Carol Dweck, the author of the book Mindset continues to inspire me all these years. Her concept of the growth mindset helped me steer the wheel towards self-development. She wonderfully said "Picture your brain forming new connections as you meet the challenge and learn. Keep on going."
Last holiday season,
I went to my hometown to spend my vacation. I thought to myself-- this is
probably the best time for me to meditate and evaluate where am I now in my
growth plan. For us as workers of the information age, holiday or vacation time
is probably the only time when we are able to unplug our minds from work thus
giving us time to ponder and meditate. Unless you are the workaholic type who
keeps on working even during Christmas Day. Or unless you are the type who
likes to realize things when they are at the most unexpected moments such as
having a shower or having a dump.
I learned that when
your mind is clear you become aware of the thoughts that are running through
your head. There are these memories, realizations, worries, plans, goals,
reminders, and unfortunately sometimes impure thoughts. I can say that these
moments are valuable ones and they could be more valuable if we are able to
capture our thoughts to pen and paper. Usually I encourage myself to capture my
thoughts and that is why I always see to it that I have my smartphone with me
all the time. And by the way, I want to endorse and recommend Microsoft OneNote
app. It is a great tool for capturing all those valuable thoughts in your head.
You can download it through the windows store, the app store or the play store.
While being amazed
with the magnificence of the sun's silhouette when it starts to set off, I
pondered-- "I have been working for almost 6 years now and I can't believe
I was able to endure those hard moments in my audit life." And by the way,
for those of you who are not familiar with how auditors worship their job.
During the peak seasons-- and this is when businesses which are on a calendar
period, prepare their financial statements for filing -- and auditors during
these times work almost 24 hours a day straight even on weekends and holidays.
This was the time when our Partner, shouted to my manager and said "You
are not doing your job and you are not prioritizing this client! How dare
you!" This was also the time when my senior associate, who keeps on
pressuring me to do almost all audit works because she had a lot of clients,
cursed me and said "What the fuck! Are you still not finished yet?!"
Imagine that was 5 in the morning and I haven't slept since 9am the other day.
