I know the first thing that comes to mind when becoming a master is hard work and long hours. Even though that can be one aspect there are other aspects of mastery but there is one key aspect that can change the perspective of the idea mastery.
This idea comes from a kung fu master.
The story begins about the founder of judo–Jigoro Kano. As Kano was approaching death he gathered his students around him and asked that he be buried in his white belt. Now as the founder of judo it is ok to assume that he was way past the level of white belt and past the degree that you can be of when it comes to being black belt. Yet the the idea of being buried with his white belt symbolizes that the journey of mastery is the success of being a life long learner.
What this means is that mastery means your humble enough to always be a student and learn new things and progress on top of the things you already know.
The word Mastery in itself has many branches that go into it, but one thing that masters are known for is specialization in one discipline. A master is not known for how to do many things but ONE thing and if anything else it’s related to that one thing.
In order to become a master of anything one thing is for certain you have to decide to commit yourself to this one thing. This is probably the hardest decision you have to make towards mastery, but once its made, you’ve already started the first step to your journey.
As the old proverb goes “the journey to a thousand steps begins with one step”.
So how does this relate to javascript and mastering javascript. Well I’m glad you asked. Let’s explore this masters journey.
The Path To Mastery
To let you in on a little secret I have decided to become a master of javascript, so I made the decision to be committed to this programming language. If you don’t ‘know javascript is used the most in web development so it is imperative as a front end web developer to know what the language is and how to use it. With that being said javascript has many things to learn especially with all the libraries and frameworks.
Yet if we return to the beginning example from Jigoro Kano a master is a life long learner you are always a student learning your craft.
One thing that is important to know about masters is that masters know the basics or fundamentals very well. Mastery is skills that has been built on top of mastering the fundamentals and never losing site of the basics.
In order to to build up these skills of understanding the fundamentals requires practice, but not just any type of practice. Deliberate practice.
What is deliberate practice though. Deliberate practice is is practice with the intention of learning something you don’t understand and repeating it enough times until your comfortable and it becomes second nature to you.
It said the repetition is the key to any skill. So doing and studying something repetitively will eventually become apart of you. This persistence and consistency to become better at something that is hard develops grit as well.
Once you understand one concept you are then able to move on to the next subject or fundamental your trying to learn and the cycle repeats itself.
This same concept is also found in top performers and experts. Research has found those who are considered experts in their field have committed not only many years on their one thing but they have dedicated a certain amount of time everyday of deliberate practice to hone and develop their craft and skills.
It is with this mindset and commitment that they, as well as myself, are able to produce extraordinary results and be recognized for their commitment, but it is behind the scenes when no one is watching when they do their work.
Remember that time on a task over time eventually beats talent every time (now thats a tongue twister) so if you find someone who you think does something great, you can accomplish the same if decide to commit and put in the effort.
When it comes to javascript there are a few fundamentals of the language you must fully understand in order to get to higher functions within the program from: arrays, loops, functions, and more. Once your able to fully grasp these concepts then you are able to bring these concepts into your programming.
The Approach
So now that you know the idea behind becoming a master the question is “what are the steps?”. Well here is how I am approaching the step to mastery of javascript. These processes also help with anything your trying to master as well.
So through my study of the language there are 6 fundamental concepts that a javascript developer should know of: Data types, arrays, loops, functions, conditional statements, and objects. These concepts are the building blocks to almost everything in javascript from what I see.
So what my practice consists of everyday is I spend some time to dedicated and place all my attention on understanding ONE concept. Even though everyone learning style is different but the goal is the same. When you understand a concept this means you are able to comprehend, explain, and use it when needed.
Usually learning something is always best when you do it, thus deliberate practice comes into play.
For example: When I was learning what a function was what I did was gain the concept and then I began to make functions in order for me to know the structure of it how to build it and call on it when needed. Doing this repetitively helped the concept to stick.
But did I do this just the one time during the block of time I carved out when I was learning it. Nope.
One thing I like about the Chinese culture is when they start learning how to write calligraphy they have to repeat the same strokes everyday in order to get into the habit of how the stroke is formed for any other character that uses the same stroke character.
The same concept goes for deliberate practice, for me at least. I would review what I learned last session so I know the concept stays fresh when ever I need to use it again.
I think thats why I enjoy the term mastery from the Chinese culture.
During this approach to mastery consider yourself as the apprentice. In apprenticeship you are learning the trade from the masters ahead of you. So find all the resources that you can in order to become even better. Even a coach or mentor can truly help guide you to become better, since they have been down the road before and they have techniques and ways they found that helped them to learn the subject can help speed your process.
Remember that the road or pursuit to mastery actually bears gifts.
As you begin your journey and learning this new material your self confidence and your success competence grows. The only difference between you and an expert is knowledge, but once you begin to understand what they know you feel more confident. You are now able to follow along with topics and subjects that were once foreign to you.
So remember knowledge begets knowledge and skills build on skills.
Anyone can become a master at anything if they are willing to commit to one thing and dedicate their time and effort to obtaining extraordinary results others are not willing to put in the time to learn.