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Motivational Techniques (continued)

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• Reward yourself with each success. Some certification tracks consist of a number of unit exams. After successfully passing each stage, reward yourself for your success. It doesn’t have to cost money either. A simple reward is having a couple of weeks off from studying.

• Believe in yourself. Believe you can and will succeed, and don’t compare yourself to other people. Use people as yardsticks if you wish, but don’t compare your performance and ability to any other person.

• Look past obstacles. Adopt a ‘how I can’ attitude, and not a ‘why I can’t’ one. The more you adopt this philosophy the more a part of your life it will become.

• Talk to other people about your goals. Tell them about it at every opportunity. Bore them stupid. Not only will this help you to keep your goals at the forefront of your mind, it will also motivate you to actually achieve them as you’ve now told everyone about them. As an added bonus, chances are you’ll have bored them so much that they will leave you alone to study in peace.

• Focus on just one or two things at a time. Don’t spread yourself too thinly. For example, if you’re doing the MSCE track, just concentrate on one exam at a time, and give no thought to the entire track. Take each exam one at a time and try to set them up so that the first exam compliments the next one in terms of content. Remember, if you chase two rabbits, both will escape.

• Learn from others who have been there, done that. Read discussion groups and feed off the success from others who have gone before you. Don’t dwell on those posters in the groups who have failed and just complain all the time. Focus on those who passed and succeeded.

• Visualise yourself having achieved your goal. Let yourself daydream and imagine having that job you’re working toward, and consistently remind yourself what your life could be like when you reach your goals. Just don’t do it while you should be studying ;-)

• Never give up.

“If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else”
Yogi Berra.

DOC

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