Turning Life's Wake Up Calls Into Positive Change

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And discover why connecting these moments to your bucket list goals creates sustainable motivation for both. Business and personal growth. This episode provides practical insights into making permanent positive changes when life gives you a reason to reassess your priorities. I'm your co-host, Anthony Pearl.

a hit wake up call. Probably [: 00:01:00

And it's how we respond and whether it we respond in a way that has a longer term implication or whether it's just a short term hit. And then we go back to where we've always been and how you make those changes. And then just, you know, maybe you just wanna recap. For people who picking up on this episode, you know, a personal story from your point of view in recent times that has given you a little bit of that wake up call?

Yeah, I think what I might do, I might go back even further. That's okay because it's, and it's then around my, my mother. So my mother passed away when she was 53 and I'm 53 now. So. She, it's coming up 20 years since she passed away, so I was in my early thirties when it happened and I've thought about this and I, I've sort of struggled, I guess with this for a long period of time in the, uh, but you know, some positives were coming outta it.

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I was working as employee for a local accounting firm. I went in and handed him a letter resignation at the time and said, you know, mum's passed away. I realize life's too shorter. I've wanted to have a crack at running my own accounting business. I'm gonna do it. I had that short term impact, at least in that part, I, I actually made a decision and I changed what I was doing.

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Comfortable with and safe with and I didn't keep pushing myself at that point in time. And the thing that I find really interesting, I'm not, hopefully I'm not deep going too deep into an area I dunno a lot about, but I've find it fascinating how like some people can grab an opportunity and grab a moment, just run with it, just go held for leather and I'm sure.

A lot of people who listen to this have been through that period where either someone's passed away or something negative has happened to them and they go through this little period of, I've gotta make changes, I've gotta do things, I've gotta make the most outta this. And we've all had this period where you understand that life is finite and then we only get one crack at it regardless of what, what happens afterwards.

crack at, but it beca, it's [: 00:04:00

And then we just, we just collapsed down into normality again, not long afterwards. Yeah. It's. It is human nature to kind of do that, and I think the challenge is how do you actually capitalize on it when you have been hit with something and no matter how small or extreme it might be, you know, the, someone passing away is obviously a, an extreme at one end.

it might be that you lose a [: 00:05:00

Yeah, it's a really difficult thing to be taking into consideration, but it is so important to have that or look, it's massively important and I think it's a topic that I don't. Like I said, I've probably been toying with this for 20 years, trying to work out the triggers and the, and how to keep going with what you're doing.

interesting thing for me is [: 00:06:00

And the psychology, like you said behind that because yeah, most of us, I would suggest, and you can correct me here, but most of us I think fall back in after that hit fall back into what we were doing anyway, it's, it is a difficult thing to get out of, and I think part of it is something that you talk about all the time, which is the bucket list.

And it's revising things in the bucket list. Mm-hmm. But tying it to a more personal one. So if it's in the business sense, if you're, you know, it might well be, you know, the example of, well, if I improve this with a client, if it doesn't have an implication in your bucket list on a personal level, probably doesn't happen.

r, but I kept two, now I can [: 00:07:00

Yeah. And not, that's a very good point. And I think that's, that's where that bucket list becomes vitally important in that it, it's there, there's a purpose that's sitting there and I think if you do have that. If you have that bucket list and something happens, it probably makes you reassess the things that are on there and potentially even bring some of them forward to make sure that they actually happen so that you don't miss out on those.

It, it's a very, it's a very good point and one that probably answers the question that I just had in that having that purpose there is the one is the thing that'll drive you through and keep you motivated for longer because of that very. Fact that the, there are the things that you wanna do, whereas if you haven't got that clear definition of what you wanna do.

a fall back into the normal. [: 00:08:00

Now back to the program. I think one of the lessons out of this as well is to learn, and we've talked quite a bit in the podcast episodes that we've had together. About how you are quite proactive in the way that you operate with clients and encouraging them and sitting down with them regularly. But I think the flip side of that is that business owners, families need to be proactive themselves.

ou know, something as you've [: 00:09:00

So that, you know, you can come back and say, should we think about the bucket list again? Mm-hmm. Should we have a conversation about what that's actually mean to you? Because there are, there, you know, dealing with your own mortality is a huge thing for people. And understanding, you know, might make you, you know, rethink a whole bunch of things, whether it's insurance or whether it's going on the holiday or what level of what things are important, at what point.

Mm-hmm. You know, or going and saying, you know what? I actually haven't spent time on going, you know, on a gym membership. 'cause I didn't think that was all that important. But now I'm dealing a bit with the mortality thing. I actually think that we need to prioritize that and do those things and recognize that maybe that means that I'm take an hour out every, you know, three times a week out of the business in order to be able to do that as well.

So [: 00:10:00

That's right. And you, even between my wife and lawyer, for example, her interests are different to my interests, but we've spoken about it and I understand why some of her interests are important to her. And so when she wants to do them now or when she's planning to. Do them or take a trip somewhere on her own to, to pursue those interests.

Because I know it's important to her and why it's important to her. It, I'm a lot more open and accepting that she's off doing those things because I know why. So you don't get to the same level of, I think there can be a, a bit of reluctance to allow people to do some of these things if you don't understand why.

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As we've spoken about before, it's that extra element of emotion, which then creates a greater understanding. Yeah, I think it's all goes back down to why, you know, the bucket list is so important and why thinking of it as a bucket list rather than just as a budget, because it gives it that purpose to it, and being aware that is going to change.

ay. Sometimes those bad days [: 00:12:00

You can't be in business in complete isolation from those that are willing to support you, be it family, be it at your accountant and other pe, other pieces in that puzzle. A absolutely. I think having at both levels, the business level and the personal level, the more people around you that are with you in both of those environments, the more they understand those things that are important to you, the more they will then help you.

omes. But equally, you know, [: 00:13:00

And I think that adds an extra element of enjoyment and excitement. About achieving the goals from a business perspective because not only do you know that you are getting your goals met, but you also know that you've helped your business partner get to where they want to get to as well. And I think that extra element I think is vitally important.

ble enough to tell you about [: 00:14:00

Oh, absolutely. And that's a. Conversation and elements that are built over time and, and you know, as trust builds up, but the sooner you can get to those areas, because I mean, people don't like talking about the negative outcomes, do they? We like talking about the positive stuff, but the negative outcomes can be just as important and understand them and know them and to appreciate the impact that they're having.

And when you, when you have a greater understanding of the whole, you can certainly. It allows you to help people more by understanding the bigger picture when something negative happens. I think, you know, if I can say this, David, to, to wrap up this conversation, that the big thing here that I think is the differentiator between a lot of accountants.

as you know, the Bucket list [: 00:15:00

It's not necessarily being proactive in the way change, changing it the way things should be projecting into the future and what you should be allocating. I think it's important that people understand that relationship can be so completely different and it's something that they need to think about when they're considering what they're doing with accounting.

t. That's good because there [: 00:16:00

And you know, over the years, the number of conversations I've had with exactly the same, you know, early days of, of how much tax am I, am I paying? Do I, you know, even to the point, do I need to buy this piece of equipment to save my tax? It's the, the question is not about will this piece of equipment help me improve my business?

It's more focused around the tax and people need to change. I think people need to change how they think about these things, to worry more about the improvement aspect of everything rather than any tax outcome. I think to me, as an accountant, the tax. Almost should be a secondary outcome to business. Tax is a consequence of a, of a good business It.

mark of success in the Japan [: 00:17:00

Building and growing your business so that you can achieve goals that you want to achieve. Tax is a tax is a small outcome of that and a small cost maybe even you can look at as an investment because the more tax you're paying, the more money you're making, the more things you can do. So yeah, I think when you can get people away from thinking about coming to the accountant, thinking just about tax alone, the quicker you can get to that process, the better.

ut, well, okay, you've had a [: 00:18:00

Or this has happened in your life and therefore the consequences are just in, in tax terms or in even just simply in, you know, dollar value at the end. Because it's more than just the numbers. And to make real change in your business to, you know, as we talked about in the previous episode, to get comfortable and the uncomfortable, all of those things to take advantage of negative things that happen and turn them into positives.

Requires a different kind of relationship. Yeah, absolutely it does. And I think that's the exciting part about it is, and it's two things. I think. One is it helps them, the client more when you get into that space, but also from a personal perspective, it's much more enjoyable helping people. Grow, then what it is to save someone tax.

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