#93 April 21st, 2023
Blake Carroll, CPA
PwC People Team - Manager | Helping Aspiring CPAs Navigate the CPA Exam with Confidence
If you are trying to pass the CPA exam and keep running into the same obstacle question, or struggle, feel free to message me, and I will do my best to try to help!
I do not have all the answers, but I’ll do my best to try to help point in the right direction. And there are times I lose messages inside my inbox so please follow up if I have not answered!
This article describes some of the common ways we can work against ourselves without meaning to because of all of the chatter going on in our heads. I bet we all can relate to beating ourselves up over our mistakes rather than just focusing on what we can learn. Which of those responses is more productive and helpful? We also can cling to pain or anger from the past, which only takes us out of the present moment and harms our future. We compare ourselves to other people and feel lesser when we aren’t as “successful” as them, rather than just focusing on our own path. Another common struggle is if we think we only have value if we’re producing and busy, but we should know it’s okay to rest. Your value isn’t based on how much work you get done.?Maybe we have an unspoken or even subconscious standard of perfectionism, but rationally we know perfectionism is impossible. Perhaps we play the victim because it’s easier to blame someone else rather than take responsibility for not being where we want to be.?
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This is a short article about how we can be helpful when a friend or loved one is going through a difficult time. Often in that situation we just want someone to listen to us, we want to get all of our thoughts and negative emotions out of our heads and into the open by speaking them out loud. Often what we are not looking for is advice, especially unsolicited advice. I’m sure we all can remember times where we wanted to vent and other people tried to fix the problem which just makes us super frustrated. It’s really counterproductive to having a good conversation in these cases. Of course if someone does specifically ask for your opinion it is OK to offer help. When you do respond to their venting don’t respond only talking about yourself and something similar that you went through. Don’t make it about you. They’re upset and stressed, it’s OK for this to be about them. Once again it would be counterproductive to turn the conversation back on yourself. If you think they might be at fault or have some responsibility for these negative circumstances, you could potentially ask questions but definitely do not accuse them.?Not much good comes once people have gotten on the defensive.?
What comes to your mind when you think about buying used items? Maybe cars or clothes are the first category of items. There is the dual benefit of saving money and also reducing waste; who does not want to do both of those things? An area where you can save a ton used versus new is books, whether that is fiction, nonfiction or textbooks. Especially textbooks! I’m not sure I would go as far as the author does with saying you can but a used engagement ring. I feel like most people will probably want that to be something new that only they have had. I do think it’s a smart idea to look at trends that were huge during Covid but may have fallen off now, like exercise equipment, allowing you to find good deals from people who did not stick to that commitment they made during the worst part of the pandemic. When I was growing up my family saved a lot of money on used baseball bats so I relate to the sports equipment category. Furniture is another category where you can find all sorts of deals and discounts online such as on Facebook marketplace. Who knows, you might even have a lot of fun searching for the deals in addition to getting some things that you want.
Stress can be both acute and chronic, and those two different forms can have very different effects. Chronic stress can slowly degrade and destroy your health and well being. It becomes a positive feedback cycle that as we feel more chronic stress it leads us to take more bad actions and habits that end up making things even worse, and before you know it you’re in a spiral. When you’re in a super busy time at work for example you may stop eating well and exercising, but that’s actually just going to make you feel worse because you aren’t taking care of yourself. It’s easy to then turn to even worse habits as ways to cope with your eroding happiness. This chronic stress is commonly from our careers but could also be from harmful relationships or recurring health issues. You are not meant to be in a state where stress is ever present. That is no way to live, and the author gives good examples about what the consequences could be if someone is in that state for a prolonged period of time. We should live life to fullest not suffer through it.?