Mistakes Made & Lessons Learned: Studying for CompTIA Security+ Exam

Originally published on?madebycuriosity.com

There are some people who studied for a week before taking and passing their Security+ exam, and to some that would be a “real challenge”. I know three months is doable. So you would think that given a decent amount of time, I could adequately study for this exam with no problem.

Oh boy.

Like how cybersecurity is a mile long and an inch deep, my motivation works the same way. Instead of a?drop-everything-and-laser-focus-on-this-one-outcome, I’m a?look-down-several-wells-and-consolidate-information-from-each-so-I-form-a-general-knowledge-base-that-can-be-applied-across-multiple-disciplines.

The best environment where I can laser focus on an outcome works if there is one of these two key elements involved:

1. It’s something I’m interested in/want to know more about

2. It’s a puzzle with no solutions to it yet

You can see that because the kind of motivation I was trying to achieve is conditional on specific elements that it isn’t sustainable for the long term. Yet, I ignored this and believed that since most people succeed with one way, that it had to be done like so.

So here are 4 of the biggest mistakes and lessons learned and the solution that eventually worked.

My Inner Critic took a Hold of the Microphone

…And Then Screamed in it

By far, my biggest weakness is being very self-critical. It’s an effect of feeding into perfectionism. This is why I needed to set the rule of celebrating the small steps. Initially I didn’t appreciate the efforts leading up to completing my goals.

If I couldn’t checkmark a task or weekly goal by the deadline, it was considered a failure, even if I was off by one miniscule task that takes no time at all the next day with fresh eyes.

Bit Off More than I Could Chew

The aspect of a challenge is that it’s, well, challenging. But the critical mistake I made here was not accounting for bad days or days where I had low energy. During these slow days, I could barely reach my ambitious weekly goals which fed negativity into my harsh self-critical mindset and resulted in me quickly hit some ceilings.

As nice as it is to say that I have no limits, there are some practical limits I do have — like needing food and proper rest.

Cognitive load is another limitation I ran into. The brain can only hold up to three or four pieces of information in the short-term working memory — think of this like a computer with very low RAM. So by cramming cybersecurity terms, concepts, tools, methods, frameworks, (and on and on it goes), each layered with additional tidbits, resulted in cognitive overload.

Pushing myself beyond my limits paired with being overly self-critical contributed to burnout.

Not Planning for Burnout

Life happens. We all know what that’s like. Midway through the first month, a personal issue derailed me for two weeks.

Within those two weeks, I was barely cognizant of my study plan, and a big brain fog settled over me. Because I had no system of recovery, I forced myself into a productive sprint that left me even more fatigued until the thought of studying for the upcoming exam left me nauseous.

This became a recurring pattern — avoiding studying by overindulging in other activities until I became sick of everything.

And yet my response was to keep running away from the boredom and the studying because that was less painful to do than studying.

Systems, not (Just) Goals

Goals are good for breaking down ambition but a terrible method of measuring progress towards success. This is due to the binary nature of goals — you either achieve it, or don’t.

On the other hand, systems promote long-term success because they are repeatable actions, not single outcomes.

So rather than set a goal to “master a subject within a year”, adopt a system of “continuous learning by dedicating some time each week or month to studying”.

Where I went wrong was, while my prioritization method was great for culling the massive list of things I wanted and needed to do, what it didn’t do, however, was optimize my daily schedule into something directional and manageable.

Oh where did the time run off to?

I needed boundaries. Boundaries from the study gremlin in my mind that urged me to study until burnout because the more I studied then the faster my progress will be. And the faster my progress is, then the faster I can get rid of the guilty feelings I got from not achieving my expectations.

I was chasing after that end result more than embracing the process because I had no system. Had I implemented a system, time management could’ve mitigated most of the factors that led to burnout.

Ha! Motivation? Who is she? (No seriously, where did she go?)

Sometimes motivation and passion can only get you so far. But when it runs out, there’s nothing to keep you from falling sideways and off track.

When that happened to me and I had no recovery plan, nor system to catch me when I fell, I tried to catch up too aggressively and crashed. Then for some time, I inched along like a sad slug that’s now exposed to the harsh elements because it’s delicate shell broke.

Turning Life into a Game — My Eventual Solution

I love playing games. I love playing games even more when I get to earn some kind of in-game currency to buy in-game store items that help enhance the gameplay or immersion.

So I decided to do just that — give myself rewards, or “things to buy” for nearly every aspect of my daily life.

I assigned point values to all my tasks, habits, projects, and goals for the week. Each time I completed one of them I earned the points associated.

With those points, I could redeem those points for activities I’m prone to procrastinate with. I even added habits I wanted to do less of like drinking alcohol and spending less money.

Things I can Earn Points for

- Watching a Professor Messer video (5 pts)

- Finishing a Coursera section (7 pts)

- Answering an exam practice question (1 pt)

- Completing a weekly goal (50 pts)

- Doing a prioritized non-goal task (15 pts)

- Learning 10 new Clozemaster sentences (5–7 pts)

- Building a habit (5 pts per action)

- Publishing an article (12 pts)

List of Habits

- Sleeping before 23:00

- Waiting 90 minutes in the morning before drinking caffeine

- Waking up at the set alarm

- Following this earning and spending points motivation plan

- Completing chores as I see them and not waiting until they pile up

Things I can Spend Points on

- Buying something (costs the item price in points)

- Reading a chapter (10 pts)

- Watching a YouTube video (15 pts)

- Having an alcoholic drink (60 pts)

Why this Gamified System Worked

I’m motivated more by external rewards and this experiment confirmed this initial hypothesis.

The amount of points I had created a limit on the time I spent procrastinating, more often than not I’d choose to save points to use them later in the day for an extended relaxation period.

The added benefit was that every time I earned points, I knew I was slowly progressing to my goals and became more and more of my actions instead of my words.

A Formal Conclusion

When we try to be like everyone else, we lose touch with our unique rhythms.

Digging deeper into my journey so far, the root issues emerge — no system for recovery from burnout, poor time management without boundaries, and a lack of secondary incentive when motivation vanished. Hitting this wall sparked a harried avoidance tactic, where overindulgence in distraction brought little joy.

The solution materialized in gamifying my daily life. By assigning points for tasks and habits, then allowing those points to be redeemed for activities prone to procrastination, I created a flexible system for motivation. One attuned to my needs for variety and fun.

Systems centered around our individuality cultivate sustainable success. Though the path may wind and bend, progress flows steadily by leaning into our own way of being. Through experimenting with what works, we learn to let go of rigid expectations and embrace the journey.

Thanks for reading.