Learning a programming language is hard. Especially if it is your first. Sometimes it may feel like you aren’t getting anywhere and you may feel discouraged. Hitting these type of slumps are normal and you shouldn’t beat yourself up about it. It happens to everyone. The key to success is making it through these times and regaining your confidence.

There are a few things that I’ve found for dealing with this situation. Creating projects, doing coding challenges, and reaching out to people in your network.

It’s always good to find some coding challenges that you had a hard time with when you were first starting and try to see how quickly you can solve them. This will make you feel like you’re actually getting somewhere. You don’t have to worry that doing easy coding challenges is a waste of time. You just need a win. Finding something that was difficult a month ago and crushing it is always a nice feeling.

Also, come up with an idea for a project. It might be just creating something that you’ve seen on the internet from scratch or trying your hand at a type of functionality that you would like to see if you can make work. For example, I made a “website” that was just a simple HTML page with one <div> and wrote Javascript that manipulated the images, links, and forms in a way that made it seem like 5 or 6 different websites. That was really neat because I had never created anything from my imagination before. It was nice to sit down and draw out a picture of what I wanted the site to look like, write down what I wanted it to do, sudo-code it, and then write it. I highly recommend doing something like that. Even if it’s as simple as mine.

Reach out to your network

I have been very fortunate to meet some fantastic people on LinkedIn. I’m not a software engineer yet, but the community has welcomed me with open arms. I recommend reaching out to some people that have already accomplished what you are trying to do. Chances are, they can relate and give you some much-needed support and motivation. If they can do it so can you. This also helps remind you why you’re pursuing this knowledge. I know that it has helped me immensely.

The bottom line is that you shouldn’t feel bad that you’re in a bit of a rut. It happens to everyone and we can all relate. The tips above can help you drag yourself out of it and back on track. Remember that you are not alone and you can do this! If you need any help feel free to reach out to me and I will gladly share with you everything that I know.