How Your Internal “Crazy Roommate” Can Sabotage Your Success with the PMP Exam
Michelle LaBrosse, CCPM, PMP, PMI-ACP, RYT
Learning how to control your internal self sabotaging “crazy roommate” is crucial for passing the PMP Exam.
Over the past ten months, I’ve been redesigning Cheetah’s award-winning Accelerated PMP Exam Prep program to account for increasing distraction and anxiety issues that have become so prevalent in our society. Much of it is due to the impact of the current technology tools we’ve adopted for connecting with the world around us.
There are two aspects of technology use that are sabotaging our abilities to achieve significant accomplishments in life (passing the Project Management Institute’s Project Management Professional exam fits in this category).
The first aspect is with the postures most of us adopt with using technology. Having our head down and looking at a screen puts stress on our neck. The vagus nerve that runs from the back of our head regulates our physical and emotional state. It cannot work as well in this position. A stressed-out vagus nerve impacts your entire body. It also makes self-regulation of our emotional states more difficult to attain and decreases our capability of quieting that “crazy roommate” that lives in our head with self-sabotaging self talk about how you suck or how others and the world around you sucks.
The second aspect is the instant gratification of receiving texts or “likes” on social media. This triggers an addictive dopamine response and hurts the ability to delay gratification and pursue more complex goals. It also decreases the brain’s ability to form and strengthen neural networks required to integrate working knowledge to solve more complex problems when presented with new information (like what is required to pass the PMP exam).
We’ve incorporated several new proven techniques in our four-day Accelerated PMP Exam Prep classroom to counter both of these issues to help people pass the PMP exam. It isn’t enough to know the Project Management Body of Knowledge or master a whole host of PMP exam-taking test strategies. Being so distracted that you can’t sit still for four hours to take the exam, and/or having so much negative chatter in your mind, or worse, paralyzing exam anxiety, make it near impossible to pass the PMP exam with even the most intensive, and comprehensive preparation.
But ineffective stress management and distractions also impact the ability to learn and absorb new information – so students may never even feel ready to get in to take the PMP exam. It’s crucial to both effectively leverage stress and to work with your brain as it is today, even with the distractions. This is what makes it possible to pass the PMP exam, after only four days of an intensive immersion experience in Cheetah’s Accelerated PMP Exam Prep approach.
While some of the things we do may seem strange for a professional learning pursuit – Cheetah’s Accelerated Exam Prep methods have stood the test of time over the past 20 years. We now are getting the children of students from 15 or so years ago as Cheetah students continue to pass the PMP exam in very high numbers.
We’ve added a few more techniques in the classes to make sure you take control of your “crazy roommate” and achieve the success that is possible for your career. As many of the Cheetah Alumni say, “if you need to become PMP certified, you need Cheetah Learning.” This is even more true today than it has been over the past 20 years.
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Getting PMP certified through Cheetah Learning in 2004 was a mind blowing experience that has positively impacted the rest of my life. The 4-day course taught me how to hyper-focus to accomplish any goal, the coveted PMP certification included. I have gratefully applied Cheetah’s accelerated learning techniques to all areas of my life. Cheetah Learning helped me understand and realize my true brain potential.