Before deciding that I wanted to become a full time programmer as my profession I wasn't really sure about it. I always felt that I was not very good at it. There were some younger students that I went to school with that seemed to be much better at programming than I was. So I thought that maybe I wasn't cut out to be a programmer, or that it was going to be too hard. So that is where I decided that I just wasn't going to pursue it. It took a couple of years but I finally came to the realisation that I could be as good as any other programmer (or at least most) I just needed to put in some time. It was time that I stopped thinking that I was just some guy that knew some things about programming and become a programmer.
What I mean by that is that I needed to fully immerse myself in the culture and programming information. These are some of the things that I did so that I could be a better programmer.
Read Books
The first thing that I started to do when I wanted to become a programmer was read books. Books are a great place to learn more about programming. The thing I have learned over reading a few books as well is that you don't have to read a book and remember everything that you read. For example if you read a PHP programming book you shouldn't think that you are going to be a perfect PHP programmer when you are done. The best way to read programming books is just read through them, even do it quickly. What you want to get out of the books is the concepts and what PHP can do not necessarily exactly how to do it. If you know what PHP can do then when you need to use a specific thing then you can go back to the book or look it up online.
There are a ton of programming books out there that I didn't know where to start. So Google to the rescue. Here are a few of the books that I started with that really helped me get going.
Pragmatic Programmer
I started with The Pragmatic Programmer. This was a good book to start with because it is a general programming book. It is not language specific and just teaches some important programming principles to live by.
Clean Code
This is a good book that will help you learn what code should look like. There are some general rules to live by when writing code that will help you and everyone else that touches your code.
Language specific books are also a good resource when you need to learn a language. There are many out there so I don't have recommendations on ones that are good. Just remember that if a book isn't working for you try something else.
Listen To Podcasts
This one is one of my favourites. If you want the latest information on programming and the newest technologies podcasts are great. Once I started listening to podcasts my knowledge of programming increased a ton. One of my favourite parts is that you get to know the lingo. Often pod casters will explain unfamiliar words which is great, but there are times where I would hear common words that I just didn't understand. So I would look it up and know so much more. Find some podcasts and have a listen when you can and you will learn so much. Here are a few of my own favourites.
Read Blogs
Blogs are another great resource of learning new techniques and tricks. I don't subscribe to any blogs but I try to read a blog post once a day to learn new things. The great thing about blogs is that you can get a bunch of different perspectives from so many different programmers. Medium is a great place to start. It has a ton of great articles. Once you start using it will also send you relavant articles that will keep you in the know.
Follow Programmers on Twitter
I was never a big twitter fan. I feel like I am on the upper edge of millennials so I should be too cool for twitter. However when I started following other programmers I found it fascinating and educational. Podcasts are great for staying on to of trends but if you want the cutting edge hop on to twitter. This is really where you will get the latest information in the programming world. It is also great for getting a variety of different ideas and common practices. I could give you some people to follow but they might not be who you want to follow. Just get on twitter if you aren't already and start following people and it will grow like crazy. It is also a great place to ask questions and get answers. There are so many people on twitter that love to help out.
Conclusion
These are things that can help you to become a better programmer. For me these thing opened my eyes to what programming can be. Try it out and have fun.