Why I started

I'm currently studying a Software Engineering degree in México. I was having so much trouble to stay motivated with school. The education isn't that bad, but the problem is that they mostly focus on theory and we barely develop software.

I decided to start learning web dev by myself. I already knew programming, SQL Databases and some HTML/CSS, so that was a really good starting point.

My main goal was to end up doing a few full stack applications. Did I achieve it? Keep reading for the outcome

Struggling in the process

During the journey I struggled a lot with motivation, college really shut me down, and lots of times I felt like I wasn't achieving anything, but in the last 30 days I learned a good lesson...

The real goals

...I discovered that we commonly miss-understand motivation. We think that we should always stay motivated, but that's impossible, therefore, it's a really bad idea to rely on motivation.

Build habits and drop bad ones. Make discipline your fuel. Motivation is just a boost!

The real goals of the challenge are:

• Build habits that allow you to achieve what you want
• Connect with other people, it doesn't matter if they're code newbies or seniors
• Make progress on specific topics

What I've achieved

• I manage to learn VueJS, Tailwind and Django, all at a basic level of course.
• Made multiple HTML/CSS or Bootstrap websites
• Started freelancing
• Made a fulltsack app that is a reddit clone with a new design. Check it out on microdit.ml

Next steps

Now that I've started freelancing I want to focus on building a successful business and an online presence, but most importantly, to connect with people all over the world.

Tips for people starting the Challenge

• Count only coding days. I've seen people counting days where they don't code, but I think it would be more satisfying to complete the challenge with 100 coding days.
• Be flexible with your plans and don't worry if they don't come up as you wanted. Keep moving forward.
• Learn to learn. School has given us a bad approach to learn practical skills. Learn by doing.
• Most importantly, enjoy the process

I wish you a good journey and hopefully you get where you want to.