Have you ever signed up tp do something because you knew it was something that you should do? You are all charged and ready to go and you really don’t have to spend any effort in making the decision. You know you want to do it. Still, you don’t do it, at least not right away.
A couple weeks go by, and occasionally your internal alarm goes off, telling you that you need to stop procrastinating and get it started. Yeah, I know how that is. It’s been a couple more weeks than that and I haven’t started learning Ioke. Sure, I’ve been busy. Not so busy that I couldn’t have done anything. Just busy enough that it’s been a good enough excuse.
Well, I’ll be honest. There’s another reason why I haven’t started working on learning Ioke yet. Truth be told, Ioke scares me a little.
Now don’t get me wrong, it’s a very interesting language; one that I am very much wanting to learn. It’s just that it’s outside of my comfort zone. It’s foreign, and it uses strange terminology like mimic and Ground and macros. It knocks me down a few notches, tells me that I may have learned other languages, but it’s different, it won’t crack so easily.
Of course, that is optimal. I wouldn’t want to attempt to expand my horizons with a year of Python because I already know Ruby and while there would be some lessons and perspectives to learn, my time would be better spent with something further outside my comfort zone. Java would be a similar issue, already knowing C#, eye opening moments would be minimal.
The very fact that Ioke both interests and pushes me out of my comfort zone makes it the perfect candidate for me to learn. It presents a challenge which is just what I need.
Knowing this, it is just a matter now of powering through the initial learning curve and getting on with the benefits. Yeah I know, I’m getting to it. Meanwhile, are there any goals that you have set for yourself in 2009 that you have having a hard time starting? What is holding you back? Anything that is pulling you out of your comfort zone?