Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Empathy Through Accounting

Who can forget the glorious fail pictures of Courage and I attempting to learn dressage this spring?

At the time, I was supremely frustrated with Courage. "Turning right" was the specific issue, I believe, and some days, we simply COULD NOT do it.

baby steps
Enter this fall. I'm doing some continuing education for my job. You know those people who always want to go back to school? That's not me. Didn't miss, didn't want more. But here I am. I'm taking Accounting right now. Probably a lot of you have taken it, which means you know that it's not rocket science.

It's actually quite simple, except that it's basically a whole different language. I'm a reasonably intelligent person, right?

Some days are easy. Some days are so frustrating and hard and confusing that I just want to gallop sideways into the fence and never try again (that was not a good day).

I have to laugh as I flounder my way along. To someone who knows what they're doing, my work is ridiculously simple, much like turning right.

But getting mad and yelling is never the answer. If I don't understand, I have to back off, go slower, start over, or approach the problem from a different angle.

I've been known to walk away or take the rest of the day off and try again later, because it's just not working in my brain.

And you know what?

It's working. No, I'm not a bonafide CPA overnight. That would be silly.

Instead, I'm learning to trust the system a little. Believe that if I study hard enough and do enough practice, I will get this. I'm by no means a master of the concepts and that upcoming test is a little intimidating.

But.

At least now, I know I can get there.

Like Courage.

Doing dressage.

13 comments:

  1. When I got fed up with the house industry (not the horses but the people) I went back and got grad degree in accounting. Having ba in English I had to do prereqs. But accounting is easy. It isn't about numbers, it's about organization. You got it!

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  2. The lessons we learn in strange places never cease to amaze me!

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  3. Wow that's a great way of looking at it. Never thought of it that way.

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  4. Pretty sure dressage HAS to be easier than accounting, ha.

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    Replies
    1. NO WAY. Accounting is WAY easier!

      Dressage is also WAY more rewarding. ;)

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  5. Well put.
    I'm dealing with the same thing with JavaScript. It is taking longer for it to click for me than I would like. Just gotta keep practicing.

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  6. I learn new things about horses in all sorts of bizarre places... but love the accounting/dressage comparison!

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  7. love it! i've long believed that the process of academic problem solving is super applicable to horses, especially as it helps take away that whole 'emotion' response to bad days. now if only i could figure out how to actually behave that way myself lol...

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  8. I was really bad at accounting, I'm much much less bad at dressage...lol! Good luck on your new career!

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  9. Love this, it's so true. We often struggle with learning things ourselves and then become surprised when our horses struggle with learning things! I'm guilty of this pretty often.

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  10. Some day, accounting will be a thing of the past (or, at least homework, quizzes, and tests will be) and you will be doing tempi changes and making more money ;)

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