Here are some insights I got in the year 2022:

👉You are more than you think:

We often limit ourselves based on things that we have done in the past. We don't believe in the fact that we all are capable of achieving great things in life. It's just about changing our mindset by surrounding ourselves with people who have a rich mindset. Life throws different challenges on us and each time we come out as a stronger person. The more difficult situation, the stronger we become. This made me think that we have enough strength to deal with any kind of situation in life.

👉Never Doubt Yourself:

Even if you haven't done a particular task in your life, you can always train your mind for doing it. There is no correct time to start learning something new. Being from a non-tech background I wanted to get into tech because I always wanted to build something useful. I was having doubts about whether I will be able to make it big in tech or not. I thought it was too late to start but I convinced myself and started learning a programming language. I got started by learning Java with DSA and web design simultaneously. I am still learning to make webpages and trying to improve each day.

👉Always Think Big:

Don't be afraid to think big. Have a long-term vision in your mind. This will keep you learning and growing constantly. We often settle for less because people around us did the same. Have aspirations to achieve great things in life. Stay away from people who have limiting beliefs.

👉Divide your goals:

To achieve your highest goal, it's best to divide it into smaller goals to make it achievable. These smaller goals will keep you motivated. Don't get attached to successes and failures faced while achieving short-term goals. There are days when you achieve all your targets and days when you will achieve nothing but don't get disheartened. Try to keep yourself on track. Change your strategies if needed. Identify the reasons for not achieving those daily targets. One way that I found useful in meeting my daily targets was to reward myself for achieving one goal in a given time frame per day. Reward yourself for each goal you have accomplished in a day.

👉Don't compare yourself:

We all are aware of the fact that we shouldn't compare ourselves with others but each time we look at someone better at a particular skill we become jealous. This kind of attitude is not going to take you anywhere. Always remind yourself that every person has gone through a different journey than yours. The people who have achieved something great also started somewhere. They too were beginners at some point in time. Comparisons are always better when done with ourselves.

👉Become Emotionally Strong:

Emotional strength is one of the deciding factors in measuring someone's success. An emotionally strong person can fix his/her eating habits, deal with negative thoughts, and get disciplined in life. In today's world, it's very easy to get distracted and difficult to retain attention. Eliminating distractions and being focused can save you time and energy and give you an edge over others.

Taking baby steps and trying to remain consistent helped me in starting my journey and it might help you as well..

Thank you for reading till the end. I hope you enjoyed reading this blog.

👉What does the first contribution look like?

You can find many open-source projects on websites like Google Summer Of Code and many more. If you are a working professional you can find projects in your organization as well. Initially, work on projects that use the same tech stacks that you are passionate about then learn about new technologies. This will keep you hooked on the project despite its complexity. As a beginner, jumping into repositories of a big project could be overwhelming. Don't quit early, instead give yourself some time.

Once you have found a project, it's time to make some contributions. Your first contribution can be a non-code contribution. Open-source projects are not always about modifying lines of code, there are many other tasks to be taken care of like deleting an unwanted file, fixing typos, and improving the documentation/readme file so that the project becomes self-explanatory and other developers can have a good experience while working on the project. You can add value to a project in tons of ways.

👉How to get involved in a project?

Before making any contribution, it's recommended to go through the documentation guidelines carefully to have a decent level of understanding as to what is the motivation behind building this project and know about all the restrictions. This will prevent you from making mistakes and smoothen your journey.

You can join communities and ask members for help in case you get stuck or have difficulty understanding code. Also, help members if they need it. Focus on collaboration, building together and learning together.

Be aware of fake projects, only invest your time and energy in projects that have more forks and stars.

👉How to grow as a contributor?

When it comes to growth, consistency always comes into the picture. Keep contributing at regular intervals of time. The more you contribute to a project, the better you familiarize yourself with it. While contributing consistently, you get more ideas on other ways of contributing.

👉Benefits of Contributing to Open Source

Amazing Job Offers: When you contribute to a project, you get to work and network with amazing people all over the globe. If you mention the projects to which you have contributed and added value, you have a high chance of getting remote job offers.

Earn as a Freelancer💵: You can reach out to companies and help in improving and maintaining their projects. Also, open source gives you enough recognition which helps in getting clients to work with you and have a side income.

Learn new tech stacks: While contributing to a project, you come across many new technologies that you have never heard of. You start exploring these technologies and learning more about them. In this process, you gain additional skills in working on a new tech stack.

Better Code: Generally, while dealing with large codebases programmers can improve their ability to read code and modify it to make it better. It enhances problem-solving skills as well.

Benefits for communities: Individual contributions can provide advantages to the community as a whole. A lot of time is saved as the tasks are divided and assigned to different people.

Benefits to non-programmers: If you are interested in doing design-related tasks, you will always have something to contribute and make interfaces of projects appealing by using your design skills. Let's take an example of a UI/UX designer: A person having expertise in this field can work on user interface and hence improve user experience.

Thank you for reading this blog till the end. I highly appreciate you for investing your precious time.

This blog post is inspired by Kunal Kushwaha's youtube video on open source and has a summary of all the tips and advice shared by experienced open-source contributors.