Hey guys, welcome back for the part II of The Road To Mastery series. As I mentioned in the previous article, this one will be focused on the journey of my own learning, tips I'd give to someone that's just starting out and the present as of where I find myself in my own journey. Enjoy the reading!

After setting an arrow to the direction I wanted to head towards, whilst still being a college sophomore, I began to research diverse ways to learn the ins and outs of the world of data. A useful way to do this, was to search for data engineers, scientists and analysts who would tell their stories and teach lessons online. Doing research of my own was a big part of my learning process, and I highly recommend to search for individuals that are already well-established in the field you are looking to get into. Some might argue that the best way to learn is by doing, which I agree with, but I would add that observing and visualizing the tasks is the starting point for any journey towards learning. What do you guys think?

At this point, after observing, I took the knowledge I acquired from these individuals and mixed it up, added some of my own, and found myself with a solid end product to commence building things of my own. I did this through a project portfolio, which I'll get into in next articles!

Everytime I thought I had a better understanding of how the world of data worked, I'd discover that I didn't know as much as I thought, and then I'd think I understood, then discovered that it wasn't true and etcetera. Learning is a never-ending cycle. It took me a couple of years until I was really comfortable with doing what I dedicate myself to today, it's a non-stop process of learning from peers and mistakes. It really is true that we don't know what we don't know.

I need to emphasize that the interesting part of learning something new, is that linear progress in non-existent. Is this bad? Is this good? The pros weight out the cons when you decide to go through the battles of acquiring knowledge. First, you might feel much confusion at the start. Imagine that you are in a forest full of mist, where you must take a couple of steps, stumbling into one or two trees while you're at it, however, you don't stop. Afterwards, you start to memorize the forest's tree pattern, your senses begin to heighten and your eyes adjust to the mist surrounding you. You might even stop for a couple of minutes and even start to admire the mist, the lack of orientation, the presence of confusion and nervousness...at this point, you get comfortable being uncomfortable. Now, you're hard to take down, you don't believe in stopping taking little steps through the mist. The mist is now you're ally, because it keeps you curious, alert, disciplined and mentally ready for new challenges. The mist is the unknown, the trees are the lessons you encounter along the way, and when the mist starts to dissipate, you'll find more trails to follow. The plot twist? The new trails are full of mist, and once again, the learning cycle begins.

When I began walking through my misted forest, I would've liked to know these three things before beginning, might be helpful for you, the lector.

  1. Be as curious as you can be.
  2. Lose your fear of learning via trial and error as soon as you can.
  3. Have a concrete finishing line, even if you don't know how you'll get there, and make it a priority. You will discover the right path to reach that point along the way.

I'd say these three tips are solid advice for someone starting off, however, they are soft tips. If we convert them to something more technical,  they would look like the following:

  1. Search for well-established individuals in your desired profession and observe their way of doing things. Utilize Youtube and LinkedIn, at the bare minimum.
  2. Commence doing projects regarding your career path. I'll utilize my case as an example. I built a data analysis project portfolio where I built projects about topics I found interesting, it's the perfect platform to learn via trial and error and it obligates you to research things on your own. Also, this requires you to be more creative, and build original processes.
  3. Write down your goals for your professional life. Look straight and don't look back, if you really want to get there, you will. Build a routine around that goal, ask yourself: "How many hours per day does my goal require me to put in?", "What structure should my learning syllabus have this week?", "How will I know when I'm burning out?", "What will I need to sacrifice to remain on this path?", "Is this something that I can realistically adopt as my daily plan?". All these questions will give you diverse answers and they might not all align, but you just have to start with something small. Establish your routine slowly, until it becomes automatic. Something important to remember when building plans to reach a goal is consistency. Consistency is key, always.

Learning new things is definitely challenging, but if we think about it, everything in life is challenging, we just have to choose our challenges, choose wisely!

This is the end of the The Road To Mastery series, which I believe was a smooth step towards the direction I want to take my homesite. Stay tuned for the next article, I'll write about simple habits that you can adopt, that make a big difference in the long run.

I hope these articles are able to help you guys, that is the final mission of this homesite.

-Aritz.