On the way to our goals there are many diversions which

can throw us off. Some are external such as:

Family

Nagging wife/girlfriend

Time consuming job

etc

They all have to be handed delicately of course but if

you explain why you are studying now and the benefits then

you should be okay.

The most insidious are the internal ones. These are the

ones which I see IT people (informational people) get

hung up on. Here are some real life examples of people I

can see are pissing valuable hours away on self generated

rubbish:

Who decided which commands get dashes in the IOS?

Can I get away with cables 101 meters instead of 100?

I've been stuck for weeks trying to token ring working.

I've been playing around with this old 827 router...

Can I configure my router to forward all broadcasts?

Sure, one day, somehow, maybe - you might need to get the

answer to that. Meanwhile days have turned into weeks into

months. You still haven't passed your exam and your kids

and wife have given up on you ever passing.

IT is a MASSIVE area and you can find yourself going down

any number of blind alleys if you are not careful.

I even have people almost screaming at me, justifying why

it is important that you know all the unclassified Cisco

IOS commands or how to get into Rommon mode for a 1601

router. The truth is that if it came to it, you could

easily Google the answer and move on. If you needed to

get some weird problem fixed then you can get the answer

so why bother stewing over it now when you could be

studying?

What is your core reason for joining the site and buying

books, routers, videos etc? I know you want to pass your

exam but what difference will it make to your career and

your family's lifestyle?

I am working my butt off to provide for my family, pay

for the twins when they come and ensure we have a decent

standard of living. I grew up living in a cramped two

bedroom house when there were six of us. I don't have

time for pet projects. I'm up at 0530 and have two

companies to work on, keep my fitness up, eat healthily

and be done by 1800 so I can play with my little girl for

an hour, bath her and put her to bed.

You can easily get to the end of the day and have had the

appearance of being busy but were you really effective?

Who do you think will be hired first - they guy who can do

all the core stuff a Cisco engineer needs to do or the guy

who knows all the weird and wonderful fixed for problems

which may never happen.

Stay on track. 2 hours per day on the theory, labs, cram

guide and exams. Fart around with the other stuff if you

have a geeky side AFTER the exam.

Paul Browning

Share this Article

del.icio.us  Digg  Reddit  Facebook  StumbleUpon  GoogleBookmark  Technorati  Furl