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General Discussion

Connor Clausen
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Connor Clausen
Front End Web Development Techdegree Student 4,335 Points
Posted by Connor Clausen
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Connor Clausen
Front End Web Development Techdegree Student 4,335 Points

In a rut, need motivation/guidance!

Hi treehouse community! I'm in a bit of a rut and need a little direction/motivation. Three months ago, I started the JavaScript portion of my front end web development tech degree and really struggled. I absolutely blew through the HTML and CSS portion and it made sense to me. I decided to take a month off and have been doing some steps off and on over the last two months. JavaScript has really done some damage to my confidence and can't find the motivation to sludge through this portion. Has anyone else experienced this? If so, how did you get yourself over that hump? I'm having trouble seeing the light and have fallen into some bad habits and just want to get back on track. Thank you!

3 Answers

Paul Franco
Paul Franco
28,480 Points
Paul Franco
Paul Franco
28,480 Points

Hi Connor, I believe that we all go through this at some point. I know that I felt exactly the same when I first started learning JavaScript. What keeps me going is knowing that a person who has never doubted himself has never truly challenged himself. You are challenging yourself right now and you WILL break through this wall. How do I know this? Because you have taken the first step by asking for help and advise from your peers.

Justin Radcliffe
Justin Radcliffe
18,987 Points
Justin Radcliffe
Justin Radcliffe
18,987 Points

Hi Connor!

I can relate to how your feeling at this time, and it won't be the last time you feel it! Learning JavaScript is a significant step up from HTML and CSS, and you shouldn't expect to grasp the former as quickly as you did the latter. My advice to you would be to follow each course at least twice. The first time follow along, code along, do the quizes and challenges, lean on the treehouse community as you go, then, the second time just watch the videos, watch the instructors write code and explain what they're doing and why they're doing it - but without writing any code - this will free up your mind to absorb everything you missed the first time because you were probably too busy trying to write your code.

Liam Lagan
Liam Lagan
10,517 Points
Liam Lagan
Liam Lagan
10,517 Points

Try watching some youtube videos about Javascript. I've found some of them are a bit more lighthearted and because they're not part of your "official learning" you can sort of relax and just watch them.

I think the jump is tough because it's the first "programming" part of learning web dev... a wider introduction to programming concepts might help but I haven't got a good link handy.

You can learn anything on the internet, so of course learning how to make the internet from the people who made the internet is possible for you.

KEEP GOING AND IT WILL CLICK FOR YOU TOO (and jQuery is around the corner which lets you hack together super impressive results with very little work...)

GO GET IT