March 11, 2024 • 20 mins
This week, we’re talking goal setting.
Whether it’s picturing your first job as a qualified accountant or standing on the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, it can feel really exciting to imagine a new future for ourselves. But, as many of us know, that excitement can quickly turn to fear when faced with the reality of the work needed to get there.
So this week, we sit down with cognitive behavioural therapist Sarah D Rees to understand why some of us struggle with setting, and achieving, our goals. From breaking down big plans to calming your inner critic, and rewarding yourself along the journey, we’re looking at strategies to help keep us all on track – both practically, and emotionally, while working towards our objectives.
This is On Your Marks. Because you’ll never know until you try.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Student 1 (00:01):
I would break the textbook into chapters and set myself
target of pages per day.
Student 2 (00:06):
It's like going to the gym. You can't get a six-
pack in three months. You have to build up over
time to get it.
Student 3 (00:11):
Always little steps at the time. I'm like a turtle. Let's
say I work slowly, but I arrive to the destination.
Krutika Adatia (00:19):
Hello, I'm Krutika Adatia, and I'm a chartered accountant. I now
support accountancy students through their training, and as an educator, I'm regularly up
close and personal with some of the common issues people face
while studying for and sitting their accountancy exams. So in
this series for the ACCA, we're chatting to experts about
strategies we can all use when facing some of life's challenges,
(00:43):
whether that's booking your first accountancy exam or finding a
good work- life balance. This week we're looking at setting goals.
Do smart goals really work? Is it better to focus on
the big picture when struggling or getting through day by day?
And what techniques could help us reach our aims? This
is On Your Marks, because you'll never know until you try.
(01:09):
Now I know that the phrase, " How should I set goals,"
might instantly turn you off. But the thing is, the
reason teachers and coaches alike go on about goal setting
so much is that it can really work. I remember
when I was a student, I often felt overwhelmed with
the sheer volume of content we needed to learn for
each exam. I was working and studying at the same time,
(01:30):
which made it even more difficult because I always felt
I didn't have enough hours in the day. It was
only when I started setting more manageable goals that I
started feeling more in control of my life and my
progress in exam preparation. So to talk about how we
can all set more realistic and helpful goals today, I've
got Sarah D. Rees with me. She's a cognitive behavioural
(01:51):
therapist with over 20 years experience working in mental health,
who regularly works with clients to help them set and
achieve their mental health and personal goals. So, Sarah, do
you like setting goals and do they work for you?
Sarah D. Rees (02:05):
I absolutely love setting goals and I've had to make
them work for me. It's not come naturally. I'm somebody
that if I just set myself a goal, I would
get overwhelmed and all I saw was the goal, I'd
get anxious and I won't be able to achieve it.
So I've learned that I need to manage my goals
(02:26):
and break them down and focus a little bit more
on the strategies and the things I do to arrive
at the goal.
Krutika Adatia (02:33):
Amazing. So what does a good goal look like?
Sarah D. Rees (02:36):
A really good goal is what we often refer to
as smart. It's a smart goal. So SMART stands for
specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely. So there's a real
clear destination. It's very specific. So an a vague goal
(02:56):
might be I want to get fit, whereas a very
clear goal might be I want to be able to
go to the gym three times a week and I'll
know when I'm fit when I can run for half
an hour. So it's much more specific and it's measurable
as well. And it's realistic. If we set goals that are
too unrealistic, we can feel overwhelmed and that can shut
(03:19):
us down and reduce our motivation. They say what gets
measured gets managed. So we really need to be able
to measure our goals and see our progress towards our
goals as well.
Krutika Adatia (03:31):
I like that. So you've given an acronym there and so
it's specific, measurable-
Sarah D. Rees (03:35):
Achievable, realistic, and timely.
Krutika Adatia (03:39):
Love that. So then I guess a bad goal would
be the opposite of that.
Sarah D. Rees (03:42):
Absolutely. Really vague. A goal is about having a clear
destination and knowing exactly what that destination is so that
you know when you've arrived at that goal.
Krutika Adatia (03:53):
So then would you say as a listener to this,
their goal might be, " I want to be an accountant"?
Is that too broad?
Sarah D. Rees (04:01):
I think that's a nice goal, but it is too
broad. You need to chunk that down. What does being
an accountant mean? I guess you've got to do certain
exams and reach certain targets and milestones within that. So
that might be your overarching goal. And there's lots of
little goals underneath that and you take one by one.
Krutika Adatia (04:22):
Amazing. So having a big goal is great, but trying
to break it down into something more manageable like, " Hey,
I've got 13 exams to do. Not going to do
them all this yet. Let me space those out."
Sarah D. Rees (04:32):
Absolutely.
Krutika Adatia (04:33):
So big goal, break it down into smaller goals. Now
some people find it easier to achieve their goals and others
don't. Why is that?
Sarah D. Rees (04:44):
Many different reasons. I suppose we are all very different
and we have very tricky brains. For some people it
might be life experiences, what we've learnt about achieving goals
in our past. For some people it's self-talk, how we talk
to ourselves can have a big impact. So sometimes I
like to think of it as having a supportive inner coach.
(05:06):
If we coach ourselves supportively, we can get to our
goals a bit easier than somebody that beats ourselves up internally.
So how we talk to ourselves is important. I think
the support around you at the time and how well
your mental health and general resilience is really important. So
if you've got lots of cheerleaders around you, supporting you,
(05:27):
and a good environment, and all the pillars of health
like sleep and exercise, good nutrition, good friendships, they all
provide a really good foundation of resilience for people to
attain their goals. And I think people need accountability as well.
Krutika Adatia (05:45):
Amazing. So you've referred to some of the challenges that
individuals might face. You mentioned self- criticism or something that
might prohibit individuals from achieving their goals. You mentioned resilience.
Can you talk a little bit more about the blockers
and the challenges that individuals might face when it comes
to achieving their goals?
Sarah D. Rees (06:03):
I know I would say that in my clinic, one
of the things that people struggle with most is an inner
critic is, I think sometimes until we get awareness of
our minds and the pattern of our minds, we're not
always fully aware of how critical we can be or
how much we're hindering ourselves and holding ourselves back. So
(06:25):
we need to get more aware of our minds, and
one of the ways of doing that is through having
therapy or coaching or self- help things like journaling to
really understand the patterns of our mind. And then once
we understand our mind, we can start to make choices
over what we do.
Krutika Adatia (06:44):
So can you just tell me a little bit about
the inner self- critic and where does that come from
for most people?
Sarah D. Rees (06:49):
It's really interesting, isn't it? I think most of us
have an inner self- critic, and where it's come from
is going to be different for everybody depending on their
experiences. Sometimes if you've had a critic around you, if
you've been bullied, we can internalize critics so they become
our internal voice. And for some people we might have
(07:12):
motivated ourselves through criticism at some point and it might
have motivated us. But the problem is that what we
find is that it has such a detrimental effect on
our resilience and our mental health generally, that over time
it doesn't serve as a good tool at all. It's
correlated with higher rates of depression and anxiety. So at
(07:36):
some point you need to really think and spend time
with your mind and think how you are speaking to
yourself, how is that serving you and is it really
getting you to where you want to be? And what
I find in the work I do with people that
are high performers or really want to get to their
goals, that self- criticism gets them so far and then
(07:58):
they really need to evaluate and readjust how they talk
to themselves. So it's more like an inner supportive coach
because we know that when we support ourselves going forward,
we lift our mood, we reduce our threat levels. Your
mind is very interesting and it can't really tell between
imagination and reality. So if I'm saying to myself, " Sarah,
(08:20):
you're rubbish. You're never going to do this," my mind
will take that quite literally. It's as bad as having
somebody at the side of you going, " That's rubbish. Good."
So we really need to see how detrimental inner critics
can be.
Krutika Adatia (08:34):
So what specific strategies can help someone really combat this
critical voice that they might have inside of them?
Sarah D. Rees (08:41):
I think firstly, it's becoming really aware of it because
with awareness comes choice and the ability to change what
we do. And I think many of us, I know
one thing I hear in therapy a lot is that people,
when they start to get of the patterns of the
mind and how they're talking to themselves, they're surprised. They're
not aware of how they're talking to themselves. Now you
(09:01):
can go to therapy or you can do journaling as well.
Some people spend 10 minutes a day just writing out
their thoughts. It's really useful for times of stress and
anxiety as well because you're processing information. And when you
journal every day, you get to learn the patterns of
your mind and then you can evaluate how is this useful
(09:24):
or is this unuseful and should I change it? The
other thing I would say is for people to ask themselves, "
Is this how I would talk to somebody else?" And
if you wouldn't talk to your best friend in this way,
consider why, why wouldn't you motivate somebody else in this way?
And it's likely that you have an inner wisdom that
this wouldn't actually motivate somebody.
Krutika Adatia (09:45):
And I know, I'm just thinking about some of our
listeners today. When it comes to, let's just say, taking
an exam, do you have anything specific around dealing with
stress and the overwhelm and the pressure that a student
might face to actually pass one of their exams?
Sarah D. Rees (10:01):
We have something in our brain called the amygdala, which
is just behind the ear and our threat system is
there. It's there for our survival. And what it does is get
us to really focus in on what the problem is.
So if I have a threat that will I pass
the exam? Will I fail the exam? That's all you
end up focusing on. Will I fail? Will I fail?
(10:21):
And that narrowing of the way we think was useful
millions of years ago when there was predators out there
and we could be eaten and we'd just focus on
what the danger is. But in an exam situation, focusing
in on whether I'm going to pass or fail an
exam isn't that useful because what you need to be
(10:42):
remembering and holding in mind is all the information that
you've been studying. So actually it's really important to be
getting our stress levels down and we need to recognize
that the way stress organizes our mind and that it narrows
our thinking and it can distort our thinking as well.
So if I'm feeling anxious, I'm going to have more
anxious thoughts. If I feel unprepared for an exam, it
(11:06):
doesn't necessarily mean that I am unprepared. That can just
be anxiety. So our thoughts match our emotions sometimes and
we need to be aware of that because when you're
aware of it, you can pull yourself away from it
a little bit as well. And also, if we're under
stress a lot of the time, then we need to
be doing things that pushes into what's called the soothing system,
(11:28):
the ability to relax, to calm down, to regulate our
emotional systems so that they're balanced.
Krutika Adatia (11:35):
That's great. And so you mentioned stress and anxiety. How
are they alike and how are they different in terms
of what's happening inside our own minds and bodies, and
how students can then perhaps deal with managing those as well?
Sarah D. Rees (11:49):
Yeah. Some stress is good and it can feel like
excitement and it can be really motivating for us as
well. So it can be helpful in us getting towards
our goals. We don't want goals that are too easy
to reach because there's not as enough drive or motivation.
So causing some stress is helpful, and we're built to
(12:10):
have stress and it's a good release of a cortisol
in the body. So stress is just feeling a little
bit overloaded or pushed to your limits or getting there.
Anxiety's quite different in that. When you feel anxious, it's
a response to a fear or a threat, and then
(12:31):
your physiology kicks in because we are outdated for the
worlds we live in a little bit. So our bodies
react as though the same way they did millions of
years ago when our predators were out to kill us.
And when there is a threat, we release adrenaline and
cortisol into our body that increases our blood pressure, and
(12:52):
that organizes your mind then to narrow in and gets
a little bit distorted as well to just focus on
what the threat is. So it has a big physiological
response, but really knowing that and getting in tune with,
because some people might not know how they experience stress
and how that differs from anxiety. But if we tune
in a little bit more to our bodies and notice
(13:14):
when stress turns into anxiety, so maybe you feel warm
all the time, you're not sleeping, got heart palpitations, dry
mouth, tingling fingers, some people feel dizzy or a bit
faint, then you can think, " Okay. My blood pressure's gone
up, my body's responding to a threat." And you can
work to calm your physiology down because sometimes it's not
(13:37):
working on our thoughts. It's more important to work on
our physiology and settle our body down.
Krutika Adatia (13:42):
Oh, that's really interesting. So trying to think about how
you can calm your body. So actually just touching on
that, what strategies or recommendations would you provide for students
that are dealing with these sorts of emotions when it
comes to working towards an exam or studying for an exam?
Sarah D. Rees (13:58):
Yeah. I do think calm body equals a calm mind.
There's lots out there now, like mindfulness for example, it's
very fashionable because it's very effective. We know that if
you've never done any mindfulness and you've started today and
you're quite stressed and been anxious for some time, and
we did a brain scan today and in eight weeks time,
(14:21):
you could see the differences within your brain, your amygdala,
the threat system in your brain, actually settles down. You're calmer,
it thickens your prefrontal cortex, which is where you do
a lot of your logical thinking and rational thinking. So
it's really good for memory and concentration. So when we
are calm, our physiology is calm, our thinking is better,
(14:43):
memory is better, which is great for studying and exams.
Concentration is better as well. So sometimes if you're feeling really anxious,
you might be tempted to work harder. And that's what
many people do. They ramp up their studying, and actually
they need to get the balance. And you really need
to see that you need to have a good level
of calmness and stability in your body to take on
(15:07):
new information.
Krutika Adatia (15:08):
Well, that really resonates because I know when I was
a student, I would just end up, when I'm feeling
anxious and I've got all these exams to revise for,
I'd want to cram more and I'd want to study more.
And what you are saying actually is that you need
to allow your body and your mind the opportunity to
calm itself down. So what things do you do to typically, Sarah,
when you are trying to calm yourself down? Let's say
(15:30):
you've had a busy day in the clinic, are there
certain things that you would advise that even our students
can do?
Sarah D. Rees (15:35):
I talk about something called our stress anchors, and I
recommend that people have about five stress anchors that they
do because we're all very individual and playing football would
not calm me down, it would stress me out, and I
just want to get away from the ball. But yoga
is great for me, seeing friends. I do do mindfulness
because you just can't ignore the evidence around it. And
(15:59):
I've got dogs, so definitely going on a dog walk.
So I have five things... And reading fiction books as
well because I always found, especially if you're studying or
you're busy with work, my ability to read fiction goes
out the window. So I really work on that, work
on the ability of my mind go into a frivolous place,
not always being serious and concentrating hard. So having five
(16:22):
stress anchors, things that you do that regulate you... I've
just started going to the sauna as well, and that
is something that I can go in a stinking bad
mood and 10 minutes later come arrive back home and like, "Okay. I feel okay." I can't... And
I'm sure cold water does it, but I'm not up
for that.
Krutika Adatia (16:39):
Oh, that's amazing. You've actually given some great examples there. So
I'm just thinking about someone listening to this that perhaps
can't sit there and meditate or have an app like
Headspace on. You are suggesting things like walking and going
to the sauna. So that's great. You're really giving a broad
spectrum of things that you can do.
Sarah D. Rees (16:56):
And I think many people struggle with mindfulness, but the thing to
remember is the more you struggle with it, the more
benefit you're going to get from it. It just means that
you're doing it with a busier mind as well. The
other thing to remember is that when we are working
really hard for our goals, that temptation to work and
overwork is very prominent, but athletes wanting to win a
(17:18):
gold medal, they have to learn that they need their
rest days because if they don't have their rest days,
then they're going to get injured. And our mental health
is exactly the same. It can be tempted to go
on and on and on, and that can be good,
easy to do in short bursts, but in long extended
periods of time... and from what I know about accountants,
they do some training for a very long time, that's
(17:39):
just not sustainable.
Krutika Adatia (17:41):
And so how important is it that once we have
a goal that we achieve to also celebrate it, right?
Sarah D. Rees (17:46):
Completely.
Krutika Adatia (17:46):
Because obviously you mentioned the accountancy journey is quite long.
There's typically around 13 exams depending on what stage of
the journey you start at. So how important is celebrating
success as well when you achieve a goal?
Sarah D. Rees (17:58):
It's hugely important. It can be really hard to do
as well. I know I say this, and maybe I'm
not always good at recognizing those small achievements, but you
need to get into the habit. And one of the
reasons you need to get into the habit is because
when you give yourself a reward, it hits the dopamine
system in your brain, which is your motivational system. It's
in a part of the brain called the nucleus accumbens,
(18:19):
and we need to keep giving our brain little hits
of dopamine, which keeps you motivation going. If you don't
give your brain that motivation and those hits of rewards,
it can be harder to keep going and striving forward.
So hugely important. So new shoes and bags and all
that stuff.
Krutika Adatia (18:39):
Sounds great.
Sarah D. Rees (18:40):
But actually in my day- to- day clinic, we can't
be going out spending and shopping and doing shopping every
single day. So what really motivates me, what I've done
sometimes is I've got two jars, one filled with marbles,
one's empty, and every time I tick something off my to-
do list, I move one marble from one jar into
the other and try and fill up the other jar.
(19:00):
And that really motivates me. It's like having little shots
of rewards. The other thing is, if I'm doing a
task where I've got to maybe read for 30 minutes
or get through so many emails in a certain amount
of time, I'll set my timer on my phone and
I'll try and beat the timer as well. So little
tips like that.
Krutika Adatia (19:18):
So really just wrapping up then, what would be three
strategies that you could summarize for setting a good goal?
Sarah D. Rees (19:26):
I think going back to the acronym that we started with,
making sure that your goals are smart. We know that
if you write down your goals, that you are 33%
more likely to achieve them, and that's been found in
the research. So write them out. I think get accountability.
Have an accountability partner, that's been shown to be very, very valuable,
(19:48):
and support yourself on the journey as well. Watch out
how you're talking to yourself and think, " Would you motivate
somebody else in this way?" If we talk to ourselves
how we talk to others, we'd all do much better.
Krutika Adatia (20:00):
Love that advice. Especially talking to yourself and the way
you talk to others. I think that's something I could probably
improve on for sure.
Sarah D. Rees (20:07):
We could all do. Yeah, absolutely.
Krutika Adatia (20:07):
Thank you so much, Sarah, for joining me today.
Sarah D. Rees (20:11):
Thank you for having me.
Krutika Adatia (20:13):
That's it from this episode of On Your Marks. For
more information about ACCA exams, you can go to www. accaglobal.com/
exams. See you next time. I'm Krutika Adatia, and this has
been On Your Marks.
I would break the textbook into chapters and set myself
target of pages per day.
Student 2 (00:06):
It's like going to the gym. You can't get a six-
pack in three months. You have to build up over
time to get it.
Student 3 (00:11):
Always little steps at the time. I'm like a turtle. Let's
say I work slowly, but I arrive to the destination.
Krutika Adatia (00:19):
Hello, I'm Krutika Adatia, and I'm a chartered accountant. I now
support accountancy students through their training, and as an educator, I'm regularly up
close and personal with some of the common issues people face
while studying for and sitting their accountancy exams. So in
this series for the ACCA, we're chatting to experts about
strategies we can all use when facing some of life's challenges,
(00:43):
whether that's booking your first accountancy exam or finding a
good work- life balance. This week we're looking at setting goals.
Do smart goals really work? Is it better to focus on
the big picture when struggling or getting through day by day?
And what techniques could help us reach our aims? This
is On Your Marks, because you'll never know until you try.
(01:09):
Now I know that the phrase, " How should I set goals,"
might instantly turn you off. But the thing is, the
reason teachers and coaches alike go on about goal setting
so much is that it can really work. I remember
when I was a student, I often felt overwhelmed with
the sheer volume of content we needed to learn for
each exam. I was working and studying at the same time,
(01:30):
which made it even more difficult because I always felt
I didn't have enough hours in the day. It was
only when I started setting more manageable goals that I
started feeling more in control of my life and my
progress in exam preparation. So to talk about how we
can all set more realistic and helpful goals today, I've
got Sarah D. Rees with me. She's a cognitive behavioural
(01:51):
therapist with over 20 years experience working in mental health,
who regularly works with clients to help them set and
achieve their mental health and personal goals. So, Sarah, do
you like setting goals and do they work for you?
Sarah D. Rees (02:05):
I absolutely love setting goals and I've had to make
them work for me. It's not come naturally. I'm somebody
that if I just set myself a goal, I would
get overwhelmed and all I saw was the goal, I'd
get anxious and I won't be able to achieve it.
So I've learned that I need to manage my goals
(02:26):
and break them down and focus a little bit more
on the strategies and the things I do to arrive
at the goal.
Krutika Adatia (02:33):
Amazing. So what does a good goal look like?
Sarah D. Rees (02:36):
A really good goal is what we often refer to
as smart. It's a smart goal. So SMART stands for
specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely. So there's a real
clear destination. It's very specific. So an a vague goal
(02:56):
might be I want to get fit, whereas a very
clear goal might be I want to be able to
go to the gym three times a week and I'll
know when I'm fit when I can run for half
an hour. So it's much more specific and it's measurable
as well. And it's realistic. If we set goals that are
too unrealistic, we can feel overwhelmed and that can shut
(03:19):
us down and reduce our motivation. They say what gets
measured gets managed. So we really need to be able
to measure our goals and see our progress towards our
goals as well.
Krutika Adatia (03:31):
I like that. So you've given an acronym there and so
it's specific, measurable-
Sarah D. Rees (03:35):
Achievable, realistic, and timely.
Krutika Adatia (03:39):
Love that. So then I guess a bad goal would
be the opposite of that.
Sarah D. Rees (03:42):
Absolutely. Really vague. A goal is about having a clear
destination and knowing exactly what that destination is so that
you know when you've arrived at that goal.
Krutika Adatia (03:53):
So then would you say as a listener to this,
their goal might be, " I want to be an accountant"?
Is that too broad?
Sarah D. Rees (04:01):
I think that's a nice goal, but it is too
broad. You need to chunk that down. What does being
an accountant mean? I guess you've got to do certain
exams and reach certain targets and milestones within that. So
that might be your overarching goal. And there's lots of
little goals underneath that and you take one by one.
Krutika Adatia (04:22):
Amazing. So having a big goal is great, but trying
to break it down into something more manageable like, " Hey,
I've got 13 exams to do. Not going to do
them all this yet. Let me space those out."
Sarah D. Rees (04:32):
Absolutely.
Krutika Adatia (04:33):
So big goal, break it down into smaller goals. Now
some people find it easier to achieve their goals and others
don't. Why is that?
Sarah D. Rees (04:44):
Many different reasons. I suppose we are all very different
and we have very tricky brains. For some people it
might be life experiences, what we've learnt about achieving goals
in our past. For some people it's self-talk, how we talk
to ourselves can have a big impact. So sometimes I
like to think of it as having a supportive inner coach.
(05:06):
If we coach ourselves supportively, we can get to our
goals a bit easier than somebody that beats ourselves up internally.
So how we talk to ourselves is important. I think
the support around you at the time and how well
your mental health and general resilience is really important. So
if you've got lots of cheerleaders around you, supporting you,
(05:27):
and a good environment, and all the pillars of health
like sleep and exercise, good nutrition, good friendships, they all
provide a really good foundation of resilience for people to
attain their goals. And I think people need accountability as well.
Krutika Adatia (05:45):
Amazing. So you've referred to some of the challenges that
individuals might face. You mentioned self- criticism or something that
might prohibit individuals from achieving their goals. You mentioned resilience.
Can you talk a little bit more about the blockers
and the challenges that individuals might face when it comes
to achieving their goals?
Sarah D. Rees (06:03):
I know I would say that in my clinic, one
of the things that people struggle with most is an inner
critic is, I think sometimes until we get awareness of
our minds and the pattern of our minds, we're not
always fully aware of how critical we can be or
how much we're hindering ourselves and holding ourselves back. So
(06:25):
we need to get more aware of our minds, and
one of the ways of doing that is through having
therapy or coaching or self- help things like journaling to
really understand the patterns of our mind. And then once
we understand our mind, we can start to make choices
over what we do.
Krutika Adatia (06:44):
So can you just tell me a little bit about
the inner self- critic and where does that come from
for most people?
Sarah D. Rees (06:49):
It's really interesting, isn't it? I think most of us
have an inner self- critic, and where it's come from
is going to be different for everybody depending on their
experiences. Sometimes if you've had a critic around you, if
you've been bullied, we can internalize critics so they become
our internal voice. And for some people we might have
(07:12):
motivated ourselves through criticism at some point and it might
have motivated us. But the problem is that what we
find is that it has such a detrimental effect on
our resilience and our mental health generally, that over time
it doesn't serve as a good tool at all. It's
correlated with higher rates of depression and anxiety. So at
(07:36):
some point you need to really think and spend time
with your mind and think how you are speaking to
yourself, how is that serving you and is it really
getting you to where you want to be? And what
I find in the work I do with people that
are high performers or really want to get to their
goals, that self- criticism gets them so far and then
(07:58):
they really need to evaluate and readjust how they talk
to themselves. So it's more like an inner supportive coach
because we know that when we support ourselves going forward,
we lift our mood, we reduce our threat levels. Your
mind is very interesting and it can't really tell between
imagination and reality. So if I'm saying to myself, " Sarah,
(08:20):
you're rubbish. You're never going to do this," my mind
will take that quite literally. It's as bad as having
somebody at the side of you going, " That's rubbish. Good."
So we really need to see how detrimental inner critics
can be.
Krutika Adatia (08:34):
So what specific strategies can help someone really combat this
critical voice that they might have inside of them?
Sarah D. Rees (08:41):
I think firstly, it's becoming really aware of it because
with awareness comes choice and the ability to change what
we do. And I think many of us, I know
one thing I hear in therapy a lot is that people,
when they start to get of the patterns of the
mind and how they're talking to themselves, they're surprised. They're
not aware of how they're talking to themselves. Now you
(09:01):
can go to therapy or you can do journaling as well.
Some people spend 10 minutes a day just writing out
their thoughts. It's really useful for times of stress and
anxiety as well because you're processing information. And when you
journal every day, you get to learn the patterns of
your mind and then you can evaluate how is this useful
(09:24):
or is this unuseful and should I change it? The
other thing I would say is for people to ask themselves, "
Is this how I would talk to somebody else?" And
if you wouldn't talk to your best friend in this way,
consider why, why wouldn't you motivate somebody else in this way?
And it's likely that you have an inner wisdom that
this wouldn't actually motivate somebody.
Krutika Adatia (09:45):
And I know, I'm just thinking about some of our
listeners today. When it comes to, let's just say, taking
an exam, do you have anything specific around dealing with
stress and the overwhelm and the pressure that a student
might face to actually pass one of their exams?
Sarah D. Rees (10:01):
We have something in our brain called the amygdala, which
is just behind the ear and our threat system is
there. It's there for our survival. And what it does is get
us to really focus in on what the problem is.
So if I have a threat that will I pass
the exam? Will I fail the exam? That's all you
end up focusing on. Will I fail? Will I fail?
(10:21):
And that narrowing of the way we think was useful
millions of years ago when there was predators out there
and we could be eaten and we'd just focus on
what the danger is. But in an exam situation, focusing
in on whether I'm going to pass or fail an
exam isn't that useful because what you need to be
(10:42):
remembering and holding in mind is all the information that
you've been studying. So actually it's really important to be
getting our stress levels down and we need to recognize
that the way stress organizes our mind and that it narrows
our thinking and it can distort our thinking as well.
So if I'm feeling anxious, I'm going to have more
anxious thoughts. If I feel unprepared for an exam, it
(11:06):
doesn't necessarily mean that I am unprepared. That can just
be anxiety. So our thoughts match our emotions sometimes and
we need to be aware of that because when you're
aware of it, you can pull yourself away from it
a little bit as well. And also, if we're under
stress a lot of the time, then we need to
be doing things that pushes into what's called the soothing system,
(11:28):
the ability to relax, to calm down, to regulate our
emotional systems so that they're balanced.
Krutika Adatia (11:35):
That's great. And so you mentioned stress and anxiety. How
are they alike and how are they different in terms
of what's happening inside our own minds and bodies, and
how students can then perhaps deal with managing those as well?
Sarah D. Rees (11:49):
Yeah. Some stress is good and it can feel like
excitement and it can be really motivating for us as
well. So it can be helpful in us getting towards
our goals. We don't want goals that are too easy
to reach because there's not as enough drive or motivation.
So causing some stress is helpful, and we're built to
(12:10):
have stress and it's a good release of a cortisol
in the body. So stress is just feeling a little
bit overloaded or pushed to your limits or getting there.
Anxiety's quite different in that. When you feel anxious, it's
a response to a fear or a threat, and then
(12:31):
your physiology kicks in because we are outdated for the
worlds we live in a little bit. So our bodies
react as though the same way they did millions of
years ago when our predators were out to kill us.
And when there is a threat, we release adrenaline and
cortisol into our body that increases our blood pressure, and
(12:52):
that organizes your mind then to narrow in and gets
a little bit distorted as well to just focus on
what the threat is. So it has a big physiological
response, but really knowing that and getting in tune with,
because some people might not know how they experience stress
and how that differs from anxiety. But if we tune
in a little bit more to our bodies and notice
(13:14):
when stress turns into anxiety, so maybe you feel warm
all the time, you're not sleeping, got heart palpitations, dry
mouth, tingling fingers, some people feel dizzy or a bit
faint, then you can think, " Okay. My blood pressure's gone
up, my body's responding to a threat." And you can
work to calm your physiology down because sometimes it's not
(13:37):
working on our thoughts. It's more important to work on
our physiology and settle our body down.
Krutika Adatia (13:42):
Oh, that's really interesting. So trying to think about how
you can calm your body. So actually just touching on
that, what strategies or recommendations would you provide for students
that are dealing with these sorts of emotions when it
comes to working towards an exam or studying for an exam?
Sarah D. Rees (13:58):
Yeah. I do think calm body equals a calm mind.
There's lots out there now, like mindfulness for example, it's
very fashionable because it's very effective. We know that if
you've never done any mindfulness and you've started today and
you're quite stressed and been anxious for some time, and
we did a brain scan today and in eight weeks time,
(14:21):
you could see the differences within your brain, your amygdala,
the threat system in your brain, actually settles down. You're calmer,
it thickens your prefrontal cortex, which is where you do
a lot of your logical thinking and rational thinking. So
it's really good for memory and concentration. So when we
are calm, our physiology is calm, our thinking is better,
(14:43):
memory is better, which is great for studying and exams.
Concentration is better as well. So sometimes if you're feeling really anxious,
you might be tempted to work harder. And that's what
many people do. They ramp up their studying, and actually
they need to get the balance. And you really need
to see that you need to have a good level
of calmness and stability in your body to take on
(15:07):
new information.
Krutika Adatia (15:08):
Well, that really resonates because I know when I was
a student, I would just end up, when I'm feeling
anxious and I've got all these exams to revise for,
I'd want to cram more and I'd want to study more.
And what you are saying actually is that you need
to allow your body and your mind the opportunity to
calm itself down. So what things do you do to typically, Sarah,
when you are trying to calm yourself down? Let's say
(15:30):
you've had a busy day in the clinic, are there
certain things that you would advise that even our students
can do?
Sarah D. Rees (15:35):
I talk about something called our stress anchors, and I
recommend that people have about five stress anchors that they
do because we're all very individual and playing football would
not calm me down, it would stress me out, and I
just want to get away from the ball. But yoga
is great for me, seeing friends. I do do mindfulness
because you just can't ignore the evidence around it. And
(15:59):
I've got dogs, so definitely going on a dog walk.
So I have five things... And reading fiction books as
well because I always found, especially if you're studying or
you're busy with work, my ability to read fiction goes
out the window. So I really work on that, work
on the ability of my mind go into a frivolous place,
not always being serious and concentrating hard. So having five
(16:22):
stress anchors, things that you do that regulate you... I've
just started going to the sauna as well, and that
is something that I can go in a stinking bad
mood and 10 minutes later come arrive back home and like, "Okay. I feel okay." I can't... And
I'm sure cold water does it, but I'm not up
for that.
Krutika Adatia (16:39):
Oh, that's amazing. You've actually given some great examples there. So
I'm just thinking about someone listening to this that perhaps
can't sit there and meditate or have an app like
Headspace on. You are suggesting things like walking and going
to the sauna. So that's great. You're really giving a broad
spectrum of things that you can do.
Sarah D. Rees (16:56):
And I think many people struggle with mindfulness, but the thing to
remember is the more you struggle with it, the more
benefit you're going to get from it. It just means that
you're doing it with a busier mind as well. The
other thing to remember is that when we are working
really hard for our goals, that temptation to work and
overwork is very prominent, but athletes wanting to win a
(17:18):
gold medal, they have to learn that they need their
rest days because if they don't have their rest days,
then they're going to get injured. And our mental health
is exactly the same. It can be tempted to go
on and on and on, and that can be good,
easy to do in short bursts, but in long extended
periods of time... and from what I know about accountants,
they do some training for a very long time, that's
(17:39):
just not sustainable.
Krutika Adatia (17:41):
And so how important is it that once we have
a goal that we achieve to also celebrate it, right?
Sarah D. Rees (17:46):
Completely.
Krutika Adatia (17:46):
Because obviously you mentioned the accountancy journey is quite long.
There's typically around 13 exams depending on what stage of
the journey you start at. So how important is celebrating
success as well when you achieve a goal?
Sarah D. Rees (17:58):
It's hugely important. It can be really hard to do
as well. I know I say this, and maybe I'm
not always good at recognizing those small achievements, but you
need to get into the habit. And one of the
reasons you need to get into the habit is because
when you give yourself a reward, it hits the dopamine
system in your brain, which is your motivational system. It's
in a part of the brain called the nucleus accumbens,
(18:19):
and we need to keep giving our brain little hits
of dopamine, which keeps you motivation going. If you don't
give your brain that motivation and those hits of rewards,
it can be harder to keep going and striving forward.
So hugely important. So new shoes and bags and all
that stuff.
Krutika Adatia (18:39):
Sounds great.
Sarah D. Rees (18:40):
But actually in my day- to- day clinic, we can't
be going out spending and shopping and doing shopping every
single day. So what really motivates me, what I've done
sometimes is I've got two jars, one filled with marbles,
one's empty, and every time I tick something off my to-
do list, I move one marble from one jar into
the other and try and fill up the other jar.
(19:00):
And that really motivates me. It's like having little shots
of rewards. The other thing is, if I'm doing a
task where I've got to maybe read for 30 minutes
or get through so many emails in a certain amount
of time, I'll set my timer on my phone and
I'll try and beat the timer as well. So little
tips like that.
Krutika Adatia (19:18):
So really just wrapping up then, what would be three
strategies that you could summarize for setting a good goal?
Sarah D. Rees (19:26):
I think going back to the acronym that we started with,
making sure that your goals are smart. We know that
if you write down your goals, that you are 33%
more likely to achieve them, and that's been found in
the research. So write them out. I think get accountability.
Have an accountability partner, that's been shown to be very, very valuable,
(19:48):
and support yourself on the journey as well. Watch out
how you're talking to yourself and think, " Would you motivate
somebody else in this way?" If we talk to ourselves
how we talk to others, we'd all do much better.
Krutika Adatia (20:00):
Love that advice. Especially talking to yourself and the way
you talk to others. I think that's something I could probably
improve on for sure.
Sarah D. Rees (20:07):
We could all do. Yeah, absolutely.
Krutika Adatia (20:07):
Thank you so much, Sarah, for joining me today.
Sarah D. Rees (20:11):
Thank you for having me.
Krutika Adatia (20:13):
That's it from this episode of On Your Marks. For
more information about ACCA exams, you can go to www. accaglobal.com/
exams. See you next time. I'm Krutika Adatia, and this has
been On Your Marks.
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