In each issue, Cheetah News features an individual who shares his or her ideas, insight, and experience with Cheetah Learning's Methodology.

Achieving Professional and Personal Goals
It’s almost too good to be true when your professional goals and your personal goals coincide, but Jeff Martin was lucky enough to find himself in that position. Not only was the utility company he works for in Berlin, Conn., encouraging its project managers to pursue PMP^® certification, but after 13 years experience in project management, Jeff had decided it was time to earn his certification.

“By encouraging PMP certification, the company is helping to standardize the Project Management practices we use to ensure that the managers responsible for a multi-million dollar, annual program are well qualified and using established management techniques and principles,” Jeff explains. “For me personally, achieving my PMP certification gives me greater confidence that what I am doing – and how I am doing it – will lead to success.”

Luck may align your goals for you, but you don’t want to rely on it to achieve them. Many of Jeff’s colleagues had already been through Cheetah’s Exam Prep^® for the PMP^® course with a 100% success rate. “I couldn’t argue against that kind of success, but I was a little nervous; who wants to be the first one to fail? Yet based on their success and everything I heard from them about Cheetah’s program, it was an easy choice for me to make.”

Although Jeff had taken several PM training courses in the past, the Cheetah Exam Prep class was unlike anything he had experienced before. “The intensity on subject matter and the focus on test-taking techniques were unique and, I think, the difference maker,” Jeff explains. “Far and away the most valuable tool was the memory map, which contained all the processes and formulas I needed to know during the exam. There’s no doubt in my mind that the map itself and the techniques taught to recall that information during the test had a significant impact on my ability to pass the exam.”

Now that he has his PMP certification, Jeff has achieved a personal and professional goal – impressive all by itself. But now, he also has the confidence that comes with knowing he’s managing projects in a way that leads to individual, team and company success.

If you’re looking for that same kind of success, Jeff suggests letting go of any preconceived notions you have about how to learn and study. “I’ll be the first to admit I was a little uncomfortable with some of the techniques being taught, and I found myself pooh-poohing some of them. But once I allowed myself to just ‘go with the flow,’ it quickly became clear that the techniques work. Don’t waste your time or energy doing things your way. Follow the recommendations of your instructor who’s seen these techniques work time and time again.