My boss praised me for my progress

I was an industrious employee even before but my boss praised me for my positive contribution only after cleared the CS0-002 certification exam recently. This is because after practicing incessantly on the CompTIA Cybersecurity Analyst mock tests, i learnt many traits useful for the corporate world like how to utilize time, how to be punctual and similar others. I now do smart work instead of just hard work which is quite fruitful.