Depression and Burn out - ways to stop it

Most accounting students  like me seems to be experiencing an epidemic of problems such as depression and burnout.

In my experience as an accountancy student - a president of our class, a member of JPIA  and now as a graduating student who is soon to be a CPA, students like me have  different levels of these problems, from depression bad enough to be actively planning to stop accountancy, to more vague thoughts of whether it is worth going on with it all.

Sometimes it's been more about losing confidence with what they are doing. As I've explored their situations I've found there are 3 key factors to stopping this state of depression and feeling burn-out.

1) Set goals with a pre-determined end point -- Life and study can't just be an endless marathon. You need to have sprints as well as rest periods, and have some finish lines along the way to the top to become a CPA which is the ultimate goal of every accountancy students. Otherwise the only rest you get is when you collapse from exhaustion, and it's better if you can do that on the other side of a finish line.


2) Have a bigger purpose in mind -- Life is not just about filling your days with whatever happens to get your attention, and yet there is so much around to choose from. With a bigger purpose you can select what is important for you, or it can be the other way around, what is important to you can be your bigger purpose.

Now it doesn't have to be an overly grand purpose, like topping the departmental exam or whatsoever. It does however need to be something that brings out the passion in you to help you take the day-to-day bumps and the obstacles that are in your way.

3) Create results that last beyond that day -- This is the most important one in my experience as a student. You need to build some cumulative benefits to the work you do each day. Otherwise every day is starting from scratch yet again, and it will just feel like you are "never getting anywhere", because you truly won't be. 


Each of these 3 aspects are vital. Missing even one of them will give you more stress than you need, and if you don't have any of them then you are very likely to be reading this because you are really needing help, starting with these 3 changes. Begin today and enjoy accounting.