Last night I posted the final draft of my week reflection 8 blog — Terrible! It was just a regurgitation of the work I went through, expressing no emotion, whether happy, sad, frustrated nor mad (Has a bit of rhythm to it). Giving it a quick glance today I can’t comprehend why I uploaded that soulless textbook summary XD!

To be frank — The path kicked my ass! Not because the topics were challenging, while some were that’s not the case. This path required me to succumb to, and overcome past habits. This required minimal motivation and tons of discipline. I’ve went through days of procrastination, doubt, boredom (Defensive tools XD!), doom scrolling , and many more bad habits.

Despite my trials and tribulations, rather than stopping me, this just gradually slowed me down. I asked myself. “What is the best way to mitigate these slip ups?” Learn from my challenges — This!! My blog. Each week I learnt more and more, not just about cybersecurity, but myself. Writing and reviewing incentivised me to keep on going. Fighting through the challenges, discipline was instilled into me.

Learning Windows and AD Fundamentals was the first, big hurdle in my journey. The topic was just at the start of the module, and coming off learning Linux, which I was profoundly intrigued in. This was a chapter that stripped that fascination away. It was sooooo boring! I’ll probably have to go back and brush up on the content, but despite that I didn’t feel like a ‘hacker’. There was too much clicking rather than typing. Managing Users in the ‘Active Directory’ required a plethora of unnecessary scrolls and clicks, that could be completed with one simple prompt on a terminal!

I remember expressing my frustration with the dull black and white terminal in a previous post, though that doesn’t disregard the convenience!! Within that visually depressing environment XD.

Burnout is probably one of, if not the most! Potent challenge I faced. The gas that kept this supercar going, ran out, and I didn’t feel like continuing. I had an inner battle, cause I couldn’t grasp why this was happening! I knew I enjoyed this, so why couldn’t I carry on! My mind was in a state of discord on whether I liked cybersecurity, or something else that I couldn’t get my tongue on.

Until Documenting — Recording this struggle helped me realise the other option I couldn’t really figure out. I needed a break. Clear my mind and ‘reflect’ (no pun intended). Those two weeks of active recall, attending to other hobbies and needs, was the exact hibernation needed to come back as quick and on top of my game! As someone who has… No! Not someone who has, but someone who had trouble with committing to tasks. Without this blog… I probably would’ve fallen back into the same habit, but not anymore!

The next trial within the journey — Penetration Testing! As said before I’m ready to learn, struggle, persevere, and reflect all over again, on an improved level! As one great man once said “Nothing worth doing, or person worth becoming will be easy to attain” (I’m the great man btw… Just saying.)

So I’ll leave up my old week 8 reflection, and post this one as a genuine, well thought out, revised version — The Real Version.