Phase One - DONE
I finally acquired my certification to write the exam for my brokerage license. It took me a total of 8-months of half-assed studying and 7 days of focused studying.
I felt pretty accomplished at first, but after a while, the feeling faded. While small wins need to be celebrated, a more important realization I learned was…
Aside from the obvious fact that procrastination makes you realize you’re capable of accomplishing things in a very short amount of time, it’s sad how most of us do not leverage it to pursue what we really deserve in life. Instead, we use it as an excuse to delay our progress.
This week, I was faced with projects with very tight deadlines. One of my supervisors asked, “So you think you can finish it?”
We both acknowledge there’s too much on the plate. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be having that conversation. To relieve her worry, I responded with, “I don’t know, I have to look into the whole thing. I cannot provide a good estimate until I find out exactly what we’re dealing with.”
Then I followed that up with “I’ll get it done”, that’s what all supervisors wanted to hear anyway but deep inside I’m like “OH SHIT! Now I really need to get this done!”
Note that this isn’t the first time this happened and I’m sure it will keep happening. However, working under pressure all the time can burn you out after a while – BUT there’s also a chance you get better at it.
This one of those facts in life I find annoying: some things are just a pain in the ass I rather not deal with but they also present you with opportunities to become better.
Challenges Are Mirrors
They show us what we’re really capable of.
Life throws us all these challenges to help us grow, not to take away happiness from us.
A recent conversation I had with a colleague reminded me that. Our dissatisfaction in life comes from staying in the middle of the “happy-sad scale” – you’re neither happy nor sad but more like empty.
“This existential vacuum manifests itself mainly in a state of boredom.” ― Victor Frankl
I remember what it was like to be in that phase. There are so many things I wanted to do and yet I don’t do any of them. They just exist in my head as if having the “intention” is good enough.
But the fact there are so many things I wanted to do also tells me that I didn’t have a direction. That in itself was also a problem – overwhelmed with so many choices that I end up not making any choice at all.
And the only way to find the answer to our burning question is to TRY and DO – more doing, less thinking. Why?
The theories/knowledge/predictions you come up with in your head are almost always inaccurate anyways. Why?
You haven’t taken enough action to put those theories/knowledge/predictions to test.
Understanding the lessons from successful people has its limitations because they went through the struggle of learning that insight while you haven’t.
We all know that burning charcoal is hot. But you’ll never understand how hot it really is until you touch it.
Point is, you need to try. If that fails, then you learn what not to do again – a lesson. And if you learn a lesson then it’s not a waste of time. In fact, you waste more time imagining things that probably aren’t even going to happen. You’re no Nostradamus.
“It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life—daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.” – Viktor Frankl
Passing vs. Understanding
I passed the brokerage certification exam and I’m now granted permission to write the provincial exam. *yey*
However, if you were to ask me if I fully understood the material, the answer is “No”…but I passed so shouldn’t that mean that I understand the material?
Sometimes, passing a test does not always show how accurate your understanding is of the subject at hand.
I “gamed” the system (as mentioned in Week 19) to pass.
No, I did not cheat but it sure felt like it – because I passed something I did not fully understand – which is why I don’t suggest it because sooner or later the truth will come out 🙂
A Year Ago This Week
I…
- was angry and I felt guilty about it.
- wrote about stereotypes at work
- talked about how to leverage the value of networking
[Read more about it here]
Goal Update
Insurance Brokerage License Prep
writing my provincial exam in 3 weeks
Health
im gaining weight.
Finance
expenses are temporarily going to go up again.
but that’s just the nature of it – expenses are never steady because “steady” (to me) means you’re not experiencing life as you should 😛