This Too Shall Pass

We hear this saying all the time, this too shall pass. However, as much as we've heard it, these words can easily evade us when we need them the most. After a long journey of schooling, grinding, sacrificing, and jumping over so many hurdles, we can feel extremely weary by the time we start studying for our licensing exams. Burnout can take us to a very dark place within our minds. Although experts say studying should take about three to six months, we can easily lose sight of this when we're in the thick of it. This is especially true if we have failed the exam multiple times and have lost hope of passing. So often test takers will say things like “I just feel like this is going to take forever”. Usually, they're knee deep in the note taking phase and feel completely overwhelmed when they utter these words.  As a coach who has successfully made it through this process and supported many others to do the same, I can clearly see that this shall pass; however, for those who are still in the middle of it, it truly doesn't feel that way at times.

I heard once that people can make it through anything if they know it won't last forever.  Once we begin to believe that something is endless, we can quickly find ourselves on the fast track to hopelessness. It's so troubling as a coach to see people in this place, especially when you know that they can get through it. Have you found yourself feeling that this test taking process will never end? Do you sometimes think you will be writing notes forever? Please know that you are not alone in this, but you're going to have to do some serious work on managing your thinking patterns if you're going to make it through this process. When you find yourself thinking these thoughts that include words like never and always, it's important that you take a pause to check in with yourself to see what triggered you to begin to think this way. Did you take a moment before you started the study session to release the stress of the day and connect with your hopes and dreams for the future? Did you get enough sleep the night before? Are you trying to force yourself to study at a time in your life when you're going through too many personal challenges? During this process you must be on top of your thinking and constantly examining it as this process can and will activate negative and intense thoughts and emotions.

So keep these things in mind:

1.      Feelings are not facts.  When you have a thought like “I am going to be taking notes forever,” don’t let that thought carry on.  Ask yourself, is that really a fact? “Will I really write notes for the rest of my life?”

2.      Replace these thoughts with more helpful ones such as “yes, note taking is challenging and time consuming, but this won’t last forever, and I’ll be so glad I did this.”

3.      Start your study sessions on the right foot. Use the strategies you learned in The Master Plan Audio Program to get yourself in the right headspace from the start!

4.      Lastly, tell yourself every single day… “this too shall pass.”