The reason you are reading this today, is because i googled the phrase “The JavaScript landscape”. I was trying to reseach the various tools/frameworks in JavaScript for different concerns. Google returned a bunch of results of which i chose this JavaScipt and future development landscape.

It’s a blog post by an Indian kid called Bassam. I liked the post. It discussed Meteor, his app Writ, an application to create notes in Markdown, with live previews on the side. It’s open sourced and on github. Okay, navigating through the various links, i found out that this kid is 22 and he if from Kashmir. I was impressed. This kid was doing things i was doing and even more.

In his post, however i found a link to a John Resig’s post, Write Code Everyday. John, in his post mentions how he set aside rules for himself to write code as a habit. It’s a very inspiring read. What’s even inspiring is John is himself inspired by a lady. Jennifer Dewalt.

Jennifer Dewalt, taught herself how to program and how to do web development by developing 1 website a day, for 180 days. She recorded her progress each day on her blog.

From a post, My first year of coding on her blog, these are her words.

“When I finished my website for the first day of the 180 websites project I was incredibly proud. I knew I had a lot of hard work ahead of me, but I had overcome what is often the largest hurdle in any project: getting started.

I’ve learned a lot about myself in the past year working on both the 180 websites project

Most importantly, I’ve been able to overcome the fear of being judged. Whether you are making a piece of artwork, teaching yourself something new or building a business you’re bound to encounter some negative energy. People will say some pretty weird or just plain mean things to you when you’re doing something kind of crazy. Those comments sting a bit, but they’re most dangerous when you let them feed your self doubt. Battling your own self doubt is incredibly formidable.”

There you go! A young lady who has shown the world the power of habit, her determination to learn something new and her awesome positive energy. Her energy has influenced one of the World’s most respected and most reknowned software engineer, John Resig and he has learnt from her. It’s not surprising. Whenever a lot of positive energy radiates, people will be influenced. And they will react. Their best will come out.

I am inspired by this positive wave:

Jennifer Dewalt => John Resig => 22 year old Bassam.

The positive energy has flown. I do not know how many other people Jennifer has had an effect on. She certain has had an effect on me. I have thouroughly enjoyed the learning experience from a simple Google search. I actually went to think about The power of habit and write the thoughts on that.

To Code Everyday is my new found choice of habit. I just need to inculcate it. I need to practice it. At a high-level, it seems daunting. I immediately have a lot of “What-if” questions. I code at work, but like Resig, working n my own stuff. It’s certainly hard. But as Jennifer correctly noted,

“The largest hurdle in any project is, Getting Started.”

Saibaba Vinayakaya Namaha!

Sometime in February, i started working out. I was feeling lonely and i had to burn my energy and not think about my friends and miss them. Madhu bhai and buss asked me to start taking care of myself. So, I started out following the Power 90 Sculpt 1-2 module. I had two 10 pound dumbbells. So each morning, i would get up and try to follow this video running on my 60” tv. I wieghed around 182-184 pounds. But my intention was not to lose weight or anything. It was “I am missing all awesome friends. I have to stop thinking about them, and do something else.” That was the motivation.

After a week, i felt good. I liked the 35 minute procedure. I loved Tony Horton. I asked myself, Well, i’m not doing anything productive in the evenings. How about trying out the Cardio part Sweat 1-2 module. The first day i did the program, i was totally in love with it. Yeah, the first couple of days, i was sore, but i enjoyed it. Soon i was working out in the mornings and the evenings. And i had a sense of accomplishment each day.

Around March, Peach told me to check weight and keep that as a motivation factor. And Ray started pouring in health knowledge, at work. Healthy nutrition and things like that. He made my buy a Fitbit device and asked me to start recording my daily consumption of food at MyFitnessPal. I started doing that.Soon, Sundeep asked me to start eating breakfast. I started grabbing a spinach wrap from Starbucks. I started trying out brown rice. I had fallen into other habits thanks to the first one.

In April, we had a get-together in Kansas and then one in St.Louis. Kids from Kansas were surprised as how fast i had lost weight and were soon wanting to do the things i wanted to do. It made me happy.

By May, i was down to 155 pounds and i looked super slim. I had grown out of an L to an M. And then, i had a stack of trips i had planned and i was to travel everywhere. When you travel, it’s hard to workout. And the habit breaks down. It’s a great level of discomfort for the body and the soul however. If you don’t do a thing that you have been doing each day, your body is not happy. It could be anything. Workout, coffee, nicotine.. whatever. So due to travel i had a break in my daily routine. After a couple of months, i tried to go back to my schedule. It was super difficult.

So i learnt two different things. The power of habit, and that habits can break. When you do a thing each day,one day it becomes natural. It becomes a part of you. The thing could have a positive influence on you, giving you great energy. Or it could be causing an indirect negative influence on you, like say nicotine.

To start doing something daily, is the most difficult part of it. But when you get going, you gonna rock it up! To start a habit, you have to keep yourself motivated.

Saibaba Vinayakaya namaha!