Who isn’t busy these days? It often seems like there are so few hours in a day for us to accomplish everything that we need to. Just think of all the hours we spend at work, the time we spend getting to the office and traveling back home, and the precious few hours of each day we have for our family. Given everything that’s going on in our lives, who actually has time to make room for anything else?
That’s something that so many people often say about themselves, and that often serves as an excuse for why they didn’t get started on a personal project, why they didn’t get to exercise that day, or why they aren’t pursuing other activities that will improve their lives, boost their careers, and teach them new skills. But if you find yourself blaming your busy, hectic life all the time for your inability to work on improving your life, you might want to step back first and take a good hard look at yourself and your schedule.
First of all, you have to consider whether or not you’re really as busy as you seem. Of course you have work, other hobbies, and your responsibility to yourself and your family. But there are inevitably some quiet spaces between each activity. What do you do during those moments? Do you sit back, relax, and do nothing? Do you spend them online? Are there any other things you do which are unnecessary and are done simply for you to kill time?
Second, you have to remember that every minute counts when you’re trying to learn a new skill or update your knowledge. If you’re really pressed for time, you don’t need to spend long hours studying and practicing. Block off at least a half-hour each day, and spend that half-hour on yourself, without any distractions. It might help for you to learn to give up some non-essential activities to make room for learning–sure, spending hours on Facebook or playing games is fun, but they don’t contribute to your improvement. You’ll find that giving up some activities is a small price to pay for long-term self-improvement.
The important thing is for you to really commit to your intention to improve yourself. No one will do it for you, and no one will rearrange your schedule to allow you to work on your self-improvement efforts. It all starts with you, and once you’ve learned to prioritize yourself and on becoming better, to commit to your goal, and then really make time for it, you’ve already taken a very big step towards self-improvement.
When people have been in a particular field for a long time, there are those who tend to fall into complacency and think that they know everything that there is to know about their career or the industry. It’s easy to think that your experience and the number of years you’ve spent in your career are sufficient qualifications–until you realize that everybody else has moved on, that they know more than you do, and that your skills are hopelessly updated. No matter how long you’ve been in your career, you have to keep moving forward, making sure that you know the latest trends, theories, and methods in your field, that you study them, and apply them in your job. Otherwise, you risk getting left behind and you’ll have to play catchup with everyone who took the time to learn something new.
Your field is constantly changing. Therefore, you have to keep up with new ideas if you want to remain ahead of the pack. At the same time, ensuring that you have the best, most sought-after skills increases your value to the company and keeps you competitive. And if you’re gunning for a promotion or a new job, you want to make sure that you are the most qualified candidate available.
Workshops and seminars are always available for those who are interested. Your employer might also provide training to employees, which is something you should definitely take advantage of. Otherwise, you can ask your colleagues for information on any trainings, or you can approach relevant organizations. Of course, many workshops charge a certain fee, but you should just consider the fee as an investment in your future and your career.
It’s not just the skills you use in the field that you should work on. It would also help for you to update your computer skills, to start with. It’s practically unthinkable these days for any professional to not be familiar with a computer. At the very least, you should be well versed in an office productivity suite such as Microsoft Office. It would also help for you to learn to establish your Web presence and understand social media, as being able to do so can help put you in touch with potential clients and assist you in networking.
Ultimately, updating your skills keeps you fresh, knowledgeable, and relevant–and that’s something you want to be if you want to stand out among all the professionals in your field.
Studying for the CPA examinations is kind of addictive. You may find yourself crawling in the first two weeks in to exam preparation, but as soon as you get your groove going you soon feel something’s lacking each time you do not open your FAR book in a rest day, or knock off a few Wiley exercises on AUD, or listen to your Ninja Audio on REG.
It’s been almost a month since I learned I passed REG, the final leg of my CPA journey. I want to share with you how more meaningful life has become after winning it back.
I had gone for a short stop to Manila in March 2013 to celebrate my victory with my mom, siblings, friends, and employees of our small public transport business, Pamana Transport Services. The feeling is just so consuming when you look back and think about how you had successfully overcome a worthy adversary. Every ounce of sacrifice that I have invested in this journey is truly gratified, with hefty dividend paid in full.
One of my immediate plans is to start writing a book on Financial and Management Accounting and, hopefully, to release it toward the middle of next year. Indeed, life’s opportunities just become too manifest after a professional’s conquest of the CPA title. I have earned my Philippine CPA license more than two decades ago, but having the U.S. CPA title tucked under my belt just takes everything to a whole new level.
From the time I first joined Another71.com as a Ninja candidate way back in 2011 I have seen several Ninja posts shouting at the top of their lungs how jubilant they were upon completing their own CPA journeys, yet oddly asking how they’d now spend loads of their spare time previously allotted to studying. To be honest, my first impression was that these Ninjas were just being plain “arrogant”. Surely, they could always go back to doing what they used to be doing previously was what I thought was just pure logic. They could go back to being the loving, caring dad that they used to, or the wife or mom who consistently takes good care of her husband and kids on a full time scale.
If you’re not among the extraordinary CPA candidates who breezed past the CPA journey in just less than 6 months, chances are you will be able to relate to what I’ll be talking about.
CPA candidates on the average take about 12-24 months to complete the CPA journey. Yes, the often rocky road to success requires you to focus your whole being to studying that long to be able to reach your destination. Deviate from this even for a little and you expose yourself to receiving some heart-breaking 74s and discouraging 60s. And so, all for the sake of conquering this monster we learn how to say no when our kids ask us to play chess or badminton with them.
For a long while I thought I had fallen in love once again, not to a woman thank goodness, but to something known in this community as “CPA”. I knew I was “in the groove” when all I thought about then was studying for my next exam; when nothing else mattered anymore but passing.
When even in deep slumber you could hear Ninja Audios reverberating like a cool sound of morning dew, you are definitely on your way to your CPA.
Then, come the day of emancipation. Freedom. Sheer radiance at the end of the tunnel. Just as any CPA candidate had always looked forward to. Yet you suddenly find yourself disconcerted, confused with mixed feelings.
So, what is life after conquest? Without sounding negative, things will never be the same again. The things that you do and had grown living during your journey will linger on. Whatever it is that you continue doing afterwards is a matter of preference. I chose to continue listening to my REG audio because I didn’t want to lose this precious knowledge about federal taxation that I have already acquired. I still try to knock off about 20 MCQs twice a week for, honestly, how many of you REG passers do still remember the intricate rules on “basis of partner’s interest”?
On the personal aspect of things I am so thankful because my CPA journey has taught me how to reflect on the real value of spending time with the true VIPs of my life: My wife and my children. I missed a lot of quality play time with my kids for almost two years, but now can enjoy life to the fullest by redirecting all my spared energy to the very same people who supported and inspired me in each battle.
After CPA, life is truly no longer the same, because this journey do not only teach us become better accountants but, more importantly, make us become better persons.
Some people need something that will inspire them before they commit to doing something worthwhile for their own careers and professional advancement. Others choose and look up to their study buddies, intending to draw strength among themselves as they take on the challenges they will face in preparing for an exam. To the uncommon few, they go forth chasing their dreams with full dedication and might, willing to sacrifice everything, whatever it takes.
Whatever the cost, they pursue their dreams wherever they take them.
Like you, I had always aspired to bring out the very best in me. Way back then, I had always been fascinated by people that bear either a prefix or suffix attached to their names. Come to think of it, these enviable men and women are just normal people, like you and me, who dreamed, and persevered.
I first heard about the Certified Management Accountant’s (CMA) title in December 2009 from a colleague and friend at PICPA. I immediately fell in love as soon as I browsed the CMA program, which aims to administer a certification designed to validate competence and practical skills of accountants and finance professionals employed by today’s dynamic business entities.
It was only in late January 2010 that I have registered for membership at the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) and, at that same moment, also have registered to sit for the first batch of the then-New 2-Part CMA examination in June, 2010.
The study and exam preparation phase was grueling and tension-filled each day as I was also providing free live lectures to then aspiring Filipino CPA candidates (most of whom are now CPAs) for their own Special Middle East Philippine CPA exams back in December 2010. The odds and daunting challenge did not make me change my mind and, despite urges from within to procrastinate, I headed straight to achieving my goal.
With Mighty God’s help in sustaining me of wisdom and strength I was able to pass both parts in the same testing window in June, 2010.
I was privileged to have known several candidates of different nationalities who had contacted me through the IMA portal, LinkUpIMA, who had asked me for advice if they should continue despite failing 3-4 times (one of them even failed 9 times trying to pass Part 1).
Indeed, earning the prestigious CMA title may mean travelling a thousand miles to some. There’s that rather insurmountable-looking criteria right there. But, unless and until you take that one big step, if you stay daunted at the fear of failing without giving it a shot, if you continue to focus your mind on hindrances and excuses which keep you away from achieving your dream, that distance between your dream and where you are now will stay a thousand miles away.
There is no secret formula to earning any gold standard international certification. No shortcuts either. People who successfully complete the U.S. CMA program and earn the illustrious CMA title undergo rigorous examination to assess the practitioners’ skills and knowledge that qualified management accountants must possess in guiding top management as they make important business decisions.
To those aspiring to become one, how long have you been holding back? How much longer would you wait ‘til you take that leap of faith that you, too, can “live the dream”? Need some help in understanding things about the CMA Program and on how this could add value to your professional career?
Let the Insights team of experts guide you on how you can finally unlock your full potential. Empower yourself from this year onward by choosing to believe.
For all you know, your journey may turn out to be far less than a thousand miles after all!
About the Author: Angel V. Secerio, Jr. is both a U.S. and Philippine Certified Public Accountant, a Certified Management Accountant, a Certified Fraud Examiner and a Chartered Global Management Accountant. He is the managing director of Insights Financial Review Services and, concurrently, a director of Pamana Transport Services, a public bus transport service company in the Philippines. He also serves as the founding president of the Institute of Management Accountants-Philippines Chapter and a fierce advocate of pushing international accounting certification credentials to the Filipino accounting community.
We all have our own taste of being obsessed with something. “Obsession”, as defined in the dictionary, is the domination of one’s thoughts or feelings by a persistent idea, desire, etc.
It is “an unwelcome, uncontrollable, and persistent idea, thought, image, or emotion that a person cannot help thinking even though it creates significant distress or anxiety”. I liked this last one better, and you’ll soon find out why.
My obsession to earn the illustrious U.S. CPA title started when my elder sister migrated after she earned her Philippine CPA title and got married to a fellow Filipino who grew up in the U.S. She now lives happily in LA (the City of Angels), where she works as a Finance Controller.
My first attempt at realizing this dream dates back to 1996 when I worked in Jeddah as a Financial Accountant. My preparation then for the paper-and-pencil all-4-part exams seemed panning out according to plan, but due to unreasonably stringent visa procedures I was not able to fly to the U.S. to take the exams. It seemed that the battle is already lost even as war has not even begun.
After several long years, news broke out in early 2011 that the Uniform CPA examinations would be offered internationally in selected countries, including the UAE where I previously worked up until late 2011. Where there is life there is, indeed, hope.
There are several issues and requirements that an international CPA candidate like me need to contend with before being able to secure one’s Notice to Schedule, or examination permit in layman’s term, from State selection to foreign education credentials evaluation, from selecting CPA review course material to choosing which of the four exam parts to take first.
Loads of thanks go to Ms. Leslie-Ann Rogers of CPAexcel who helped a lot in ridding my mind of the worries of complying with exam registration formalities, and allowed me to concentrate on my exam preparation.
Candidates are given free hand on how they want to tackle the Uniform CPA exams. They can take all parts simultaneously, one part at a time, or in any combination they so desire.
Of the four parts, I chose to sit for Financial Accounting and Reporting (FAR) simultaneous with Business Environment and Concepts. The FAR part earned the alias “The Beast” among CPA candidates around the world because it is the most difficult of the four parts, and covers the broadest in terms of diversity of the body of knowledge included in the syllabus. To my mind, I thought I should start my journey by tackling the subject(s) I felt more confident of passing on my first take.
Though I considered my preparation to be rigid and thorough, I soon realized that there was absolutely no other way of doing it if you intend to pass each part on your first take.
I took Auditing afterwards, and Regulation last 19 Feb to cap my rough roller-coaster ride toward completing all four parts of the Uniform CPA Exams.
As I ran my course, the emancipating thought of giving up has constantly visited my mind. But it just does not seem right to raise the white flag simply because we experience rough sail. After all, it might surprise you that beyond these walls of adversity lie either a better situation or a better you.
After getting a taste of all four, I can now say that Regulation (consisting of Ethics, Business Law, and U.S. Taxation) was the toughest of all. The federal tax system had given me heaps of worries which made me decide to reschedule my Regulation exam three times in three testing windows. It just didn’t “click” despite investing precious time into trying to understand the dynamics of the U.S. tax rules.
What is even worse is that candidates are required to know the frequent changes in the tax law. This means that some of what you have previously studied in 2012 may no longer be applicable when you take your exam in 2013.
If you don’t want to be discouraged in pursuing your dream to become a U.S. CPA stay away from Regulation ‘til it’s the last part that you have to take.
Never underestimate your resilience and your willpower when your back is against the wall. Faced with losing my FAR and Business Environment and Concepts credits if I didn’t finally take (and pass) Regulation, it surprised me how much material I was able to cover at the homestretch.
For a non-US candidate who had no previous formal studies in Federal Taxation, immeasurable amount of credit goes to CPAexcel’s tax mentor, Dr. Gregory Carnes, for making me understand the extremely intricate U.S. tax system. Though my Regulation exam was tough I believe that CPAexcel prepared me well enough to pass the exam.
Also, the NINJA Audio was very effective; it turned those idle moments spent commuting two hours from home to my workplace in Muscat into valuable study time! It was a wonderful supplement to my CPAexcel and Wiley testbank.
After more than 15 years of nurturing my obsession of becoming a U.S. Certified Public Accountant, the light at the end of the tunnel has finally revealed its awesome radiance. I have now reached “home”, and achieved the pinnacle of my professional qualification as an accountant. With God’s abiding provision, the title “U.S. CPA” has ultimately become mine.
