The Data Engineer's Guide to Thriving Outside the Comfort Zone
5 Lessons to Break Out of the Comfort Zone
The number one enemy for anyone working in data is the comfort zone.
That little place where everything is fine and dandy.
The work is manageable.
Everything works out.
You know what to expect.
You do the things you're used to always doing.
Life is easy, and every day is the same. Nothing ever changes.
I get it. I've been there; that place is awesome. It doesn't take much effort. The boat never rocks, and it's smooth sailing, but you know (deep down) that you're being lazy. You know the steps you need to take to get out of it, but hey, it can wait for tomorrow. It will be hard, so you put it off for a day, a month, then a year passes by. Life sure is comfortable in the comfort zone.
If you have a million plans and goals and they all start tomorrow, well, you need to take a long, hard look at yourself.
Growth demands that you step out of your comfort zone. Yes, YOU! No one else is going to do it for you. I spent years waiting for something or someone to take me by the hand and spoon-feed me everything I wanted to know. I thought, naively, that I could learn on the job. I was wrong. It didn’t happen; nobody came, nobody cared.
It was only when I started to push myself, take things into my own hands, and hold myself accountable, did I start to pick up the skills I wanted to be a great data engineer.
Here are the lessons I learned the hard way.
Stop waiting
I used to wait for the companies I worked for to send me on training.
I used to wait for the 'right time' to start learning.
I’d wait and wait and wait.
Then, I decided to stop waiting.
I had enough. I took things into my own hands. If I wanted to learn something, I did it; I didn’t need anyone’s approval or blessing. I didn’t need someone else’s training budget to be approved or for Monday to come along for me to start learning. Now was the time. I woke up early, found free resources, and made it happen. If you wait for someone else to tell you what to learn or for the optimal moment, you will wait forever.
Simple Steps
Standing at the bottom of a mountain of things to learn is daunting. If you try to learn it all, you will end up giving up. Trust me on this one —I know. I use a one-in, one-out system. I start with one thing, learn it, then move on to the next thing. You need to find what works for you. You can't bounce around from thing to thing. It's not sustainable. Learning something, and eventually mastering something, is a series of simple steps, small tiny improvements over a long period of time.
Find a goal
No point in learning something if you don’t have a goal in mind. Goals need to be achievable, especially at the beginning, like ridiculously simple.
You need to set yourself a target, a clear goal that you can aim towards. This is why building out projects is good. There is an end to it. No point in saying, 'I’m going to learn SQL.' That is unclear. I’ve been writing SQL for 15 plus years. Am I a master? Nope. Am I good at it? Yes, but I’ll never know all of it; there is no end to it. A project needs an end. Find a project that is heavily SQL-based, do it, get hands-on, and finish it. A goal that cannot be measured is not a solid goal; it’s a dream, and you’re living there too.
Take Risks
If you want to grow, you need to do the things that are uncomfortable. You need to move from that cushy comfort zone you’ve made for yourself to one that puts you in the direct path of challenges and the unknowns. That is where the true learning happens. You can’t keep doing the easy stuff. The biggest learning gains I ever made were when I started doing the uncomfortable things, the ones I would shy away from or put off. You’re putting those things off for a reason, and that reason is because you are scared of the unknown, scared of failing. You've got to learn to fail; failing is where you gain experience.
Do the work
If you look across the internet at all the greats out there, do you know what their secret was? They did the work. Simple as that. They put the hours in, countless hours. We live in a world where we crave instant gratification. If the results don’t come within a few days, we often get discouraged and give up. But true success, the kind that lasts, requires patience and persistence. You have to trust that your efforts will pay off in the long run. Hard work pays off — period. Do the work!
You got this
I’ve never met anyone who said the comfort zone is great and they wish they stayed there. Getting yourself out of a rut is hard, really hard, but it’s not impossible.
If you are starting out in data and looking at all the things you have to learn, take heart in the fact that things take time. Start small and put the work in.
If you’ve been in this data game for ages and feel stuck, you can make a change. I did, and I’ve not looked back.
Remember, growth and comfort do not coexist — they can’t, not if you want to change. Challenge yourself to show up every day, even when you don't want to.
You can make it happen.
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