The date was June 12. It's a holiday in the Philippines and 2 things were planned that day:
- to fetch my car from the interior detailing shop
- and to watch Inside Out 2 with the family
Unfortunately, not everything went to plan. And as we went through the difficulties encountered that day, I can't help but think about what can be learned from that experience in general.
How I came up with this 4 mindset is a separate story, but in this blog post, I'll share the mindsets I realized and how I think it can help you in your career.
So, let's dive right in! 
Keeping a Mindset
A mindset is an established set of attitudes of a person or group concerning culture, values, philosophy, frame of mind, outlook, and disposition. It may also arise from a person's worldview or beliefs about the meaning of life.
- wikipedia
We all deal with different kinds of challenges and they help shape up our perspective on life. As we continuously deal with the everyday challenges, we'll build our "own lens" by which we see and navigate through life.
Since each of us encounter them daily throughout our lifetime, we each have our own way of looking at life. Therefore, even if we deal with the same set of challenges, because of our different perspectives, there's a high chance that we'll create solutions differently.
Now it's important to emphasize that the way we see the problem, (a.k.a our perspectives) can be revisited and be refined. Setting a positive mindset will make you push farther, harder and happier.
1. As you PRACTICE, be ALWAYS on the lookout for small things that can be improved
Why keep this mindset? Because your tasks won't always be easy, and with small and steady improvements everything will get better overtime.
I'm not sure which stage you are in your career but by now I hope you've already realized that professional careers are in for the long game.
(if you're thinking otherwise and you'll be switching careers in the next 5 years, be it so. But read on, I think the tips here are useful still).
Not everything in life is easy and yes, software development is hard.
It pays to realize that you are not alone in this hard path and there's no other way but to keep moving forward.
You may envision yourself as someone crossing a heavy crowded street. You might find yourself moving slow, or changing direction from time to time, or find yourself pushed, stepped on, but after a while, you'll get through. And it's because you took the steps, forward.
And what better kind of moving forward there is if not with small, consistent positive progress.
Mastery is a practice, not a destination. -anonymous
2. Do your best to adhere to best practices
Why keep this mindset? Having the discipline to follow rules no matter how tedious and timely will save you headaches.
According to this article, there may be around 86-104 generations since Adam and Eve.
And an estimated 100 billion individuals were born before us.
Tons of people in the past have lived their lives, probably making mistakes along the way. As our ancestors made mistakes, they probably learned from them and tried to avoid repeating them.
So called rules, or best practices were established for the future generations to follow so that they'll reach farther and avoid repeating their mistakes. I'm guessing that those individuals who managed to obey follow best practices survived to the next generation. And those who didn't, were more likely to have ended their lineage (but who knows 🤔).
I have to share this timely message from our sunday service. According to Psalm 78:5-8, God commanded us to disciple the next generations. It is up to us to understand, obey, set an example and teach God's commandments to the next generation.
Unless you're prepared for headaches that go along with going around and disobeying these best practices, try your best to stick to them.
3. Keep in mind that you want to deliver value, but think in long term.
Why keep this mindset? You'll want to deliver output and continuously deliver output w/o having to be burned out.
There's such an idea called P/PC balance that I read from the book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey.
P/PC Balance is a way to use your time as effectively as possible. “P” stands for “production” and “PC” stands for “production capability,” and if you want to keep producing, or getting results, you have to keep investing in your production capability, the thing that gets you those results.
You may be tempted to do overtime work, to get that one more sleepless night, to take that 5th cup of coffee, to do shortcuts or to force your way just to get something done.
To be frank, I've been telling myself that it's okay to do these things as long as I'm actually getting something done.
Let me tell you this, IT'S NOT OKAY. One must be aware that taking this path, makes one ignore the other side of things.
What's the "other side of things"?
- Quality of work
- Health
- Relationships
- Life outside work
- Long-term/Bigger picture planning.
Instead of spending every minute to produce value, sometimes, it would be efficient to pause, and work on our "production capability". This means prioritizing and scheduling the important but not urgent task.
4. At the end of the day, It's all just work.
Why keep this mindset? This is to remind you, there's life outside work.
This bit piece of advise here, I'd say is one of the most important. No matter how stressful work may be, you have to never forget that there are other areas in life.
Career is a big part of life because it provides resources so you can live the life that you want and that's that. Actually living is a much more bigger part of life.
The problem you're dealing with in work right now will not matter in the next days of your life, but the type of relationship you have with your family, your partner, your friends will.
You should know the importance of investing in people. And this is done by spending time with them.
Conclusion
Of course there's more things that you can keep in mind, these things I shared with you is a one-day realization as I went through a tough day of my life.
I initially thought about these 4 mindset with software development in mind, but I realized it can be generalized to cater a more generic perspective.