Never stop learning
For those who have graduated from whatever school or program, they’re attending, it's not unusual to see people take an extended break from the coursework they were once doing. After all, working day and night to meet deadlines for assignments, projects, etc to get a good grade, it would make sense to take a break after you've completed everything right? Wrong, doing this will be doing a great disservice to you if you’re planning on taking the field you’re trying to get in seriously. Because I am a software engineer I will be using getting a computer science degree and attending a Bootcamp as examples to help visualize why exactly the practice of continuous learning is the trick to become good at what you do.
Firstly, you need to understand how your brain works when it comes to learning new subjects. In your brain, you have billions and billions of neurons that fire off when your body is trying to do any kind of function just like the way electricity moves through a circuit when you plug it into something. The purpose of these neurons is to send information back and forth when you try to do an action like walking for example.
Most people can't remember the first time they walked as a child but they definitely are able to walk on a day-to-day basis. The reason for this is when you learn something you have to continuously practice what you learned so that your brain doesn't forget it. Now to compare walking to finishing an assignment might not be the best example for some but it all boils down to how to brain works. When you learn anything at all, some important changes happen in the brain like the bond between your neurons becoming stronger. This is why when you continuously practice one thing, you're able to get better at it the more you practice.
Now typically, while using software engineering as an example, many students first thought isn't to go back home and continue coding. Most of the time they want to take a break, which in itself isn't bad, but most of the time they become too comfortable and start to slack off. They have to remember that the brain loses over 50% of the content it learned in one hour alone! This is insane given that there are people who seem like geniuses without studying all day. Though this statistic is quite alarming luckily there is something we can do about it and it's right in our face, just continue to learn. Just like working out, initially, it might seem grueling and you'll want to give up. But there comes a point where you start to enjoy the soreness and you start to see the results of all of your hard work. This simple concept can be applied to anything and most importantly, it can be applied to the most important organ in your body, the brain.
The skill of learning how to learn is a lifelong journey so don't beat yourself up over not understanding something immediately, that's the beauty of being able to learn. In my software engineering Bootcamp experience, I was forced to learn many concepts in a short amount of time, some of which felt impossible. A few months later I can proudly say I am a graduate and though I may be a rookie, I feel like I've become very good at this amazing skill, and with hard work and PERSISTENCE, you can too.
