It’s not a post about my personal life, as why would you care? But here I’m talking about a concept that I used to shift from a web development mindset to a cybersecurity one; either for CTFs or work.

Zero Kelvin⌗

CTFs or setting a roadmap wasn’t enough for me at the very beginning, and I, as a person, can’t stick to tight goals, so I just made my own sauce. There was an old Facebook post that I don’t remember but talks about something like “what stops you from moving forward is not seeing what you already accomplished”. So idk, I just decided to write down my own daily accomplishment of anything I do related to cybersecurity.

DeLorean Fuel⌗

It started with pen and paper in 2020 during quarantine, so I had all the time in the world, and I targeted 90 days, hence the name “90 Days of Cybersecurity”, and even if a day I couldn’t do something, I just didn’t count it, and only counted days with at least one thing related to cybersecurity, and “anything” means ANYTHING, like I’d write down handshaking people from the community! (Damn, the old me was really committed to the TCP shit)

Also, the important thing is “write what you accomplished”, not what you wanted to (because then you will stress yourself about the perfect end), for example, not “finished video blabla”, if you just watched the first 5 minutes then “watched 5 minutes of blabla”, reading a good post on LinkedIn, it’s your future fuel, so just feed it.

A sample from the start of the challenge from May 2021 on Notion A sample from the challenge log, May 2021 on Notion

The Secret of 90⌗

Fuck “90”, there is nothing special about it, do 17 days of cybersecurity, or 1 month, who cares?! I just picked that up because of the momentum I had as a passionate student with plenty of time during COVID-19 and summer holidays, and I recently started a 7-week cycle too! But a little bit guided with 3 simple weekly goals which I’m sure with the minimal effort I can achieve, be easy on yourself, you won’t be happy if you set one big goal that you can’t achieve, and we’re counting on stamina here.

Arise⌗

Cybersecurity or not, don’t waste time on making plans, instead take action, it’s pretty enough to know your compass direction and the next step, gamify your learning experience, make time slices out of your journey, see the results at the end of the cycle, no results? Start a new cycle. Yup, that easy.

It’s not a race, it’s a marathon.