Malta is an impressive country to visit in Europe. It’s small but there is a lot of history, beautiful views, and great food, also the people are welcoming there.
I will also show you how my experience will help YOU to go to the next level in your career as a software engineer.
Where is Malta?
Malta is located under Sicily, it’s a strategic location between Europe and Africa.
It’s a beautiful place to visit. There are lots of natural beauties such as lakes, the famous blue lagoon, and good weather. During summer, the heat can reach 40° Celcius degrees.
Some History
Malta was invaded by the Ottoman Empire back in the day and as Europe was afraid of losing too many territories they reunited powerful countries for this battle. Malta got the St. Elmo fort captured but then won the battle at a high disadvantage against the Ottoman.
The war museum from Valletta, the capital city in Malta explains the history very well and it’s totally worth it to check it out.
Traveling Alone
When traveling to Malta, I faced many challenges. The first one was that I traveled on my own, which means that I have to count only on myself for anything that might happen there. The advantage of traveling on my own is that I get to reflect and learn a lot about myself. It’s great to travel with someone else as well but often enough it’s also important to travel on your own to realize that you are really self-sufficient. Again, it doesn’t mean you don’t accept help from others or be arrogant, it just means that you know how to take care of yourself.
Taking that to your career, you have to remember a very important lesson. The lesson is that your career development depends only on YOURSELF, not your company, not your manager, only about you. That doesn’t mean you can’t get help from someone else. The point is that to get help, you first have to take the action to ask for help.
Facing your Fears – Being a Challenger
The other challenge I faced was interacting with people I didn’t know. Getting to know new people is uncomfortable but the more we do that, the more confident we get at this. Therefore, I gave myself a simple challenge which was asking people to take pictures of me. Sometimes people asked me to take pictures of them and, of course, I took them.
Another challenge I faced there was to do parasailing. If you don’t know what is this, it’s basically a parachute attached to a boat and then the person will be floating there. At first, I thought that the parachute wouldn’t go so high, however, I was wrong! When the parachute started going high I noticed how small the boat became. The people from the boat were barely visible, they were like ants. It was fun though, it was a mixture of a peaceful feeling with the feeling of what if this rope is cut someway, hahaha? But overall it was an amazing experience!
This is the video from the parasailing I’ve made, check it out:
A way you can apply this in your career is to face your fears more often. If you are reluctant to go to the next level in your company, if you are afraid of starting that new project, or if you are afraid of giving a talk, I encourage you to face your fears. The only way for you to face your fears is by raising your level of courage. Remember that you can only have courage if you are afraid of something. The more you delay facing your fears, the bigger they become. The sooner you face your fears, the sooner you take greater control of your life and feel happier. Also, by doing scary things, your courage will raise, then it will be easier for you to expand and use your courage in important areas of your life.
Having Adventures and Exploring new Areas
Life is not only about work, it’s about exploring and having new adventures as well. There are so many people who work so much and forget to renew their energies and end up only working. This is a grave mistake because paradoxically, by resting and renewing your energies often enough you become more productive! Therefore, working very hard and not being strategic about your renewing time will actually harm you in the long term.
In Malta, I explored beautiful places such as the Blue Lagoon on the Camino island:
Also rode a quad bike there on the Gozo island:
Crafted Great Food
I had great food in Malta, seafood was the best since the sea there is abundant and easy to reach. I went to a restaurant in a place called Blue Grotto. It’s beautiful, it’s possible to see the caves there. I was really hungry and the food was really a lot and high-quality. I was impressed with the view there also!
This thought in the craft of the food got me inspired. I really like to see passionate people about their craft and jobs. To cook such amazing food there has to be passion and devotion. We can take that to our area as software engineers. How cool is it to produce easy-to-maintain, high-quality code and be always looking forward to upgrading our skills? The company, customers, employees, everyone gets a better life for that.
Creating Connections with People
I also made friends there. It’s just easier when you are traveling on your own. People tend to reach out more easily since there isn’t anyone else with you. When I was walking in the beautiful city of Valletta for example, I heard amazing jazz music in a pub and I was impressed with the quality! It was a small pub but the music was certainly unforgettable. When I was sitting in the bar, some people reached out to me and we started to talk. I found out that one of the guys was also working with IT. Then I just went out with them to another pub, had a fun conversation and had some beer!
You must be wondering, how can you apply this in your career. Well, that’s simple talk to people, create real connections without expecting anything back and you will see how much you will learn from it. A dream job or business opportunity might be born from an interaction you have, however, that’s not the focus. The real focus is to create a real connection, the rest is just a byproduct.
Conclusion
When we travel, we expand our vision. By expanding our vision we grow. Other than that we also get more creative since it’s when we are the most relaxed that the best ideas will come. So whatever is your goal in your career, to get a dream job, create your own business, or a passive income you will have the best ideas when you are relaxing! When you are traveling somewhere, see it as an investment, not as an expense.
It doesn’t even need to be on another continent. Take a look at the countries besides yours, visit them and get to know what is their culture, meet new people, eat their traditional food, enjoy their traditional music, and expand your vision! This is crucial for you to go to the next level professionally and as a person!
