#42 May 27th, 2022
Blake Carroll, CPA
PwC People Team - Manager | Helping Aspiring CPAs Navigate the CPA Exam with Confidence
Thought of the newsletter: Not everything in life has to be a competition. Someone else’s success does not necessarily take away from yours. It’s having an abundance mindset of growing the pie rather than a scarcity mindset of just trying to get your slice. What if all the energy spent on jealousy and resentment was spent toward celebration and being happy for others? Others’ success can inspire us, not diminish us.
“We are on this planet for a blink of an eye. Live your dreams.” We all need to make sure we are mindful and intentional as we create our new lives in a post Covid world. We should refuse to let things simply go back to the way that they were. If there were parts of your life that you did not like and you want to change this can be a great time to reset and renew them. Really think about what your ideal life would look like. What would you do, who would you spend time with, how do you spend your time, where would you live? How often have you even thought about those questions, have you ever? Most of us may just be running a default program that society gave us on how we should live. Whatever your dream is will be totally unique to you, but you have to believe that you have the power to achieve it if you put in the work. The dream will not come on its own, but putting the thought into creating it is the first step.?
Intellectually we all may understand the importance of sleep, but do we live in a way that shows how much we really value it? This articles describes the author’s personal sleep journey and goes into great detail on how poor sleep habits will impact almost every area of your life. It is practically impossible for you to function at an optimal level when you are not getting adequate sleep. We like to tell ourselves that we are different, but that is most likely not true. I definitely get caught up in those excuses myself, telling myself I don’t need seven hours. The author describes their sleep routine and practices that any of us could borrow if we want to try them. Common sense isn’t always?common practice.
领英推荐
The author of this article found themselves in a pretty common situation: finishing grad school with a pretty high paying job but also having a high amount of student loan debt. Rather than following the normal lifestyle such people take, they decided to live as if they made the average salary for someone their age. They applied 100% of the excess to paying down their student loan debt, which enabled them to get rid of it in 2.5 years. Then when a new and exciting job emerged as an opportunity, they were able to take it without question even though it included a $50,000 pay cut. In contrast, most of their peers have not made a dent in their student loans because their inflated lifestyles were holding them back. It’s a great lesson in sacrificing a little bit more now so that you will have more freedom later.?
Do you know anyone who is constantly complaining about a situation they are in, a job or relationship or a city, yet they do nothing to try to fix it? It’s just empty negative words with no action. It makes you want to ask them if you’re that unhappy why don’t you do something about it? I bet we have all been in those situations ourselves sometimes, in addition to seeing others in them. This article talks about how people stay in such questions because of the feeling we get from being a critic or a martyr. Critics and martyrs get cheap attention and cheap sympathy. It’s easy to point out what is wrong about something, it’s much harder to fix it. Martyrs feel good about the sympathy they get from others and the lack of responsibility by blaming something else. But choosing to give up your agency and responsibility will hurt you much more in the long run. You are not going to blame your way into a great life.?
Personal investment advice talks a lot about saving and investing, but it doesn’t talk about spending very often. This isn’t surprising since saving and investing are how we achieve financial freedom, but we need to address how to spend sometimes too. There are definitely some things to spend money on that are a better return than others. This article describes some of them. I love that it mentions the importance of going to visit or do fun things with family and friends. Those experiences with loved ones are priceless, and they are what we remember most at the end of the day. I also like the multiple items that deal with investing in yourself, such as taking a new course or, or investing in a personal trainer. Your physical fitness and mental fitness are the??foundation for everything else so you cannot neglect them. Those things are worth spending on.?