CPA Exam Preparation: Your Mindset

In this video we're going to cover why your mindset will be the number one

factor in you passing your CPA exams or not. And we won't just talk about your

mindset and think positive and that kind of stuff. We will actually walk through a

simple exercise you can do in three to five minutes that will give you

unlimited focus and motivation each day when you sit down to study. Now talking

about mindset and motivation and things like that, that might seem kind of dumb

to you if you're just starting the CPA study process, but I promise you if you

haven't struggled with motivation yet, you will. If you're a few months into the

process then you're probably very familiar with how big of a factor motivation becomes. Now from the beginning it is crucial that you make

the all-in commitment, that you're willing to do whatever it takes to pass

your exams, you're going to grind every day, you're going to do whatever it takes

on a daily basis, and you're committing up front to your test dates that you're

not going to push them back unless something catastrophic happens. But just

because you don't feel ready, you don't ever get to that point because you're

going to commit to the daily study process. And in the next video we're

going to talk about what that daily process looks like to be successful, but

the point of this video is to make that all-in commitment up front, that you are

not going to let up or relent until you are done and you have that fourth

passing score. So for me I thought I was committed and I was actually putting in

the time each day, putting in the effort. The problem was I didn't really have my

study process grooved in or figured out, but I went in, I took the first section

which was FAR and then I ended up failing that section and it was getting

that failing score that really solidified this commitment factor. After that I doubled down after a few days of thinking about giving up. I doubled down

and I just fully committed that I would do whatever it took and not stop. And I

did not take a single day off from studying until I had my fourth passing

score after that. Once I started again, I did switch to some of my own ideas for

studying out of necessity because I had started working full-time. I only had two

hours a day to study. I did that but it was that commitment that was the biggest

factor, that I never took a day off. I didn't miss any main sessions and then I

did this thing that I'll explain in a later video called mini sessions

throughout the day. I did those every chance I got and I ended up passing all

four sections in three months after that. One three-month period I passed all four

And I'm not super smart, I'm not a genius. I was middle of the pack at best in my

master's program. So anyone can apply these strategies and get extraordinary and fast results from just doing things a little bit differently. But really it's

going to be about that commitment, never relenting, never letting up, and kind of

being a psycho about your studying until you get that fourth passing score. The

next thing you want to do is get very specific about your why. Why are you

doing this? What is the big reason for you personally that's going to push you

through the daily study sessions and grind through, especially on the days

when the last thing you feel like doing is sitting down and studying CPA

material for a few hours? Everyone has a personal reason. Everyone knows the

obvious reasons, right? Your career ceiling will be higher. You have access

to the best job offers, the best career opportunities once you have your CPA, the

lifetime higher career earnings. All of that is given and that's obvious once you have your CPA. But the specific reason that might really

motivate you can be one of a hundred different things. It might just be a

personal goal that you have or it's just you want the achievement of finishing

these exams. For me, again, once I failed that first section and had a very good

taste of what the process is really like and how much work it is, the main

motivating factor to me was to simply pass the four exams and to have the

study process out of my life forever. So let's get to that free worksheet that I

mentioned or the free exercise. So when you register for one of our free study

trainings, this is the training guide that you will download right after you

register. This is on the countdown page where it just shows you the countdown

until your specific session is going to start. Also the registration email that

you'll get has a link to this. So this first page is just kind of what to

expect from the training, why this is important, why this training is different

than anything you've heard or seen before about the CPA study process. And

again, what you're going to learn in the actual training session is the study

framework that we teach to our clients and customers about how to do these two

hour main study sessions each day where you're getting more done in a much more

effective format than what most people are doing in four or five or even six

hours. So you just aim for a two hour main session, ideally in the morning. And

the training will go through all that. But basically you learn exactly what to do when you sit down with your review course each day. So it doesn't matter if

you're using Becker or CPA Excel or Roger or whatever it is, you take the

study framework from this training and you apply it to your main study sessions

with your review course. Now this is the part of the document I was referring to

This is based on proven psychology, ways to stay motivated, keep your brain on

track for a major goal. It's basically a positive frame and then a negative frame

So your top five reasons why you specifically want to pass your CPA exams

Why I'm working so hard to pass my exams. You'll see this document. You can click

right in here and type right into the PDF. And then you would want to actually

print this out, print this page out and pin it or tape it on the wall where you

study. So basically eye level. So whenever you kind of look up you see this

document and you're just reminded constantly of why you're doing this, why

it's important to you. And then on the other side you write out in a negative

way what will or won't happen if you don't pass your exams. You know like I

won't get that promotion that I'm aiming for or I won't have that lifelong career

ceiling that I'm planning on with my CPA. So you write out your personal reasons

from a positive perspective and then the same thing from a negative

perspective. And this one document, this will make it easy to sit down each day

and get right into your study session, not procrastinate, stay on track, stay

focused and stay motivated. And then this also comes with a bonus goal and reward

framework that you can work through on your own. Basically this deals with

physically kind of rewarding yourself after each past section and you do this

in a certain way. This will add other layers of motivation and makes it

especially after you've passed at least one section, makes things incredibly motivating. And you'll just have to, I won't get into this right now. Anyways

register for one of the free training sessions. This is an hour that can

literally save you months and months of time and frustration and in a very real

way help you pass your exams faster. So register for a session and I will see

you on the training