#166 December 19th, 2024
Blake Carroll, CPA
PwC People Team - Manager | Helping Aspiring CPAs Navigate the CPA Exam with Confidence
Motivation isn’t just a feeling,? it’s a habit we build daily. The “Do Something Principle” suggests that taking action leads to motivation, which creates a cycle of progress. Instead of waiting to feel motivated, start with a small step toward your goal. Taking this small action can spark the drive to continue.
Emotions play a key role in maintaining motivation. Our brains seek pleasure and avoid pain, so turning tasks into enjoyable activities and rewarding progress can boost motivation. This approach not only helps in the short term but also builds lasting habits and routines.
Long-term motivation comes from accepting challenges and sacrifices for meaningful goals. Focus on your values and the journey, not just the end result. Ask yourself, “What am I willing to work hard for? What price am I willing to pay?” This mindset turns setbacks into growth opportunities and fuels continuous improvement.
Procrastination often arises from fear of challenging our self-image. By viewing ourselves as flexible and a learners, and embracing failure as an improvement step, we can overcome procrastination. Letting go of perfectionism and self-imposed limits frees us to pursue our goals with renewed purpose.
This article starts with a great example of what we can learn from a major league baseball player going hitless for 54 straight plate appearances.?
It’s a case study showing how complaining about things you can’t control or blaming outside circumstances just isn’t helpful. If you think your problems come from something external to you then almost by definition you can’t fix them if you can’t control that external thing. Controlling what you can and developing the persistence to overcome your failures will launch you into a better life, as well as making you a better and stronger person.?
The next illustrative anecdote in the article is a story of someone letting a small thing not going to plan, ruin their whole experience. And it was something they couldn’t even control! It’s hard to live a happy life if we are letting small inconveniences disturb our peace all the time. We have to be able to let go of small distractions that we cannot control. Life will not go perfectly.?
The author then describes how he heard a speaker who had been paralyzed from the waist down but was able to turn that accident into his new purpose and meaning by taking the opportunity to try to walk again as an opportunity to inspire others through overcoming great difficulty. Meaning and purpose can fuel everything you do, especially if our purpose involves serving others. These stories show we really have to fight for our success. Anything worth having will not come easy. The only way to guarantee you will not get where you want to be is if you give up!
This article defines Hyperbolic Discounting as the common human tendency to prefer immediate gratifying rewards over our longer term goals and visions for our lives.?
It is why we choose to procrastinate by watching TV rather than studying for an exam or working toward a promotion that will benefit us tomorrow. That’s why we choose unhealthy food right now rather than long-term health. What feels best right now can often be in conflict with what will be best for the future.?
This is a result of our brain’s normal processing since for most of our past short term survival was a much bigger need given all the dangers our ancient ancestors faced. They had to make life or death decisions quickly. That is not the case for us today, yet our brains are still wired with that old system of taking immediate rewards. It’s easy to procrastinate, and think that our future self will be a much more motivated and disciplined person who will masterfully conquer all of our goals, but in reality, our future self will probably deal with the same struggles that we do now. We need to realistically assess what our future self will be capable of.?
If you are worried about hyperbolic discounting, you could try some sort of commitment to lock yourself into the habit or behavior that you are trying to build. Lastly, you can break your huge long-term goal into shorter smaller goals, so that you get rewards throughout the journey, rather than only in the far off distant future.
CPA tip of the week: In order to pass the CPA you need to actually believe you can pass it.
The ability to put in the time and effort needed to pass is strongly linked to that belief.
Think about it, if you don’t think you can pass why would you even try? “Why even study cause it won’t matter, I can’t do this.” Have you ever talked to yourself in that way?
Then it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy because if you don’t study then of course you won’t pass, and you think see I knew I couldn’t do it.
On the flip side, it’s empowering to believe in your ability to learn, to figure things out, and to create the outcome that you want.
You know that if you put in the work over a period of time then the results will come. You know that your time will not be wasted. This belief propels you instead of hindering you.
The great thing is you’re totally in control of which belief you have. You may not have thought about it much, so I challenge you to regularly examine if you do truly believe you’re capable of what you’re working for.