How? It's the same technique that Michael Phelps uses to win Olympic Golds: Visualizatin. Before I go to sleep, I visualize my life as a Software and Controls Engineer. I think of what I will create and how it will improve the lives of people in the future.

Visualizing is not enough though. Each morning, I flood my brain with new and necessary information that steadily increase my skills and get me closer to achieving my goal.

The first I had heard anything about Scott Adams, author and cartoonist of Dilbert, was in Tim Ferris’ book, Tools Of Titans. Scott’s profile has a lot of information on how to become what you’ve always wanted to become through the simple technique called “Achieving Your Goals”. In the book he tells of a woman he met in a hypnosis class who turned him on to the technique of Affirmations. He thought it was bologna but tried it anyway. It is this technique of goal setting that has made him a NYT #1 bestseller and the successful Dilbert cartoonist. 

He explains it like this - (paraphrased)

Affirmations do not create magic. They are a firm review of your goals everyday. It happens like this: You’re in the middle of a thronging and noisy crowd. You hear no distinguishable words. But if someone calls your name, you hear it with 100% clarity. Your brain has an autofilter that allows through everything important to you (e.g. your name) and blocks everything that's meaningless. By repeating your goals each day, your subconscious subsequently labels that topic “Important”. As you’re out in your daily life, you pick up on things related to your goal.

On top of having your goals in mind at least once a day, Affirmations requires you to define goals in the first place. When I first started this goal reciting routine, it took me about 2 weeks to figure out what my goals actually were. Which is when I realized that I barely had goals my entire life. “David, how did you graduate as a Mechanical Engineer and move across the country for a job in the Bay Area?” Environment. Not the scope of this post.

For the first time ever, I am that proverbial ship that sets out to sea with a destination and not the one cut from dock aimlessly floating around in the harbor. It gives a point to my obsessive productivity and gives me a chance of being in the same league as the goal-achievers I look up to like Elon Musk.

How I’m going about achieving my goals:

The second part to Scott Adams’ success technique is flooding your brain with new and necessary information each morning. WARNING: THIS MAY CHANGE YOUR BELOVED SCHEDULE! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Adams explains it like this: (paraphrased) “Start fresh with a new problem and a new set of information. Enter the future everyday, leave yesterday’s problems behind”. For me, this manifests as getting up earlier than before so I can learn Python and control theory from my favorite free education website: Youtube.com. Depending on my particular morning conviction, I watch a short que of videos and code along with my teacher while looking up supplementary information/videos on the topic. Of course it is important to pick your teachers carefully. Thankfully, my Python teacher (Sentdex, Pythonprogramming.net) and my controls theory teacher (Brian Douglas, MATLAB Youtube Tutorials) are both professionals who work in industry.

So far, I’ve vastly improved my understanding of Python as a programming language and I’ve learned a full metric-ton of information regarding controls. I’m excited to see where I’ll be in a year as I’m anticipating increasing my attention span and the amount of time I dedicate to my studies each morning. I’m convinced applying myself to the study of Python and Control Theory will make me a Software and Controls Engineer in my near future.