I experienced a lot of false starts when I began my programming journey. Facing a setback would frustrate me and I would quit only to come back after a few days. Everything would be working as the tutorial (I just downloaded) stated then eventually I would encounter a new challenge. Overcoming these challenges as a beginner and moving forward is understated.

Leaving aside the various paradoxes that will come about if I were to move from this point in time to that certain point in time when I began coding. This textual information will help navigate this journey.

As a beginner, you will realize that there are a lot of opinions on the various languages, a predisposition to promote one language rather than the other. These are driven by factors such as efficiency and ease of use. There also exist trends of how the languages will rank against each other in a period.

Programming is a way of thinking and implementing the logic you create in a language that the machine understands. Learning to code is hard work and takes dedication. As a beginner, I will choose a language that is considered beginner friendly, a language with a very simple syntax and visible. This greatly increases interest, since the results are immediate.

What comes to mind are languages like Python and JavaScript. My recommendation is Python . It has a small learning curve, which turns out to be important as it minimizes the frustrations that will inherently arise on your path.

Here are some of its advantages ;

• Easy readability ; Python boasts its closeness to natural language, it is a high-level language, making it easier to read and understand.

• Cleaner code ; It enforces white spaces, these are the spaces in between your code. Correctly indented code looks organized and is easier to understand.

• Rich resources ; Being a popular language, it has good documentation and a massive community for support. This is important when seeking solutions.

In my early stages, it was tempting to go through the materials all at once, which proved to be ineffective. There a famous song lyric by Jordin Sparks One step at a time There’s no need to rush. Keep a clear and concise road-map of the path you will take, giving adequate time for every topic. It saves more time to understand each part before moving to the next.

Another pitfall to watch out for are online rabbit holes. While going through resources online such as websites, There exist shinny sites that are not necessarily relevant at that particular time. You can always bookmark them for later after you have completed the task at hand.

Let's face it, learning a new skill is daunting but with practice, it gets better over time. Coding is basically about being a problem solver. Challenges are bound to appear, and you will hit the wall many times. How you deal with such frustrations is key and will determine whether you succeed.

Mentorship is a crucial part of professional growth and development, a mentor will provide support and hold you accountable for the goals you have set. This feedback is of great importance when making follow up decisions. This can be someone who is already proficient in the field or simply one who has a good knowledge of the topic you are learning.

The community is helpful and caring, for both beginners and experienced developers. Every challenge you encounter, chances are that it has been solved before. Sites like StackOverflow , Hashnode and Hackernoon come in handy when you have questions. It goes without question that you should carry yourself with respect in these forums.

When all seems not to work out, you should take a break and come back later with a clear mind. You will find that it was easier with a new perspective.