During my job search, I read a book called “What color is your parachute?”. The book is excellent and highly recommended. It has several interesting exercises, but the one I liked the most is called “Seven Stories.” The first one I wrote was about my process of obtaining my PMP certification. The story reminds us of the importance of monitoring our inner dialogue. After this meta-story, comes the actual story itself (nerd clarification intended):
The story of how I silenced my inner critic and got a professional certificate
I always wanted to become PMI Certified, but this is one of those things that you have in your bucket list and you don’t ever find the time for it.
This year was the one, I quit my job to take care of personal projects, and I finally had the time to do it.
The first decision to make was about language. I am originally from Argentina, so I’m a native speaker. I have studied English since I was 10 years old and moved to the US 5 years ago. I’ve been using English in my work for a long time, but still, there are some nuances that still are difficult to me, and while doing some research, I found out that this could be a challenge in passing the exam.
The questions of the exam are not straight forward. They are wordie and express real life complex situations, so it took me some time to decide on English. I love challenges and that is one that adds motivation to the endeavor. I could find several reasons why I needed to have the certification in English: improving my language, learning more technical vocabulary and just for the challenge.
I started with a Udemy training course, oh my goodness. It was so tedious. This guy was repeating the content of the book in a very sleepy tone. I measured how long it took the first chapter, I built a detailed plan, used double speed and made it through.
I was feeling confident, so I tried a couple of exam simulators and passed. Everything looked good, then I told my husband and he realized about all the cheating formulas in my desk. He asked, are you allowed to access the formulas during the exam?. Sh4$t! No way, I needed to learn them.
This was my first big obstacle: Me complaining about certifications rules, why do they think we need to learn them, like if we are going to not have access to google while we are working on a project evaluation task. They are trying to make it harder for us without any sense. I don’t like repeating formulas like a mad woman, and so on. Again, my main obstacle: me, myself and I.
Ok, shut up. Don’t you remember your Compassion training? Obviously not as you are blaming yourself for not remembering…
I released resistance and started my next udemy training course, PMP Math formulas. I realized why they asked to learn formulas, they actually have a meaning behind the letters and symbols. I even enjoyed it.
Now I was ready. I registered in the chapter, paid the fee and set an exam date. Feeling confident and optimistic.
I started with the exam practice. I bought an exam simulator, and I learned that I needed to practice to be fully focused for 4 hours straight. New challenge to overcome. Results were mixed, sometimes I passed, some times I didn’t. Date was approaching and I was panicking.
Again my mind was talking and talking. You should have taken it in Spanish, you are not smart enough, you didn’t study enough, you didn’t practice enough. Oh my goodness, if Brene Brown would listen to me!
I almost postponed it, but then I remembered my son’s words of wisdom when he was 4 yo.
He was doing a presentation at the swimming club, and he needed to jump from a 4 meters tall board. He did great but after that, when I was congratulating him, he said:
Mom, when you are at the border, your mind makes you a trick, and it looks so much taller.
My mind was playing a trick, I was fine. I didn’t postpone and went through the 4 hour exam, in a Test Center Location in San Jose, with airport-like security checks and went back home unsure if I passed or not.
Then I received an email:
Congratulations, You earned your Project Management Professional (PMP)® Credential.
With the score above target. On the 3 scores, I did better in People and Business Environment than in Process, as I expected.
THE END
What I learned: I love challenges and know how to start from nothing, do research and training, and am able to achieve results. I am smart enough, my English is enough, and my mind sometimes plays tricks, but I learned how to shut it up.
Foto de Jess Zoerb en Unsplash