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After missing the mark on FAR a few weeks ago and failing to close out my CPA journey, I felt defeated and disgusted with this whole process. Like many others here at A71 my CPA journey has been extremely challenging, but I’m not afraid of hard work. I worked through my MAC at night while working full time in public accounting. My undergrad degree was pre-law, so I found my MAC program to be extremely challenging as I’d had basically zero exposure to the majority of the topics. In my professional life, I had to scratch, claw, and outwork my peers by 300% to earn their respect and ultimately their titles. I’m on track to make partner at my firm once I have my CPA, so needless to say I work at high pressure 24/7. It took me 5 years to finish my grad program but I made it. I went through hell with Auditing, but I made it. REG and BEC were no cakewalk either…but I made it. I am fighter.
I put 10 focused and intense weeks into closing out FAR, yet I didn’t make it and it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. It was the first time on this long eight-year journey that I’d decided that I’d had enough. I told my family that I was done and this wasn’t worth it anymore. I felt that life is too short and too precious to spend another minute of my life chasing this. I packed up my materials and put everything in a box in my basement. I cried more in that week after the 9/9 score release than frankly I had in the past 5 years combined according to my family. I was broken.
Earlier in the summer, my husband and I had made plans to take 10 days at the end of September to go to Florida. I demanded to cancel the trip but my husband refused. He could see that I needed to take a break from everything and was he ever right! I spent the past 10 days not thinking, speaking, worrying, or studying for this exam or being consumed with the firm. We took our dog, we walked on the beach everyday, ate amazing food, enjoyed copious amounts of wine, and for the first time in weeks I felt like myself again. To be more precise, I feel healed and whole again. This morning I went into the basement and brought up that box without hesitation or emotion. After 3 weeks of decompressing, I’m ready to tackle FAR again and close out on 11/4!!!!
My single goal in posting this today is to say that it’s OK to take a break when you feel you need to. I’d previously been in the camp of “no breaks EVER, MCQS until you die at your desk, don’t be a wimp, study 12 hours per day on weekends!!!!” but that can run you into the ground and break you just as easily as it can win you the EWS award. I’m ditching the guilt ridden and desperate 4-5 hours per day during the week and 8-10 hours on weekends and moving back towards balance and adopting Jeff’s E.L.L. plan. 3 hours per day of focused weekday prep+4 hours per day on weekends=23 hours per week. It may not work for everyone, but it’s going to work just fine for me this time. I don’t have to be a slave to this exam to pass; quality trumps quantity every time. That’s how I took a 68 to a 92 on audit. This retake will be no different.
Please remember to be kind and take of yourself on your CPA journey!
REG: 75 DONE 🙂
AUD: 61, 71, 68, 92 DONE 🙂
BEC: 76 DONE 🙂
FAR: 72, 74, 79 DONE 🙂
Licensed Michigan CPA 🙂
-Some people dream of success...others wake up and work hard for it!!!
-The cowards never start and the weak die along the way!
-You better work, b***h!
-Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.-JFK
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