Hi learner_1, everyone might have different answers to the question you are asking now.
In my opinion you should go step-by-step.First you need to decide that what kind of project do you want to make like any website,software or any other utility program.
You said that you're good in software designing so that's a great news because you can design cool and great website and software stuffs that will attract users but for that you need to start a project on your own in any programming language like c,C++,C#,Java etc.At least give it a try and you will find that you are learning programming more quickly and easily than you've ever learned.
Try and Win.
Thanks.