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A few weeks ago I had a thought hit me pretty hard. It was a realization that I have rarely ever worked as hard as I could in my life. I have frequently been compelled to work just hard enough to get results that were “acceptable.” Well, when I had this realization, I decided that it needed to change.

The results have been pretty good so far. I had failed my first two attempts at passing the Cisco BSCI exam. After my realization, I hunkered down and studied hard for the few days before my third attempt and I passed. I then began studying fresh for my next exam, the BCMSN. Yesterday, after 2.5 weeks of studying, I passed on my first try by over 100 points. Now those are the kind of results I am looking for.

The thing is, I am pleased with myself and the results. But I know that I could have worked harder. I don’t think I will be completely satisfied until I see what happens when I truly put 100% into something.

But even if I don’t get to that point, just striving to work harder is going to bring better results. Additionally, a lot of working harder doesn’t even involve dedicating more time to what you are working for. Sure, that is part of it. But I think a bigger part of it is to work smarter, to work more efficiently.

That may be one reason I haven’t been blogging as much lately. Blogging is something that “just takes a few minutes” but isn’t that fun compared to other activities. So I will tend to do a few things that “just take a few minutes,” and in the end you’ll end up wasting an hour.

Now, when you are satisfied with the work you have done for the day, you can relax and do the things that you really enjoy doing. In my case, read, play a video game, walk around the city, hang out with Alyssa (Hi, sweetie!), cook, et cetera.

Anyway, only two more tests to go, and hopefully my new realization will help me pass them quickly.

A mashed together play-by-play description of my day:

I woke up, showered and shaved, and ate a couple slices of pizza. I left the apartment and walked to the corner of Hyde and Union where I waited for about 10 minutes for either the cable car or the bus. Neither arrived in that time frame, so I waved down a cab. The cab driver was talking on his cell phone the whole time in another language, and within about 10 minutes, we arrived at my destination – 150 Spear Street. I was early, so I went into the Walgreens and got an Arizona iced green tea. I nervously chugged 12 ounces of it and chucked the rest. I drank it fast enough where I almost got a brain freeze. And I didn’t want to have to pee during my test.

Up to the 12th floor I went. I signed in, stored my items in an office, and entered the test room. I plopped my butt down in the chair and went to work on my third attempt at passing the Building Scalable Cisco Internetworks exam. Approximately 90 minutes later, I completed the test and was presented with a “next” button. I clicked it and the screen magically said, “Congratulations!” I had passed by 16 points, hardly a landslide, but it doesn’t matter at all how many points you pass or fail by. I’ll take it.

I went back to the front desk to grab my score report. Delighted, I quipped, “Third time’s a charm!” I went into the office where my coat was stored, grabbed it, and went down to the street. I left a voice mail for Alyssa, sent Rich a text message, and made my way towards Market Street. I decided that today would be a good day to take the cable car, so I walked up California Street towards Powell Street.

Well, the walk was a little farther than I expected, but that’s OK – I got there and I could use the walk anyway. When the cable car finally arrived, it was packed to the brim; I had thought it might be since this is the one that all the tourists get on at Market Street. No worries – I got on the one continuing on California Street which was practically empty. I got off at Polk, and remembered that John Barleycorn, one of my favorite bars even though I have only been to once, was on Larkin. Backtracking one block, I discovered, not surprisingly, that the bar opened at 5pm (it was noon at this point). I figured I’d have my celebratory alcohol a bit later. Walking up Polk Street, I didn’t see anything else that I wanted to do, so I just went back to my apartment.

Arriving back home, I played a riveting (seriously) game of Madden, broke my good news to a few people, and then took the bus down to North Beach. I walked along Columbus and marveled at the beauty of the day. Maybe it was just my exciting achievement from earlier, but the perfect weather certainly didn’t hurt.

I knew exactly what I wanted at this point – a light lunch and a latte at one of the cafes. I stepped into one cafe, saw the women behind the counter, and remembered how they messed up my order the last time I was there, so I went next door to Cafe Greco. I got a proscuitto, mozerella, and roasted red pepper on focaccia bread with a Diet Coke. That was one of the best sandwiches I can remember having in a long time. As I ate my sandwich, I casually perused my the book for my next test (Building Cisco Multi-Switch Networks) while, also casually, evesdropping on the two tables on either side of me. One man was arguing with a coworker over voicemail, and a man and a woman were discussing the finer points of relationships and love.

I asked the man next to me to hold my table (prime sidewalk table) while I went inside and got a latte. I came back out and drank my latte while continuing to read my textbook. This test looks like it will also be challenging, but not as much.

I don’t like idly sitting at a restaurant table when I have nothing left to consume, so after I finished my latte, I walked further down Columbus. Alyssa called me and I stood in the alley for a bit talking on the phone and observing my surroundings.

Then, I went down to City Lights Bookstore where I started to read “8 Weeks to Optimum Health” by Andrew Weil, M.D. I have thought for some time that it isn’t very clear what is good for you and what is bad for you. So many people from so many different directions are telling you that you need to consume/not consume do/not do so many things. I think it would be very difficult to keep track of them all. So this is the kind of book I was looking for. He takes a lot of advice from a lot of different places, and kind of mashes them all together for kind of a user’s manual to your body. Works for a hacker like me.

I bought that and two other books and went across the alley to another one of my favorite bars – Vesuvio. I discovered that they are open from 6am – 2am every day. That is awesome. I got a Guinness and a Jack and Ginger, read my book, and realized that I like the bar even more than I did before today.

After I started to feel a little too tipsy to read properly, I decided to head out. I caught the bus back home, played another game of Madden, bought some Cod for dinner, made dinner, ate dinner, started laundry, then wrote this post.

Whew. What a great day.