november2021 - 17

THE MILLENNIAL ADVISOR
Every Action Matters
GARRETT WAGNER, CPA
CEO/Founder, C3 Evolution Group
garrett.wagner@cpapracticeadvisor.com
" FOR EVERY ACTION, there is an equal and opposite reaction. " This famous quote from 1687
is part of Sir Isaac Newton's laws of motion that are still today seen as the cornerstone
of our understanding of modern physics and how the world works. What makes this law
so interesting is that it applies both to our environment as well as many of our decisions.
We saw a clear example of this over the past two years as we all dealt with once in a
lifetime changes, choices, and equal and opposite reactions.
For every decision we make, for
every time we chose A over B, our
outcome is fixed. In order to choose
A we opted to not chose B. The equal
and opposite reaction is the result of
the decisions we make and what we
didn't do.
Be it decisions we make personally
or at the organizational level, we are
often faced with one of two choices.
Do we focus on A, the short term, what
needs to get done today (emergencies),
or do we focus on B, the long term, and
plan for the future? The more time we
spend dealing with emergencies, the
less time we have to plan for the future
and plan to prevent future emergencies.
Long term success is created when
we spend time planning for success.
Over the past two years, people
and organizations of all sizes focused
on the short term. After all, in a time of
chaos, our focus is narrowed to getting
through each day. What this means is
that we chose not to focus on the long
term. What choice did we have?
The equal and opposite reaction
is now coming to the surface. What
we are seeing both at the individual
level and in organizations of all sizes
are all those items we put off from
option B are now resulting in negative
consequences that we did not think
about before. You have probably begun
to see these effects around you: a lack
of planning, training, or preparedness
are piling up.
The most common opposite reaction
we are seeing from firms when
they picked option A, is they greatly
reduced the amount of new staff
training done over the past two years
and now are seeing all those new staff
accountants being far less effective
than might be expected. Too often
these firms are placing the blame on
the new staff failing to understand the
reaction to the choice the firm made.
So given this, let's explore our
decision-making process and how to
move forward. Surely choosing option
A wasn't all that bad was it?
OPTION A
By choosing this option, most of us
made the decision to focus on the
challenges that were in front of us each
and every day. This meant dealing with
the changing landscape, different rules
about where and when we could work,
and a barrage of legal and legislative
changes on the federal and state level.
After all, if we failed to get any
work done over the past two years
and failed to stay in business, all those
pesky long term issues would not have
mattered anyways.
On the positive side, by focusing on
the short term you were able to get all
your work done and most importantly
and for many the first time ever, you
were able to quickly adapt to the
new challenges that came your way.
Sometimes it is important to think
about the positives and not just the
negatives. Acknowledge all the positive
changes you have made, how quickly
you adapted, and most importantly
don't go back. But as I mentioned
earlier, you are always left with an
opposite reaction.
OPTION B
For option B, we choose to spend time
each day focusing on the future. Steven
Covey famously noted in his book,
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,
that by focusing on the long term
with your time on a daily basis, your
effectiveness increases dramatically.
Your crises and problems shrink to
manageable proportions because
you are thinking ahead and doing the
preventive things that keep situations
from developing into crises in the first
place.
If we are only focused on the next
emergency or deadline we never make
time to plan for the future and create
lasting change. Given that we already
made our choice, the real question here
is what do we do now.
NEXT STEP:
While we cannot change the past,
what we can do is learn from the
past and correct our behavior today.
For all those organizations and firms
who picked option A and as a result
provided less staff training over the
past two years, they now need an equal
and opposite reaction, more training.
No matter what negative consequence
you are seeing around you, the
solution is the same, a shift to focus
on the long term.
We need to spend more time on the
long term, growth, vision, and training.
We need to do things each day to help
us get ready for the future, get ready
for the next deadline and get ready for
the next disruption to occur.
Going back to the positive aspect
of picking A, we learned to adapt and
evolve. We can now continue to use
those skills and spend more time
planning for the future, making up
for time lost doing this over the past
and charting a path to success.
The time is now to focus on future,
so that the reaction to your decision
is success and not failure. ■
NOVEMBER 2021 ■ www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com
17

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