do need it great because that was
00:08:17 your time
00:08:18 frame so that really can help you be
00:08:21 more realistic
00:08:22 simply force yourself to to take longer
00:08:25 or
00:08:26 to expect that you take longer than you
00:08:28 would think you do
00:08:30 also when we talk about short-term goals
00:08:33 and
00:08:34 things you want to get done split your
00:08:36 bigger goals into smaller ones
00:08:38 now that's obviously not a new technique
00:08:40 you probably heard that before
00:08:42 but it is important you want to build a
00:08:44 basic online shop
00:08:46 in let's say two weeks right so from
00:08:48 today
00:08:49 to today in two weeks you wanna have
00:08:51 that basic online shop done
00:08:54 you generally know the base languages
00:08:57 and frameworks you need for that but
00:08:59 you're not an expert and there
00:09:00 definitely is
00:09:01 stuff you still need to learn well split
00:09:04 it into smaller goals
00:09:06 and write down a goal for every day
00:09:09 check if that goal is
00:09:10 realistic and then check if together
00:09:12 they add up to your overall goal
00:09:14 if they don't you might need a longer
00:09:16 time frame if they do
00:09:18 well then go for it and try to achieve
00:09:20 it but again for these
00:09:21 smaller everyday goals try to be
00:09:24 realistic
00:09:25 think back about the last time you
00:09:27 learned something similar
00:09:28 how long did that take you because we
00:09:31 humans tend to forget
00:09:33 things we don't like to remember right
00:09:36 the last time we learned a new framework
00:09:38 it maybe took us let's say two months
00:09:41 now why would it only take us one month
00:09:44 now
00:09:45 you should be very realistic there think
00:09:48 about the past
00:09:49 split your goals and double your
00:09:52 expected time horizons
00:09:53 with that you hopefully have some
00:09:55 techniques that keep you motivated in
00:09:57 the short term too
00:09:58 and lead to more realistic goals now
00:10:01 especially when learning new things
00:10:03 it can also sometimes be annoying that
00:10:05 you don't really see

00:10:06 your progress well maybe some progress
00:10:09 bar is filling up an online course
00:10:11 but that might not be the case for all
00:10:13 platforms where you're taking courses
00:10:15 it's definitely not the case if you're
00:10:17 reading tutorials or online
00:10:19 documentation
00:10:20 it's not really the case for youtube so
00:10:22 you don't really see
00:10:24 your progress now a great thing that
00:10:27 works really well for me is that if
00:10:29 i'm learning something new i use the
00:10:31 things i learn
00:10:33 as early as possible i don't look at a
00:10:36 problem
00:10:37 or at a language i want to learn as a
00:10:40 whole
00:10:40 but instead i start learning it let's
00:10:42 say i start learning
00:10:44 vue.js a javascript framework and as
00:10:47 soon
00:10:48 as i'm able to make my first button work
00:10:50 where i click on it and then something
00:10:52 happens on a page
00:10:53 i'll stop learning for now and just use
00:10:56 it i'll just
00:10:57 spin up a basic project and use what i
00:10:59 just learned and try different
00:11:01 variations there
00:11:02 and i try to do things which i haven't
00:11:04 learned yet this is extremely motivating
00:11:06 because
00:11:07 by doing this i see what i learned
00:11:10 another nice side effect of course is
00:11:13 that you practice what you learned
00:11:14 and that makes the learning experience
00:11:16 much better and more intense
00:11:18 you will remember things way better if
00:11:20 you actually use them
00:11:22 instead of just reading about them so
00:11:25 using your knowledge
00:11:26 early and often whilst you are learning
00:11:29 something
00:11:29 is extremely important of course two
00:11:32 months later you'll come back and look
00:11:34 at your early steps and say what did i
00:11:36 think there
00:11:37 this is bad code but does this matter it
00:11:40 does not
00:11:40 this does absolutely not matter the
00:11:42 future does not matter you're living
00:11:44 today and
00:11:45 you want to make sure that you stay
00:11:47 motivated and that you see your progress
00:11:49 and that you get the most out of your
00:11:52 your learning resource and you do that
00:11:54 by building stuff by practicing and by
00:11:57 using what you learned
00:11:58 you want to show off to yourself you
00:12:01 want to show
00:12:02 yourself what you just gained and what
00:12:04 cool stuff you're able to do
00:12:06 this is really really important and i
00:12:08 can only recommend that you do
00:12:10 this and that you use your knowledge as
00:12:12 often and early as possible
00:12:15 so you get your goals you got your
00:12:17 learning community
00:12:18 and yet you wake up where you come back
00:12:22 after lunch and you don't really feel
00:12:24 like
00:12:25 working right now you go to instagram
00:12:27 and check what's going on there you have
00:12:29 a look at twitter
00:12:30 you check out that latest youtube kitten
00:12:33 video
00:12:34 and all of a sudden two hours passed and
00:12:36 you got nothing done
00:12:38 this is highly frustrating but the good
00:12:40 thing is this happens to all of us
00:12:42 now how can you battle this how can you
00:12:45 make sure
00:12:46 that you get stuff done that you stay
00:12:49 motivated that you work on the things
00:12:50 you want to work on
00:12:52 theoretically well there is this five
00:12:54 minute
00:12:55 trick and you all find different
00:12:57 variations of this technique as well
00:12:59 the idea is simple you set the goal that
00:13:02 you want to work on that specific thing
00:13:05 you need to get done for only 5 minutes
00:13:08 or 20 minutes but for a very short time
00:13:10 frame that matters
00:13:11 now then you start doing what you want
00:13:14 to do continue reading the tutorial
00:13:16 continue with the online course continue
00:13:18 writing code continue learning to draw
00:13:21 whatever it is
00:13:22 and after 20 minutes you stop you set a

00:13:25 timer and you stop
00:13:27 or do you the cool thing about this
00:13:29 technique is
00:13:30 that you have the motivation to start
00:13:33 working because you know it'll be only
00:13:35 for
00:13:35 20 minutes or five minutes so thereafter
00:13:38 you can do something fun you can watch
00:13:40 that youtube video you wanted to watch
00:13:42 but for these five minutes you're going
00:13:44 to work on the task the advantage is
00:13:47 that you'll not see the big pile of work
00:13:49 ahead of you
00:13:50 but that you only see a short time frame
00:13:53 for which you need to work on something
00:13:55 now chances are that once you start
00:13:58 working on it
00:13:59 you will get into kind of a flow state
00:14:01 and you will continue working once the
00:14:03 time is up
00:14:04 and that's of course great you shouldn't
00:14:05 force yourself to quit after these 5 or
00:14:08 20 minutes
00:14:09 but you should be fine doing so if you
00:14:11 don't enter such a flow state
00:14:13 if you just can't get motivated today if
00:14:15 you can't continue working here
00:14:17 well then just take a break take a nap
00:14:20 go for a walk
00:14:20 read a book or watch that youtube video
00:14:23 and try the same technique
00:14:25 in an hour or so eventually it will work
00:14:28 and it will be a great way
00:14:29 of getting things done and working on
00:14:32 the things you want to work on
00:14:33 so i now already shared a couple of
00:14:35 techniques and tricks
00:14:37 and things that work for me now one
00:14:39 thing that can really
00:14:40 hit your motivation or that can be
00:14:42 problematic
00:14:44 is if you compare yourself to others
00:14:47 now if you're learning something or if
00:14:49 you're working on something
00:14:50 if you're building something and you
00:14:52 have a look at others
00:14:53 chances are that you will feel bad why
00:14:56 because
00:14:57 everyone literally everyone will only
00:15:00 show what works for them they will only
00:15:04 tell you about their successes
00:15:06 that they put in 16 hours yesterday
00:15:09 that they never take breaks that they
00:15:11 learn every day of the week
00:15:13 and so on and nobody does that
00:15:16 so are people lying here well lie is a
00:15:19 hard word
00:15:20 you could of course say it but i
00:15:22 wouldn't say that people are lying
00:15:23 instead
00:15:24 i would say everyone just wants to share
00:15:27 things that makes them
00:15:28 feel good if you talk to strangers about
00:15:32 what you do
00:15:33 and how you feel typically you're also
00:15:36 only going to share the things that work
00:15:38 for you
00:15:38 where you're good at where you're happy
00:15:40 with you're not going to share
00:15:42 too many failures or the days where
00:15:45 the struggle was real and you couldn't
00:15:48 get things done that doesn't happen as
00:15:50 often
00:15:51 and therefore it's especially important
00:15:53 to really keep in mind and force
00:15:56 yourself to remember that
00:15:57 that everyone is having bad days that
00:16:00 nobody is productive for 16 hours every
00:16:03 day seven days a week
00:16:04 that nobody is going to work all the
00:16:07 time and that
00:16:08 nobody is going to have successes all
00:16:10 the time everyone will have failures
00:16:13 everyone will have faces where
00:16:15 motivation is lacking
00:16:17 and no one is going to share it with you
00:16:19 or at least that's not going to happen
00:16:20 very often now we've all been there
00:16:22 though of course
00:16:23 it's true for me not every day is a day
00:16:26 where i
00:16:27 put in 16 hours motivated all the day no
00:16:30 everyone has days where motivation is an
00:16:32 issue where you're not
00:16:33 as productive as you want to be and that
00:16:36 is absolutely fine
00:16:37 keep that in mind don't get frustrated
00:16:40 because you're having a bad day because
00:16:42 you're not able to
00:16:43 get the things done you want to get done

00:16:45 that is totally normal
00:16:47 we've all been there we will all be
00:16:49 there we just have to keep in mind that
00:16:51 this is the case for everyone
00:16:52 because otherwise it's super frustrating
00:16:55 and with that
00:16:56 here's my last suggestion or my last
00:16:59 idea
00:17:00 and that's actually a bit of an ironic
00:17:03 suggestion
00:17:04 or technique don't read too many
00:17:07 motivational guides and the funny thing
00:17:10 is of course
00:17:10 this year this video and the article
00:17:12 below the video
00:17:14 of course is kind of a motivational life
00:17:17 hacky guide and whilst i hope it was
00:17:21 helpful
00:17:22 you shouldn't read or watch too many of
00:17:25 those
00:17:26 why because you can get interesting and
00:17:29 helpful techniques out of them
00:17:30 like hopefully you got some interesting
00:17:33 things out of this one here like the
00:17:34 five minute
00:17:35 trick and so on but as you read more and
00:17:39 more such guys you will see
00:17:41 a pattern because things like that five
00:17:44 minute trick are things you will find in
00:17:46 many guides
00:17:47 and the only thing the only reason why
00:17:50 you then read
00:17:51 these guides or why you watch such
00:17:53 videos is then that you
00:17:54 feel better it's the same effect as when
00:17:57 you sign up for the gym
00:17:59 but you never go there you feel better
00:18:01 because you signed up
00:18:03 but you won't be able to achieve your
00:18:05 goals you're not going to get
00:18:06 fitter or slimmer by just signing up for
00:18:09 the gym
00:18:10 and it's the same for learning growing
00:18:12 and being productive
00:18:13 of course it feels good to read such a
00:18:16 guide or watch such a video
00:18:18 and yes you can get useful stuff out of
00:18:20 it but you need to get things done you
00:18:22 need to go back to your desk
00:18:24 and continue learning or working with
00:18:26 the techniques
00:18:27 that you learned here but also simply by
00:18:30 by doing it and by not checking out 10
00:18:33 hour guides or
00:18:34 ideas this is just my take on that
00:18:37 of course it's totally up to you what
00:18:40 works best for you here but
00:18:42 i have found that i sometimes need such
00:18:45 guides or that you can get interesting
00:18:46 things out of them
00:18:48 but it's then also good to just to read
00:18:50 one or two
00:18:51 and then go back to work and use some of
00:18:54 these techniques
00:18:55 because ultimately you have to do
00:18:57 something to get stuff done
00:18:58 pretty obvious i guess right
00:19:02 and that's it these are my ideas my
00:19:04 techniques my
00:19:05 thoughts on the topic now obviously
00:19:07 there is more
00:19:08 you you can do more you can explore and
00:19:11 you might have totally different
00:19:12 techniques and ideas that work for you
00:19:14 so please share them
00:19:16 please share what you do to overcome
00:19:19 a lack of motivation to stay motivated
00:19:22 how you learn the most how you grow
00:19:24 the most and so on share it below the
00:19:27 video in the comments
00:19:28 or of course in the community i
00:19:30 mentioned i would really be happy to
00:19:32 welcome you there
00:19:34 we want to build an amazing friendly
00:19:36 place where everyone can learn and grow
00:19:38 together
00:19:39 and if that sounds intriguing to you
00:19:41 you're more than welcome it's totally
00:19:42 free
00:19:43 will be free forever and there you can
00:19:46 share such ideas as well and maybe
00:19:48 also find your learning partner or
00:19:50 partners and have the community that
00:19:52 pushes you
00:19:53 so with that i hope the video was
00:19:55 helpful and i hope i see you in future
00:19:57 videos too
00:19:58 bye

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