We hear and see it every year. Tax pros and accountants alike are going through this annual waterboarding of sorts called “busy season,” swearing each year this will be the last one like this. So, when will it be?
No one wants burnout, or worse. And, I will profess, the business world needs accountants; it’s better with them in it. You all know this, but also know there are fewer of you in it to “do the work.”
So, you stay with the same processes and clients, putting up with it at nearly all hours: the calls, the questions, the emails, hours on hold with the IRS, and a myriad of things in between and the life you are also trying to live.
I ask again, why do you do it? When exactly will enough BE enough? I’m not saying leave and go do something else, but how you do what you do may need your foot to finally come down. And if I’m being honest, in my three decades of overseeing this profession, for those of you still doing little about it, I’m not certain what it’s going to take, and it makes me a bit worried.
This isn’t about some elaborate plan to change your practice or completely upend your life. What I am talking about is, essentially, your life. We’ve all heard the phrase “death by 1000 cuts.” In the case of tax pros and accountants, it’s all the things you put up with year in and year out that you don’t change.
Tax season, busy work, whatever label you put on the things you do, don’t just happen to you; you allow it by somewhere in your mind simply accepting or saying, “This is how it is. What can I do?” And each year that goes by where this is the thinking brings you closer to true burnout and simply walking away from all you’ve built and worked for. I’ve seen it happen, but there’s hope.
Remember, you are part of a community. You are never truly alone in anything you are thinking, feeling, doing, or not doing. Someone is having a similar day to you. Someone is asking for help in their heads but not reaching out, often for the same reasons they allowed themselves to be in this position in the first place. It is OK.
So now, I am asking you: When will it all be enough? Why even let it get to a breaking point or a state where you don’t feel you can turn things around for the better?
Remember also, you are not your work but what you do for your clients. Your heart, your commitment, your passion for wanting to help. Don’t ever lose that or allow life and/or work to take that away.
Start small. Take the step to admit things are not OK, and know again you’re not alone and you can actually have the life and work that works for you, not against you. Start by saying “enough.”