Finding my purpose and message

[pianoperformer]

So I know what I love doing, which is a plus. But I don't know why I am doing it, or what my purpose is in it.

I love programming. I've loved it since I started it 8 years ago. I've also feeled a pull to start a business for about 4 years, and briefly had a run at it at that time.

But I can't figure out why I'm doing all this. I mean I enjoy it greatly, it gives me a rush to create web sites from scratch, but when I visualize my goals, and I try to find something to get excited about, I ask myself what I'm doing it for. I mean I would like to be financially successful through it, but what will it actually do for me, and what value will it bring for others? Help other businesses to make more money? That doesn't excite me.

So I ask myself why I enjoy it, to try to find a clue. I enjoy it because it's creative for me, having to solve a problem. But beyond that, I like doing my best job in it. I don't like when programmers just write code without any best practices in mind. No unit testing, no comments, very poorly designed objects. That drives me nuts.

It is like an art for me. I love designing the objects, writing the tests, etc.

But the value in it, well I just don't know. I can't find anything else I'm passionate about, well besides spirituality.

Some things I can think of that I'm kind of interested in include education, I think AI would be interesting but I don't know yet, and that's all I can think of.

So I don't know. I guess I'm asking how I can figure this out? or should I just continue without knowing where I'm going, and hope I happen upon something?

[Dan.Linehan]

You are a highly skilled communicator and programmer. I'd put those skills to work.

Try asking yourself this: what website do you wish existed that doesn't right now, and why?

[Angela]

Originally Posted by pianoperformer

It is like an art for me....

But the value in it, well I just don't know.

This made me laugh out loud, pianoperformer.

It's very easy to hear the value of you what you do. You are an artist, and your medium is websites. How valuable is that? People want websites that are created with the love, the attention to detail, and the passion that you so obviously invest in your work. And, there is a HUGE difference in value between a slapdash website and one that is a work of art. It makes a difference not only to the people who click on and enjoy it, but also it gives the site owner such a pride of ownership, a joy in sharing her product or message by showing it off in a beautiful, well-prepared frame.

Does that excite you? It sure inspires me.

[pianoperformer]

Originally Posted by Dan.Linehan

You are a highly skilled communicator and programmer. I'd put those skills to work.

Try asking yourself this: what website do you wish existed that doesn't right now, and why?

Great question. I'm not entirely sure though, so I'll have to consider it for a while. Thank you.

[pianoperformer]

Originally Posted by Angela

This made me laugh out loud, pianoperformer.

It's very easy to hear the value of you what you do. You are an artist, and your medium is websites. How valuable is that? People want websites that are created with the love, the attention to detail, and the passion that you so obviously invest in your work. And, there is a HUGE difference in value between a slapdash website and one that is a work of art. It makes a difference not only to the people who click on and enjoy it, but also it gives the site owner such a pride of ownership, a joy in sharing her product or message by showing it off in a beautiful, well-prepared frame.

Does that excite you? It sure inspires me.

Wow Angela, you put that so beautifully. It's strange for me to describe it as an art, since that doesn't really match programming, but that's exactly what it is for me.

But thank you so much. That really makes everything clearer.

[pianoperformer]

The other question is how I can find a designer to work with me who is just as passionate and puts just as much care into his/her work. You don't find many people like that.

[Dan.Linehan]

Originally Posted by pianoperformer

The other question is how I can find a designer to work with me who is just as passionate and puts just as much care into his/her work. You don't find many people like that.

My partner Nick (at etopolos.com) is a top designer. He does a lot of label and print work, as well as website development.

[pianoperformer]

Originally Posted by Dan.Linehan

My partner Nick (at etopolos.com) is a top designer. He does a lot of label and print work, as well as website development.

Thank you. I will check that out.

[Chris Cade]

There's a lot of really good video resources here:

ThePerfectBizFinder

I've been through the video series and have the program (that's sold through the video series) and it's been amazingly helpful with me on the topic of purpose.

[pianoperformer]

Originally Posted by Chris Cade

There's a lot of really good video resources here:

ThePerfectBizFinder

I've been through the video series and have the program (that's sold through the video series) and it's been amazingly helpful with me on the topic of purpose.

Thank you, but I already know what I enjoy doing, that wasn't really the issue.

Thanks everyone for helping me to have a different outlook on this.

[Parthon]

piano: You are on the right track. If you want clarity though, one of the best exercises is to write down on a list everything you love to do in point form, leaving a gap between each one, say 1/6th of a page(or use a 'puter document). Then write down why you love to do each of those things in point form and see if you can come up with any commonalities. Keep thinking up new reasons and new things you love to do and you'll get a pattern of the same kind of thing that keeps coming up.

It could be building, creating, designing, perfection, or art. It's a pointer to what your message is: your unique voice that you wish to share with the world. Then your programming will be recreated as a way to share that voice, the medium so to speak.

ps. Programming *IS* art, and mathematics, together in a dance of creation and structure that gives a bridge from imagination to reality. Much like a painter, or a sculpter, a programmer also takes a blank canvas and creates his unique style of code apon it, in order to achieve something that hasn't existed before. It can't be anything _but_ art.

[Holistic Star]

Have a Soul Realignment reading. Anna Conlan on this board does them and so do a few others here. I've just started the training as I thought it was wonderful. I'm going to be giving my own readings in the future.

I learned so much in that reading. Everything that was said, resonated with me. It's completely revitalised me and given me so much direction. No more groping around trying to guess!

[pianoperformer]

Originally Posted by Parthon

piano: You are on the right track. If you want clarity though, one of the best exercises is to write down on a list everything you love to do in point form, leaving a gap between each one, say 1/6th of a page(or use a 'puter document). Then write down why you love to do each of those things in point form and see if you can come up with any commonalities. Keep thinking up new reasons and new things you love to do and you'll get a pattern of the same kind of thing that keeps coming up.

It could be building, creating, designing, perfection, or art. It's a pointer to what your message is: your unique voice that you wish to share with the world. Then your programming will be recreated as a way to share that voice, the medium so to speak.

ps. Programming *IS* art, and mathematics, together in a dance of creation and structure that gives a bridge from imagination to reality. Much like a painter, or a sculpter, a programmer also takes a blank canvas and creates his unique style of code apon it, in order to achieve something that hasn't existed before. It can't be anything _but_ art.

Thanks a lot. I will try that.

And yes, I guess I'm coming to see programming is a kind of art. That's definitely how it feels for me.

[pianoperformer]

Originally Posted by Holistic Star

Have a Soul Realignment reading. Anna Conlan on this board does them and so do a few others here. I've just started the training as I thought it was wonderful. I'm going to be giving my own readings in the future.

I learned so much in that reading. Everything that was said, resonated with me. It's completely revitalised me and given me so much direction. No more groping around trying to guess!

I was just looking at Anna Conlan's site the other day. Where exactly is the soul realignment reading mentioned though? This page is the only one I can find it mentioned in passing.

I plan to get a reading from her whenever I can afford it.

[Holistic Star]

It's this page. Scroll down to the heading "Soul Purpose and Career Reading".

It's made the world of difference to me.


She's changed her reading structure slightly as I had a reading and clearing combined.

You'll be able to find out how aligned you are with your soul purpose - marvellous stuff!

[Anna Conlan]

Hello pianoperformer,

I recently decided to go for a bit more flexibility and offer a general reading, which incorporates everything I know how to do - talking to your Guides, looking up info on your purpose and gifts in the Akashic Record and Soul Realignment clearing. It's on my readings page!

[pianoperformer]

Thanks Anna!

As it turns out, I just recently received quite a bit more money, so I will probably be getting a reading soon. Would you suggest this general reading, or the reading to find one's purpose?

[wolfgang]

hey pianoperformer,

You being into programming but not feeling the big picture reminds me of a parallel to music. It's kind of like knowing all the scales and chords in music but not knowing pieces of music or writing any.

I'm not saying that's what's up for you. Just pointing out an interesting idea.

You could be a really good programmer, but without something fun and cool to program there's going to be something missing. That's similar to having musical techniques without a repertoire.

[pianoperformer]

Originally Posted by wolfgang

hey pianoperformer,

You being into programming but not feeling the big picture reminds me of a parallel to music. It's kind of like knowing all the scales and chords in music but not knowing pieces of music or writing any.

I'm not saying that's what's up for you. Just pointing out an interesting idea.

You could be a really good programmer, but without something fun and cool to program there's going to be something missing. That's similar to having musical techniques without a repertoire.

I dont' know if that's accurate or not. I have a few ideas I want to work on, though I'm not sure if I'll be able to, yet.

[Daffy Duck]

Originally Posted by pianoperformer

No unit testing, no comments, very poorly designed objects. That drives me nuts.

I comment my code like crazy. It's practically a story to read something I write. However, I don't know much yet about unit testing.

So I'd just like to point out that I'm only driving half your nuts.

[pianoperformer]

Originally Posted by Daffy Duck

I comment my code like crazy. It's practically a story to read something I write. However, I don't know much yet about unit testing.

So I'd just like to point out that I'm only driving half your nuts.

Why don't we have a rofl smiley?

See Extreme Programming: A Gentle Introduction. for more on TDD, and a bunch of other agile practices.

Though, I recommend BDD (behavior-driven development) over TDD. BDD says more something like, "what should this code do?"

In Ruby, I do something like:

describe User do
  it "should be named Bob" do
    bob = User.find(1)
    bob.name.should == 'Bob'
  end
end

I like it a lot better than the Test::Unit syntax.

As for comments, that's cool. I usually comment major blocks like classes, methods, etc.

[pianoperformer]

I just found something I really want to do. Well not just now, I've been wanting to do this for a while, but have been ignoring it.

I've been really wanting to make a game, accessible for blind people. I made something like it several years ago, in a very rudimentary form, that was just for fun for myself, but have been wanting to recreate and improve upon that. There's nothing like it for blind people, as the number of accessible games is very limited.

I'm very excited about it. There's really no deeper reason behind it than I really am interested in the subject and think it'd be a lot of fun, but that's good enough, lol.