It is incredible how series of events lead to interesting things. If someone had told me couple of years ago that I would be writing a blog post, I would probably say that this person is out of his mind and should have his head examined. But here I am. Writing my first blog post.

You must be asking:

How did I chose to write a blog?

What lead me to start doing it?

The answer is very simple, as I stated in the beginning. It was a series of events.

Every event, every step, even very small – counts. When everything adds up, it makes a difference.

How it all started

I can say that I’m a pretty regular guy. I am a software developer. I go to work every day, 8 hours a day, 5 times a week. I’m doing the work I love. I’m fairly good at it. It pays the bills. It provides for me and my family. To an observer it would seem that everything is going according to plan.

But that is the catch, it could not be more further from the truth. In fact, I had no plan in place. How can everything go according to plan when there is no plan to start with? You could say that I was running on autopilot, always in the reaction mode, never having a clear goal what I wanted to do. What I wanted to achieve. What I wanted to become.

It all started to change couple of years ago. I started to notice that there are people in my company that seem to have greater technical knowledge than I had. At first I thought that this is do to sheer talent of those individuals. But as the time went on, I realized that it had nothing to do with their talent. The truth is that people who were ahead of me were the people who were investing time into their knowledge.

Naturally, I wanted to do the same thing. Since I’m a technical guy the only way I knew how, is to relate to the technical side of the story.

It was obvious to me that I was out of touch with the latest news in technology and current trends. This had to change. I started following sites which had daily feeds of what is happening in the tech industry. Sites like:

• Slashdot (https://slashdot.org/)
• Codeproject (http://www.codeproject.com/)
• O’Reilly Radar (http://radar.oreilly.com/)
• Techcrunch (http://techcrunch.com/)

Pretty soon this new approach started to show results. I picked up what was going on in the world of technology. What are the trends. What is the current goto topic/technology/programming language. This gave me a great confidence boost that I was not being left behind. At least not anymore. Little I have known that it was an illusion. Yes, I knew the direction that the technology is moving but I still had no idea what I wanted to do. What I wanted to achieve. What I wanted to become.

Lucky break

A lot of times I’ve heard people saying that you need to have some luck in your life. That is exactly what happened to me. While I was following exclusively technical news and trends every once in awhile, I came across a non-technical article that caught my eye. At first I didn’t give it too much attention. But as time went on, I realized that there are certain non-technical topics that always catch my attention. Topics like:

• The 4 Most Important Skills for a Software Developer
• Maximize Productivity in 15 Minutes
• Learning to Learn
• 5 Ways to Destroy Your Productivity

At first glance, these topics have nothing to do with software development. But when you give it another, deeper taught, it has everything to do with software development. I realized that there are other things I need to improve on my path of becoming a better software developer. This is the point when I came in contact with the Simple Programmer site.

Simple programmer site started as a blog of a certain John Sonmez. It immediately caught my attention with its message “Making the complex simple”. Great message, simple yet powerful. I started following John’s posts, even non-technical ones. Especially non-technical ones. I love the way John talks about complex topics. Breaking them down into small, easily digestible parts.

It was there, reading John’s blog posts that I’ve realized that I still cannot see the big picture. That I still don’t have a clear goal for my career. In my heart I knew that this is something I had to change.

By then I knew that the most important thing I had to do is to define my goals. Define the path I wanted to take. Define my niche, area of expertize where I wanted to excel. Where I wanted to provide the value to the people I come in contact with. This aligned perfectly with the work I am doing at my company – KNX, the worldwide standard for home and building control.

And the Journey begins…

And this is how my journey started. Now there was another obstacle in my path, how to achieve my goal. How to reach the people that are doing the same thing as I was. How to help them out, to overcome their difficulties, difficulties that I may have already overcomed.

Once again John provided a solution for my needs. For a while I was fad with an information about the blog e-mail course John has put together. At first the idea of writing a blog was out of my reach. But the more I thought about it, the more I’ve realized that the blog is the perfect vehicle for the need I wanted to fulfill. Easy to use medium to provide content about the topic I feel passionate about. I can write about my interests. Anybody can access the information and use it as they see fit. It’s a win-win situation. And that is how this journey started.

Since I know nothing about writing a blog it was great that there was someone willing to share their experience about it. Especially someone who has proven that he knows how to run a successful blog site. At first I didn’t know what to expect, but I figured that I had nothing to lose. It was definitely a better starting point than nothing. I signed up for the blog course and I was on my way.

Now that I have completed the course I can say that it was well worth the effort. Like everything else that John creates, his blog course was simple and easy to follow. A lot of us is used to learn by following a well defined routh. This is exactly what this blog course provides.

Complete course consists of several lessons. Every lesson is sent in a separate mail covering one important topic. Every lesson starts with the goal. What do we want to achieve and why, followed by one or more explanations on how we can achieve that goal. In the end of every topic there is a homework, something that you need to do. Great thing is that John is asking you to commit to the homework and provide details to him. This gives a great feeling that you have a mentor. That you are not alone. What is even better is that John personally replies to those e-mails and provides more information, guidance, support. Whatever is necessary.

You can access the free blog course here: http://devcareerboost.com/blog-course/.

If you are on the same path as I am, defining your goals and finding a way to achieve them, this course will provide a good starting point for you.

If you are already on your way, it can still provide some useful insights of what you can do to achieve your goals faster.

What can I say that I didn’t say already?

Don’t do the same mistakes I did.

Don’t go through life on autopilot.

Everything has so much more meaning when you create a purpose to it. And the easiest way to create a purpose is to have a goal which you are trying to achieve. On your path the goal will change, but that is OK. That simply means that you are in motion, moving toward your goal and controlling your course in the process.