What do you do when the “honeymoon” phase of your learning journey ends? When the initial euphoria you feel from instructing the computer to do something and getting results eventually wears off? Or even when it seems like recruiters simply do not see your internship applications (I mean, you start to question if your email address is invisible.) No matter how enthusiastic you may feel in the beginning, it eventually gets to a point where writing code begins to feel like a chore and you literally have to drag yourself to your workstation only to set up your computer and spend hours on your phone instead.

Learning a programming language is very much like learning to speak a new language except that programming is more likely to give you migraines. Everything seems like jargons in the beginning so when you don’t feel as excited to learn, where do you get the drive to continue? Here a few (hopefully helpful) tips from someone that has struggled with this and is still finding her way.

• Just code: Now before you say “I didn’t come all the way here for this person to tell me what I already know”, hear me out. You don’t get motivated by thinking about getting motivated. Neither do you have to feel motivated to get motivated. That’s a waste of time. You act your way into feeling motivated. Write code. Motivation will follow. You need to learn to enjoy programming. This will come from lots and lots of practice. Don’t get caught up in several hours of tutorial videos with little to no actual coding on your part. Try random stuff to see how they function.

• Finish what you start: This piece of advice is bold coming from somebody who started a #100DaysOfCode Challenge and fell off before Day 20 (I promise to get back on that anyway). Seriously, don’t leave unfinished projects hanging around or you will fall into a bad habit of getting excited about cool new projects and abandoning them for “cooler” ones till you feel burnt out and tired. Now you’re stuck in an unending cycle. So try to finish. No matter how irrelevant the project seems.

• Trust the process: At the risk of sounding like a cliché motivational speaker, please believe in yourself. Programming doesn’t come naturally to anybody. The tech whizzes you look up to all have multiple years of experience under their belts. Here you are, comparing yourself and your pace with theirs. You’re probably just starting out but still doing amazing. Breathe. Things will come together nicely.

• Know why you started: It is important to have clear, cut out goals and reasons for why you’re learning to code in the first place. If you’re in it to make quick money, I suggest you find a Ponzi scheme to be a part of (Please don’t. That was a joke.). It takes time to gain expertise so if you’re learning for the wrong reasons, you’re very likely to get frustrated and give up.

• Network: You’re probably used to people telling you to get in touch with experienced and very successful programmers. I’ll tell you for free that they do not have all the time in the world to answer a thousand questions about Javascript variables. Instead, keep in touch with beginners like you. People on your level or slightly more experienced. They understand it better when they explain it to you and you also understand better when someone your level breaks it down. So that’s basically a win-win situation.

In all these, remember,

“Rest is good but comfort can be dangerous” -Unknown.