the pain of change

Do you know the biggest problem of the developers we work with?

That they didn’t come to us earlier!

It goes something like this…

“Yes, I’ve been following you for a while, and I thought about doing it, but I didn’t. And now that I have gone back to the market and seen my skills are lagging, I have decided to talk to you.”

Sure, we can help those people. But that's like waiting for your heart to stop beating to visit the doctor!

So, why must we get in trouble before fixing our lives?

I thought about this for years.

Then I realized it wasn’t only my students that were doing this.

I myself was doing this. All the time!

For example, I once had a jacket that I hated. It just made me look weird. It was too big, and the colors were off. I despised the moment I had to put it on. I told myself I would buy a new one whenever I wore it.

Guess what?

It took me 3 damn years to buy a new one!

The worse? All this time, I had the money. I just never got my ass into the store.

Why?

Because of the same reason, developers come to us when it is too late.

As long as the pain of change is bigger than the pain of staying the same... we won’t do anything to change our situation.

Which, if you think about it, makes total sense!

Your brain says, okay, Suzzy, your life is not great. You could be more in shape, have better relationships, and make more money than you do now.

Sure, Suzzy, but life is good enough.

Why not indulge in another Netflix episode instead of reading that book or doing that course? Oh, and have some chips now that you are at it!

A few months later, Suzzy wakes up, looks around her, and asks herself how she ended up living in such misery!

The truth is a “good enough” life can quickly turn into “just surviving.”

Doing enough at work not to get fired, just enough to keep showing up the next day.

She still might be a great person with great intentions. But it doesn't matter.

In her case, avoiding pain created a life of pain.

Ok, so how can you fix this?

Hehehe… yes, I will give you a bit of a sales pitch… But hang in there. There is good stuff coming up.

For starters, if you know you have some gaps, want to get better, want more job security, and want to make more money, thenbook a chat with guru Dragos right here! <https://www.theseniordev.com/apply>

I might seem a bit too extroverted for a developer (blame ADHD)... But I’ve been doing this developer mentoring thing longer than anyone I know… Except maybe my brother Bogdan...

So, book that chat here <https://www.theseniordev.com/apply> before it is too late!

Back to our “pain of change.”... Once I understood how this works, I realized that because modern life is pretty comfortable…

I had to fabricate the “pain of staying where I was”.

If not, I would never change. An average job, fast food, and trash TV got me through the day. So that’s what I did.

I wrote down a full page of what would happen if I didn’t achieve my goals—a life of mediocrity and misery.

Working for people, I despise because I have no choice.

I would live in fear.

Instead of traveling and seeing the world, I would be trapped in a shitty programmer job.

Every day, I didn’t feel like doing the things that would get me to the next level... I would read that sheet of paper, and my motivation would skyrocket!

Maybe it was a bit too extreme, but it worked!

I am not saying you should do the same, but you should do something to make not taking action painful. Because if you don’t, your brain will just stick to what’s comfortable.

Ohh.. and have a great weekend!

Always yours, Dragos