The Three Biggest Lessons I Learned From My Highly Successful Friend About Better Stress Management

Simplification Is the Biggest Roadblock in the Path Of Success

Chartered Accountancy is one of the most difficult exams in India. You’ll have to dedicate five years of your life to it before you get the diploma.

It demands discipline, tenacity, and perseverance. Sadly I failed a bit too many times so I decided to quit this course after two years, the best decision I ever made.

It was stressful, the syllabus was endless and the passing percentage was always less than 15%. So, there’s always a chance that you’ll end up failing.

But one of my friends stuck through with it and last year he finally brought home the diploma, that he had been chasing for the past five years.

I was a wreck during the exams, I lost 4 kgs in a span of two months. I used to throw up before every exam and the pressure of passing resulted in a health scare.

My friend on the other hand loved the exams, it was his favorite thing about this course. He was the wisest person in our study group, his words of wisdom have saved quite a few careers from going down the drain.

I recently asked him the secret that helps him stay stress-free under high-pressure situations, his three-fold answer is brilliant yet dipping with simplicity.

1. The Simplest Way is Often The Easiest Way

The only way to pass CA exams is by joining high-profile coaching institutes with the highest pass percentage ratio.

I joined the best coaching for every subject including the three subjects that I never even sat in the exam for, which cost me over $1500.

My friend on the other hand passed all 16 exams through self-study. He only bought pre-recorded lectures for two subjects.

He’s not a genius, he’s a smart worker. He saw through the fickle advertisement of the coaching institutions and relied solely on material provided by the institution.

When I asked him how he managed to pass every exam with self-study, he told me it’s all about keeping calm. He never pressured himself to cramp the additional material that we were given at the coaching institutes.

He took the simplest path that guaranteed his chances of success by sticking to the original material that the coaching institutes beautified.

His simplicity was rewarded with brilliant success. He became the first CA in my group as he completed this course in a record-breaking four years, while everyone else was struggling.

Following the simplicity quotient was a brilliant move. He only referred to one study material while everyone else was hopping on to the next best book in the market.

I traveled an hour daily to attend a class where the teacher taught for less than two hours. He wasted our time to fulfill his narcissistic urges by flexing on his international trips and Rolex.

The simplified way could have saved me a lot of time while keeping me away from some god-awful humans that I was dumb enough to think of as friends.

Here’s the plan that’ll simplify any process to bits:-

• Break down your plan completely by making a mind map in a notebook. Write all the ways you can achieve your goals and the time limit associated with each strategy.
• Now make a mind map for all these strategies by listing out each further step you’ll have to take in all these strategies.
• Now compare these strategies based on how easy they are to pursue. The best way to identify the simplicity of any plan is through how many number of steps it has.
• Once you have made a thorough mind map for every strategy you will easily be able to identify the simplest way to get the job done.
• You can use this method to identify the best and easiest game plan.

2. Don’t Shy Away From Tedious Task

The reason we shelled out thousands of dollars in tuition is because self-study is tedious.

You need the utmost motivation to sit and study yourself when you don’t have an assignment or exam coming up.

Internal motivation is a myth for most of us, but my friend conquered this myth completely. He automated motivation which helped him form a consistent workout routine.

Most of us struggle to find an ounce of willpower and we rely heavily on external motivation to get through the day. We spend our day as programmed zombies trying to get one task done after the next.

He had no teacher, schedule, or deadlines yet he was able to complete his syllabus faster than us even when we studied the same number of hours daily.

The difference was that he studied the most tedious material that everyone else was saving for last and most of us never got the time to even look at it.

We ignored the most basic step of the preparation in lieu of something more fancy and alluring, that didn’t have any real value.

We procrastinate the most tedious job with tasks that can give us a quick dopamine hit, we focus on the frills more than the dress itself.

It’s non-sensical yet we repeat this behavior again and again. We risk our future for cheap thrills that make us look busy.

Here’s what he did to break the cycle of cheap dopamine hits:-

• He went off the grid for 6 months. No social media whatsoever. He only used to watch two episodes of The Office daily.
• He removed all the distractions from his immediate environment by switching to a small qwerty phone.
• He built his motivation through daily action by completing the top three tasks of the day.
• He avoided falling into the trap of busyness by only doing the task that mattered the most.

3. The Thrill of Risk And Novelty Will Lead to Success

Self-study is unheard of in this course, most students head off to a coaching institute right after they register for this course.

It’s the norm, everybody follows the same path. But he was different, he realized that this process was not gonna work for him, so he took a step back and evaluated his options.

He made the difficult choice of going on his own, he used to go to lectures only when he had a doubt, and other times he studied on his own.

This sage decision saved him thousands of hours and dollars. Everyone else was shocked and appalled at his bravery, we tried to scare him into coming to classes but it never worked.

He did what he thought was best for him, he took the risk of self-study for four months, which ensured his success in a single attempt.

While most of us watched from the sidelines because we failed. It was tough being happy for him, I knew he had put in a lot of work but so had I.

An indestructible routine will guarantee your chances of success to a maximum while shielding you from uncalculated risk.

I asked him to teach me how he built a non-destructive study routine.

Here’s what he taught me:-

• Time management is the most important factor when it comes to routine. So, the first rule for a better schedule is always sticking to your clock.
• Do the most important task first thing in the morning, it will give you great momentum for the rest of the day.
• Build focus by practicing digital detox. Give up one thing at a time. May it be social media, streaming, or gaming.

Conclusion

Following the simplicity quotient was a brilliant move.

He simplified the process to the bare minimum to do better smart work. This decision helped him protect his mental health under highly stressful situations.

Right now he’s an assistant manager in a Big 4 company, he’s using this same principle of simplification to do good quality work at his job.

We pick the complicated path because it makes us look busy, which feeds our illusion of productivity.

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