God has laid it on my heart for a while now to make this entry. At the Adorned camp that I attended beginning of September, I chatted with someone about my ability to write. As I was talking to her, the words just came out as to how it started that I could write. For those of you who do not know about the camp, read the post about Heart, Heartbeat, Rhythm.
Ok, so back to my story that I told on the camp. I spoke with Lynn Grobler from Journaling on the Way. I mentioned to her that I am convinced that my background for my work and the training that I did, gave me the advantage to be able to write. She was quite surprised when she heard that. This, together with the fact that I think my mom had this hidden talent to write and that I inherited it from her enables me to write the way that I do.
You see, my mom wrote to each of her three daughters a very personal letter on our 21st birthdays. This was so special and precious to me. We never had conversations like these in real life. It was more reduced to writing if I remember correctly. As time went on it changed to sms messages, e-mails and Whatsapps. Not always DEEP things, but things that were just dealt with easier in writing than verbally – if this makes sense what I am trying to say.
So my training as a Trainee Accountant taught me that my files should speak for themselves. Any audit file, must be able to stand on its own two feet, so to speak, without me uttering any words whatsover about that file. The file must be able to tell the reader, one with reasonable knowledge and background, why I did the tests I did and why I made the professional conclusions that I did.
There I go again sounding like an Audit Standard!! But I took this very seriously. My files can, at any time, be subject to review by the professional bodies that I belong to. Because of this, I took it very serious! Things must be done right the first time around! I also did the training to ensure that I remain relevant and up to date with changes, and also because my qualification required me to do, what felt like endless hours of training, annually.
When I started my own practice, I searched for more training. I was now the responsible person, the partner. I must ensure that everything is correct. You know what a mammoth task that is and how much uncertainty that creates within oneself? None-the-less, I found Probeta to assist with training. I often attend their training sessions, all of those which I consider to be relevant to my practice. I must admit, this too gave me the advantage that enabled me to write – the training that I received from them.
The institution to which I belong, SAICA, changed the rules surrounding training in 2020. Thank goodness for this, as this was just before the Pandemic hit the world and everything was left in turmoil! It makes life so much easier, even if we all were uncertain as to what to do and how it works. As soon as you embrace change, then it no longer overwhelms you. What I also learnt over time, is, if you are teachable then you get so much further in life. But, if you go through life Knowing it all then it gets hard. No one can teach you anything if you do not WANT to learn!
In 2021 the rules changed YET AGAIN. This time the requirement is Continuous Ethical Training over a 12 month period. Yes, I admit, I rolled my eyes at this change. I mean SERIOUSLY. Just ANOTHER thing to fit into a schedule that is already so busy and overflowing with STUFF to do. And ethics of all things? Do we as CA’s REALLY have to learn about being ethical? It is burnt into my heart to ALWAYS try to do the right thing, even if no one is watching. I still cannot understand people who do not think the way I do and act the way I do. Anyway….
This whole year, since the changes came into effect, I have been postponing this ethics thing purely because of the uncertainty surrounding it and what it entails. Probeta sends an e-mail about a twelve month program that they host and it meets the requirements of SAICA. I read the marketing material and decide THIS is what I am going to do! I am not even going to TRY to do anything continuous on my own as it is more than likely to end up in an EPIC FAIL. Recovering from that is just going to create more issues!
I also decide to take the best option that they present, the one that goes into depth about your character. I am, after all the boss and I have to KNOW things so that I can train others. I am not even going to waste my time with the first option, not that it is a waste of time if you get what I am trying to say? I need the hard core stuff you know? If I can refer to it like that!
After signing up, a month passes by before I get going with this program. Ok, three weeks after signing up, towards end of September. I start working through the material and deep inside my spirit I feel this excitement awakening in me! Seriously WHO gets excited about TRAINING of all things?
The theme? Authentic journalling. My husband laughs and says it sounds like something that woman would love to do. I roll my eyes at his comment and decide to just proceed. I committed to this thing so I have to do it. If I don’t then I am no longer valid with SAICA. I do my Tall Trees Analysis – the one where your character is identified as a certain type of tree, based on Hettie Brittz’s books Growing kids with character.
I receive my analysis back and read through it. I stand in awe and amazement of the feedback. It summarises my personality and character to the point. It is as if Hettie was sitting opposite me, doing an interview with me and summarised me in person. I go back to my report from 2019 and see that my profile has changed. “This is strange.” I think to myself. I contact Lynette Berger from Probeta via e-mail. Half concerned and amazed at the same time.
Her feedback? One’s profile can change and that is why they recommend that you do this regularly to ensure that you get to know yourself and know how to deal with certain situations that you may encounter. I start to wonder by myself WHY my profile would have changed. The answer? The Pandemic. The Pandemic that changed EVERYTHING and ALL of our lives.
This afternoon (yes on a Saturday afternoon) I watch the introductory video of Authentic journalling and as she speaks and explains things, so many more things start to make sense to me and how my blog entries actually take form and get life so to speak. You see, for me, the words start turning and moving around in my head. The concept begins THERE as a thought. But, if I do not write it out, it becomes cluttered in my brain.
It is usually then that one starts to feel overwhelmed and then you end up just staring at your computer screen not knowing WHERE to start. BUT, if you start to just make a list of what to do, you channel your thoughts into written format. Lynette describes so many things so wonderfully in that video – for those of you who have to do ethical training, it is worth the watch and you will understand what I am saying here better.
But do you know what my problem is? My lists get lists for the lists of lists of things that have to be done. Yes, you may laugh, but we ALL have lists for lists!! As Lynette describes it, the written form is the physical manifestation of something that was in your thoughts or, as I also refer to it, within your spirit.
I realise now that, 2020 was one HUGE challenge for me. I am still trying to catch up work from 2020. You see, the Boxwood tree that I am, does not like it when things are out of control. So the Pandemic just did not work for me – everything felt out of control. You get to a point where you just do the BARE MINIMUM. But the bare minimum does not necessarily fall within the quadrant that makes you function optimally.
“Quadrant?” you ask. “Yes” is my answer, “quadrant”. Lynette explains in her video that you spend your time on stuff that can be categorised into four quadrants. For those of you who have NO IDEA what I am talking about – take a page and split it into four parts. Draw a line from the top to the bottom (in the middle of the page) and again from left to right, also in the middle of the page. Each block presents a quadrant…..
Each block has a name. It is one of four – Important & urgent, Important & not urgent, Not important & urgent and lastly Not important & not urgent. If your time spent falls into the last two quadrants, it usually means that chaos rules in your life. This I can confirm – is how 2020 was for me. I was more worried about the washing that was busy piling up and the house that I almost HEARD getting dirty as everyone moved around, than what I was about getting work done. I just could not function.
God has helped me to create order by journaling on this platform. Of course there are MANY things I cannot blog about, because it is just too personal to share with the whole world. What I also realised is that, if you do not make time to share your thoughts and emotions with God in a written format, you are actually exposing yourself to gossip.
Yes, you read correctly. We all fail at some stage – we tell something quickly about something that someone did. If you do not guard against this, it becomes gossip. I realise now, that, I have to journal even more frequently to channel my thoughts, which Lynette also describes as energy, and get it out of my system so that it does not make my heart turn black and bad. I know emotions are energy and do emotions not arise from thoughts? Actually, we as human beings, are one bundle of energy that needs to be channeled correctly.
Only once we get to that point, then God can use us truly what we were placed on this earth to do. Until such time we will remain like waves in the ocean being tossed around by the wind….the long and short of a not so short post? Go an channel your energy so that you can use it in a positive manner! I am so excited about the journey that God is taking me on. I am excited about this training, because I know that I will come out the other side as a changed person.
All the glory be to God always! He gives us the talents to serve others and to help them and lead them to Him. We must sow the seeds and when the time is right, the Holy Spirit will give it water and it will germinate in the people’s lives in whom we have sown seed.
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