In The Face Of Strong Adversity

There are times when we believe we have on hand a good plan to achieve our aspirations in life. Just for the sake of hitting the mark, we prepare ourselves physically and emotionally, willing to do everything humanly possible, and apply every thinkable strategy to mitigate, if not obliterate, the possibility of failure. After all, who would like to fail?

Sometimes, though, what we dread most ends up happening anyway. Defeat stares upon us despite following our master plan with utmost diligence. Things go awry as we execute our plan. We’re left to wonder where we had gone wrong; what we could have done better that could have averted the negative result.

Indeed, earning the prestigious CPA title means confronting a worthy adversary. But if, in the face of strong adversity, we decide to surrender our position, feel daunted at the fear of failing once again, if we continue to focus our mind at the fear of receiving another failing score, years from now we will find ourselves being more disappointed by the things that we didn’t do than by the ones we did.

Setbacks happen every now and then in our personal lives, even in our quest for professional and career development. It’s part of every human’s very existence. Not being able to achieve our goals can tend to bring us down and lead us to think that everything we did was just a colossal waste of time.

If you’ve reached this point, there are but two ways your life could go, and it all depends on your attitude and how you accept this “hump”. You could view it as a total failure or as a sign that you shouldn’t have pursued your dream to become a CPA in the first place, which then make you give up on your goal altogether and train your sight somewhere else.

Otherwise, you could view it as an opportunity to learn and do better. As daunting as it may sound, the latter requires uncommon valor, and makes you summon every ounce of courage from inside of you. After all, it’s never easy to pick yourself up, and give it one more again.

Most people will just choose to withdraw, brood about their mistakes, and then stop trying again. Well, it’s the easy way out anyway. But if you’re truly set on achieving your goal, come strong wind and high waters, you will push forth, sail on, ‘til you cross the finish line.

Being able to handle temporary defeat is the key to becoming triumphant in this journey. Many candidates tend to feel utterly discouraged when they encounter setbacks, and allow a failed exam to consume all their energy and will to go forward. Of course, when we don’t achieve our goals, we tend to be plagued with self-doubt, thinking that we’re not good enough, that maybe we should stop our obsession to earn the CPA title.

Rather than seeing it as a failure or as something that puts an end to your hopes and dreams, look at it for what it truly is:  A mere temporary setback that should not hinder you from reaching for your goal. Run a self-check and do the following:

1. Recap what you did. This is a good way for you to see where you went wrong and what you should do better next time.

2. Accept that things didn’t go as expected, and move on. You could dwell on your problems and your mistakes, but that won’t change your situation or bring you any step closer to your goal.

3. Prepare better. This is an offshoot of #1. Once you know where you went wrong, you will be able to take appropriate measures to prevent foreseeable problems in the future.

4. Give yourself time to recover. You don’t have to go for your goals right away. You need time to gather your wits together, as you plan your next move.

Make no mistake. The CPA title is something not to be missed. When things don’t go according to plan, always remember that missed goals are not missed opportunities. Instead, they are opportunities to do things better on your next try.

Allow me to leave you with this inspiring quote:

“The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.” – Vince Lombardi

Never Too Late, Never Too Old
Learn to Lead

Do you know what Richard Branson’s greatest motivation is? It is “to keep challenging myself. I see life almost like one long university education that I never had—each day I am learning something new“.

Most people like to say that they’d like to do and experience everything that they can while they’re still young, insinuating that after a certain age it might be too late. This young generation of technocrats believes that people stop being motivated and creative as they reach middle age.

On the brighter side, this way of thinking can fuel your desire and determination to see and do everything possible while you still have the energy and will to excel at the early stages of your life. I personally know of one colleague who, after earning his baccalaureate degree in accounting and passing the Philippine CPA examination, immediately pursued the MBA course, then the CMA certificate thereafter. At the age of 25, he has a CPA, MBA and CMA title. If you think these are remarkable achievements, wait ’til you hear this other one. He completed his accounting degree and passed the Phil. CPA exam in 2011 at age 20. As family migrated to the U.S. he took and completed all four parts of the Uniform CPA examination last year. This June, he took Part 1 of the CMA examinations.

Sometimes, though, it makes you think that once you hit a certain age and you feel you still haven’t achieved anything in your professional career, you start to believe that you have pretty much failed and that you can’t do anything about it anymore.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of people out there who think that they’ve let so many chances pass by and that they already failed to grab any opportunities in life. Others also tend to adopt the idea that they’re just too old to try and learn anything new, and that whatever they know is sufficient. Thus, many of them just plod along without striving to be better at their jobs or in life, and without exploring any possible new opportunities that could improve their career. They just stop being enthusiastic anymore. Some people become complacent as they mature, and no longer have interest in learning current industry trends. I am glad I fought this off as I realized that even in mid-40s I could still motivate myself to pursue international certifications (CMA and U.S. CPA).

It is important for us to realize that age is indeed nothing more than a number. It doesn’t say anything about one’s ability to learn something new. It doesn’t restrict us from achieving. And it certainly shouldn’t be a barrier to how much we could change and how much better we could become. Opportunities should not just be restricted to younger people, after all. For “old-timers” (like the author), it is imperative that we recognize that having the right attitude and positive outlook in life is still the key factor to success. Equally so, being cautious should not be mistaken with looking at situations or opportunities negatively.

In addition, you want to stay relevant in your field, or at the very least be able to understand what other people are talking about. You don’t want to get left behind, and you certainly don’t want to become the kind of person who just looks on as new developments arise and are unable to get on board because you didn’t bother to learn new things. It is the ability to adapt and embrace change that can bring success to us as professionals.

So the next time you catch yourself thinking that you’re too old to try something new, take a course, or learn how to use a new gadget or software, stop and think for a few minutes. By merely contemplating to pursue a post-graduate course, or to upgrade your skills by enrolling in personality development training or seminars, these already are important indicators as these circumstances show that you still want to learn.

Don’t let others write you off just yet; prove you still can, despite your age.

Making time to improve yourself

Who isn’t busy these days? It often seems like there are so few hours in a day for us to accomplish everything that we need to. Just think of all the hours we spend at work, the time we spend getting to the office and traveling back home, and the precious few hours of each day we have for our family. Given everything that’s going on in our lives, who actually has time to make room for anything else?

That’s something that so many people often say about themselves, and that often serves as an excuse for why they didn’t get started on a personal project, why they didn’t get to exercise that day, or why they aren’t pursuing other activities that will improve their lives, boost their careers, and teach them new skills. But if you find yourself blaming your busy, hectic life all the time for your inability to work on improving your life, you might want to step back first and take a good hard look at yourself and your schedule.

First of all, you have to consider whether or not you’re really as busy as you seem. Of course you have work, other hobbies, and your responsibility to yourself and your family. But there are inevitably some quiet spaces between each activity. What do you do during those moments? Do you sit back, relax, and do nothing? Do you spend them online? Are there any other things you do which are unnecessary and are done simply for you to kill time?

Second, you have to remember that every minute counts when you’re trying to learn a new skill or update your knowledge. If you’re really pressed for time, you don’t need to spend long hours studying and practicing. Block off at least a half-hour each day, and spend that half-hour on yourself, without any distractions. It might help for you to learn to give up some non-essential activities to make room for learning–sure, spending hours on Facebook or playing games is fun, but they don’t contribute to your improvement. You’ll find that giving up some activities is a small price to pay for long-term self-improvement.

The important thing is for you to really commit to your intention to improve yourself. No one will do it for you, and no one will rearrange your schedule to allow you to work on your self-improvement efforts. It all starts with you, and once you’ve learned to prioritize yourself and on becoming better, to commit to your goal, and then really make time for it, you’ve already taken a very big step towards self-improvement.

Why You Should Update Your Skills

When people have been in a particular field for a long time, there are those who tend to fall into complacency and think that they know everything that there is to know about their career or the industry. It’s easy to think that your experience and the number of years you’ve spent in your career are sufficient qualifications–until you realize that everybody else has moved on, that they know more than you do, and that your skills are hopelessly updated. No matter how long you’ve been in your career, you have to keep moving forward, making sure that you know the latest trends, theories, and methods in your field, that you study them, and apply them in your job. Otherwise, you risk getting left behind and you’ll have to play catchup with everyone who took the time to learn something new.

Your field is constantly changing. Therefore, you have to keep up with new ideas if you want to remain ahead of the pack. At the same time, ensuring that you have the best, most sought-after skills increases your value to the company and keeps you competitive. And if you’re gunning for a promotion or a new job, you want to make sure that you are the most qualified candidate available.

Workshops and seminars are always available for those who are interested. Your employer might also provide training to employees, which is something you should definitely take advantage of. Otherwise, you can ask your colleagues for information on any trainings, or you can approach relevant organizations. Of course, many workshops charge a certain fee, but you should just consider the fee as an investment in your future and your career.

It’s not just the skills you use in the field that you should work on. It would also help for you to update your computer skills, to start with. It’s practically unthinkable these days for any professional to not be familiar with a computer. At the very least, you should be well versed in an office productivity suite such as Microsoft Office. It would also help for you to learn to establish your Web presence and understand social media, as being able to do so can help put you in touch with potential clients and assist you in networking.

Ultimately, updating your skills keeps you fresh, knowledgeable, and relevant–and that’s something you want to be if you want to stand out among all the professionals in your field.