Programming can be a very frustrating thing to do at any level.
There are a few things that have kept me going:
- Be excited when little things work
- Realize that from little things big things are built
- Everybody is still learning (even Knuth)
- Focus on being the best programmer you can be, rather than as good as someone else
- Realize that holy/language wars just bring upset and the best thing to do is to fix the problem than complain
- Don't be intimidated by 500+ page books (almost everybody finds them frustrating)
- Remember your past difficulties when helping new programmers
Please extend this list.