Great expectations...

Once you achieve the status of "certified diver", there are a few things you need to do. In order to improve your skills and make diving easier, find a buddy with more experience or take an advanced diving course.  The only way to improve is to keep practicing.  Diving with someone with more experience will help you to avoid the common mistakes you could make as a new diver. Enrolling in an advanced diving course will allow you more training time with navigation, use of the dive flag, boat diving, night diving and other new experiences under the guidance of a PADI Instructor.
As a certified diver, you are now responsible for keeping up with your skills and physical conditioning.  We all know that diving can be strenuous on some occasions, so a good fitness regime is important. Keeping your dive skills refreshed means that if a problem does occur, you will be less likely to panic or make bad decisions.
After any dive, think about the different stages and if you could make any improvements. How could you make the entry and exit easier? How could you use less air and minimize the movements of your hands and fins? Are you a good dive buddy? How much weight do you really need? Just a few things to think about...