5 Ways To Cope With The ANXIETY Of Software Development!

Healthy Developer

Are you feeling worried that you won't get what you want out of your career? Today I'd like to share 5 ways to cope with the anxiety of software development.

Overcoming Past Failures

The first way software development can cause anxiety is when another party you're working with, or perhaps even you, have experienced failures in the past. If you can learn to be OK with having to prove yourself again, and that others may look at you with scrutiny because of what went wrong before that was totally outside of your control, you'll find greater peace.

Battling Forced Commitments

The second way software development can cause anxiety is when someone is obligated to a commitment for which they were unable to influence the terms. A common example of this is when a software developer estimates work for another. Do whatever you can to help leaders understand the value in the creative ways individuals solve problems, and commit to less without involvement from the person who will actually do the work.

Overcoming Impatience

In our quest to achieve our goals, we can often become impatient. When we rush to reach our career goals and dreams, we don't enjoy the journey and often make poor decisions in our haste.

If we can calm down and savor the moment when we achieve a goal, we won't jump to start the next one without actually slowing down to enjoy what we just worked so hard for.

Permitting Yourself To Heal

I've personally had many tragedies in my life and failures on the job, and when I don't take vacation or whatever time is needed to fully heal - I'm never at my best. Permitting yourself to take time off to heal is crucial to doing your best work and enjoying software development. If you want to feel less anxiety, you must take care of yourself and put your needs above whoever at the company has expectations for you. If they don't understand, tough! Your health and well-being are more important than trying to keep yourself "together" if you're experiencing anxiety because you need to take care of anything going on in your personal life.

Rejecting The Scarcity Mindset

In our society today the perception that we don't have enough money, a high enough social media score, aren't attractive enough, or won't get the opportunities we want can result in crippling levels of anxiety. Rather than let this completely FALSE mindset effect us, we need to be realistic about the abundance of opportunity available in this industry. The sooner we can take a step back and realize just how many options there are outside our current situation, and have the courage to explore these while embracing uncertainty - the sooner we can calm down, try what might be more fulfilling, and steer in a direction that's better for us.

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