Go fly a kite. Programmers who only do programming, suck at programming. You can't get perspective by sitting still. You have to expose yourself to new things.

Go fly a kite. Programmers who only do programming, suck at programming. You can't get perspective by sitting still. You have to expose yourself to new things. Learn how to sail. Take up stamp collecting. Grow exotic flowers in teacups. Earn a black belt. Become a baker. Go to a lindy hop dance night on the weekend. Take apart and put together an engine. Learn a new language. Travel the world. After all that, programming will seem like a walk in the park. You'll probably get bored with it, honestly. Computer science is a pretty limited field and has had minor incremental improvements over the past two decades. Hardware stuff gets more advanced but the software is mostly the same as 30 years ago. Still, outside experiences will help inform your perspective on what works and what doesn't, where the sides of the box are. Aside from that, just practice a lot, in a lot of different fields. Also, please don't make the mistake of trying to prove yourself through achievements. We would all much rather work with the best person in the world than the best programmer.