Sam's Blog

No Excuses!

It's time to study and work out!

Throughout my life, I've tried to set attainable goals. This has been especially true with professional goals. Sometimes my goals are measurable, such as reaching a certain position or earning a specific amount of money. Sometimes they are perceivable, such as being the most technical or indispensable person in one of the companies that I've worked for.

I've also set personal goals which are sometimes to make a big purchase such as a house, a car, or a boat. Other times they are family-oriented, such as to take a cruise or be a good father and husband.

No matter if they're professional or personal, I usually achieve my goals. I say usually because there are three goals that I set within the past 5-10 years that I have not achieved. One of them is monetary - and I won't get into specifics. Another is to get back into the shape I was in during my late 20s and early 30s. I won't get into specifics there either but it's going to take a lot of working out...

The last goal, which I set in the summer of 2001, is to become CCIE certified. For those who don't know, the CCIE is considered one of the highest and most well-respected networking certifications. There are currently 12,862 CCIEs worldwide, 5020 in the Americas, 4220 in the US. I have started down this path twice already only to get sidetracked - once to get my CISSP certification and the other just because I was burned out.

At this point, I'm going to concentrate on the Routing and Switching CCIE. After that, I may look into the Security, Service Provider, or Voice depending on the state of the industry at that time.

In the picture above, I have staged 8 books that I plan to read cover-to-cover to prepare for the written exam (I have a few more that I may or may not re-read - Comer's, Stevens', and Perlman's. I also may need to brush up on a few other topics such as IPv6.). This weekend, I plan to look into labs. I have two options: 1) purchase a home lab - which is available anytime but could get pretty pricey or 2) purchase online rack rental - which is shared, could be less expensive or still pricey depending on how much I use it, and doesn't give me the benefit of troubleshooting as much as owning the equipment. Right now, I'm leaning towards the purchase but I want to get an hour or two in on an online lab just to see what they're like.

Here goes...they're written down, they're specific, and I'm committed (or should I be committed to an institution?). I'll keep ya posted...NO EXCUSES!

posted by Sam @ 7:57 PM