Big lessons from my first professional exam

I took the day off to take my first professional exam in life – administration of Oracle database.
I woke up 5:55 am and did my morning routine – morning workout, posting on this blog, checking my sales, reading my daily lectures and so on.
I walked my daughter to the school.
I worked for about 2 hours as usual. I put a new post on my author’s blog and tweaked the toolbar a little. I visited and commented my mentor’s and my friend’s sites. In other word I did my ‘online’ routine.
Then I’ve done some last minute study before the exam. The last rehearsal – 100% result. Good sign.
I traveled by train to the exam’s site. On a train I wrote 550 words of a new post for author’s blog.
I had a lot of time, so I visited the mall, found a bench to sit and continue my writing. 865 words all put together.
I’ve reached exam’s site 30 minutes too early. I’ve practiced speed reading for about 15 minutes and reported on the site.
The exam, with all the paperwork took me about an hour.
I went back home. On a train back I wrote this post and read a saint’s book.

The exam

A mouse and computer screen in front of me. Anxiety. Butterflies in my stomach.
I started the exam, scroll through all the confirmations and finally saw the first question.
The feeling of relief.
And the illumination. I always carry a pen and a pocket notepad with me, so I quickly jotted down some reflections and have been adding them during the exam. So here go the big lessons:

1. We never are 100% sure of ourselves.
We are always worried, even when we did everything in our power to succeed. I’ve been preparing for this exam for about 6 months. I have to admit that I didn’t do 100%, but I did enough. This exam is just a small part of my life and wasn’t worth more of a fuss. I took a good course, I made good decisions regarding it.
But still the anxiety hit me several times today.
“Do all you can do and don’t think about the outcome” is an unreachable ideal, but still worth pursuing.
There always will be a feeling of anxiety somewhere deep inside your heart, but don’t let it govern over your actions.

2. Be prepared.
Being prepared will not destroy your anxiety completely, but it will do the actual work, oh, so much easier!
I paid the equivalent of my average monthly savings to take this exam, there was some risk involved. I was anxious before the exam, but after the few first questions I was absolutely relaxed. I studied long and hard and now the task seemed to be a piece of cake. I had no troubles giving my best during the exam.

3. Have a mentor.
It’s priceless. I had no one who took this exam before to ask how it looks like, what are the questions.
I should have found such person online. My anxiety was based almost exclusively on the way I was studying. I studied mostly the tests, not the exam’s topics. I was afraid that the questions will be totally different and…
One person who passed the exam before could reassure me that my strategy was good.

4. It’s the journey, not the destination.
My joy and excitement from achieving a goal were sooooo brief. 6 months of study and 30 seconds of joy.
So if you think that starting this business/ publishing your book/ buying a new house or whatever you pursuing, will bring you happiness – beware!
Just a couple hours after the exam I thought: “What’s the big deal anyway? It was just a single triffling exam. I need to pass 2 more to obtain the certificates I want.” I started to diminish my achievement. In big part because my joy was short-lived.
And the moral is: you should enjoy the process.
Starting from today I’m going to celebrate each task done. Did I write 400 words? Hurray! Did I sell one book? Hurray!

And one smaller lesson:
I pray every day at 3 p.m. I had a plan to pray before the exam. I’ve been pondering on it a whole week.
And I forgot.
I have a reminder set on my mobile. That’s my trigger for 3 p.m. prayer. I had to leave my mobile outside the examination room. I lost my trigger and forgot.
Make sure you have a backup plan or an ideal trigger for your habit.

I passed:

I slept 6.5 hours. I napped 30 minutes.