Admittedly, this is a bit of a loaded question; however, some things are in your control, namely how you live and work as a tax and accounting professional. So, what’s going to change in your world “post-season”?
Like New Year’s, birthdays, or entering a new season like spring and summer, there’s a mental and even emotional bookmark of sorts when April 15th (here in the U.S.) rolls around for tax and accounting professionals. Sure, “Tax Season” or “Busy Season” doesn’t ever really end for some, and that is indeed part of the problem. But, if we’re marking dates, then it is a time to at least consider how it can be a point at which life tips more in your favor, in the whole “life-work balance” scenario.
You plan for much of the year about how work is going to be for you, scheduling being one of the most important because, let’s face it, if it’s not scheduled, it is not as likely to get done. So I am asking you, before life or work or anything in between gets in the way, put serious thought into it and schedule in time to fix even one thing about how your life and work can be better.
As I mentioned, there aren’t always situations in your control, but how you run your business or work with clients is very much in your control—at least enough so that it can be improved with planning and commitment. Perhaps it’s finally upgrading technology that works with you and not the other way around. Moving on/setting free clients that would be a better fit elsewhere is always a plus too, as is committing, finally, to the amount of time you are focused on work vs. yourself, your health (mental and physical), your family and friends, or all of the aforementioned.
Maybe, just maybe, things are going pretty well for you since you committed to at least one of these things over the last year or so. Great! But there’s always more, and I’ve said this before and will rinse and repeat it often: The accounting profession as a whole has a massive opportunity to be so much more than just the numbers, the work, and the “accounting” for things. It all starts with a decision, a recognition of what could be versus what is and has long been.
Even if that’s too lofty a concept for you, we take the lens back to your world, and those things you’ve known full well for some time now can be, even ever so slightly, better. What then, I ask you, are you going to do about it?
We can all dance around with the same “be the change, see the change” mantra of old, but at the end of the day, of the “season,” only you truly know what will make your own world a better, even more tolerable place. Do that, then. It is my one wish for you, and I hope it becomes clearer for you in the coming days and weeks. Know, too, that whatever it is, it is possible, and you have such a support system at your back from this community.