u/Ok_Bar9159

Exactly one year ago I was fired as discipleship pastor from a megachurch because they didn’t want me anymore. i did nothing disqualifying. I loved shepherding people.

In 20 years of pastoral work, I got to be really good at the role but grew exhausted of the politics.

I have since pivoted to a corporate role that I enjoy but I feel significant sadness at what I and my family experienced. Especially the immediate shunning from former friends.

the wilderness loss of calling has been difficult and I keep thinking about Moses after the first failed uprising building a new life and pivoting to shepherding. I don’t know how long I will feel numb.

I’m not necessarily looking for advice and I don’t really have any to give. except to encourage pastors to have friends outside of the church and to reach out after a person is let go.

I came to this subreddit to share for my own healing to tell someone. Thanks.

Yesterday I passed with AT/AT/AT after pausing my studies for 8mo. Lots of good advice in other threads about how to study, but my tips have more to do with how I got over the hump of actually deciding to go back and complete my PMP.

I started the process 15mo ago when I was in a job that was getting toxic. Took a few months complete the AR udemy course and complete the application. I then followed the usual study recommendations (DM YouTube for questions, MR for mindset, no SH yet) and was about 50% finished studying when I got laid off. I paused all study to find another job which took several months. I regretted pausing several times but never had the energy to restart. In March, after 3mo at my new job, my boss encouraged me to complete my PMP and included it in my professional development plan. So I started studying again from scratch.

The mental hurdle of restarting was tough. I had my notes on my old work computer that were gone, knowledge that had left my brain after the pause, and generally felt like it was too much to do before the exam change in July. What helped me get over the hump most was 3 things:

1. Break it down with the time I could realistically give. Life is busy and studying is a lot of work. I tend to optimistically plan for too much and then lose steam when I fall behind. This time I tried to set a realistic study plan. I set aside 3 hours on Friday and 20-30min twice a week in the mornings or nights. I used copilot to make a rough plan. Even with this more realistic plan, I still sometimes couldn't do the 3hrs on Friday. Just keep going.

2. Remember that I'm passing a test. This seems obvious but the PMP exam is a test and every test has a method for passing. Realizing that I didn't have to relearn everything, just enough to get enough questions right made it easier. When I watched DM's 150 Questions video, I got most of the questions wrong but focused on why that was the answer. Some things are just super specific and I didn't worry too much about those. Eventually understanding why started to make sense. *this is the mindset.

3. Having people cheer me on. This is really the key. Having even one person to be an encouragement was huge. Fortunately, I had a few people cheering me on. I probably wouldn't have restarted if I hadn't had two well-timed conversations with people who encouraged me to try. Consider this post your encouragement to try.

A couple of other things:

I got <40% correct on DM's 150 Qs
I got ~60% correct on a few SH minis
After this I created a copilot PMP study agent and gave it my results to quiz me
I got 70, 70, 67 on the first 3 SH full exams
My last week I had copilot focus on what I was still missing. *this was very helpful

Hope this helps anyone who is considering resuming their studies.