Those are infamous last words of a manager that I had years ago. Let me give you a little backstory. I had taken a job in Fintech. I really loved the company. I love the founder. I loved her mission. We had an amazing group of executive women who were just power houses.

It was one of those points in my life where I was probably going through a seven year cycle. I'm not sure if you have had those in your life, but there seem to be these periods of time where you learn the same or similar lessons over and over again and they keep getting served up to you until you get it.

So anyway, there were many requirements in this job due to the nature of handling peoples finances and making recommendations about how they should handle their money. The first step was to obtain securities licenses. I had some securities licenses from my prior role. I snagged one more when I onboarded with this company.  The next step was to obtain a more advanced designation, that designation is CFP®.

If you're not familiar with that designation, CFP® stands for CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER ™️. That role in of itself is probably a topic for another day. What's important to note here is that that designation typically takes 12 to 18 months. It's rigorous, as there are many areas of finance that you must be fluent in in order to pass this exam and obtain the designation. The exam itself is all day and only held a few times per year. The average pass rate is 64%.

I knew that I was going to obtain this designation. I knew it.  It was actually one of the reasons why I had left my former employer, and was now working for this Fintech company. Ironically the reason I hadn't worked towards the designation in my previous company was not all together that different of a story, but I digress.  The manager that I worked at this Fintech was not of the aforementioned powerhouse women executives. That's actually important to note because for better or worse, the story could have gone quite differently.

During my one on one I asked my manager "How quickly do you think I could sit for the CFP board exam?" He responded by asking whenI would like to sit for the exam? This conversation happened in late November. As it happened, the next exam was in March. So obviously, if you know anything about me, you know I was going to sit for the March exam. I had already made up my mind. I was working out logistics. It seemed slightly daunting, but I'm always up for a challenge.

Now here's where it gets interesting. This manager looked me dead square in the eyes and said "You can't sit for the exam in March. You can't. You can't do it."

And so it was written.

Not only was I going to sit for that exam, I made it my personal mission to pass that exam. That meant that over the course of the next four months, I had to complete all of the requisite courses, complete a capstone, take a review course, and study for an all day exam.

Little known fact, while I was working full-time and studying to take this exam, I was also working part time at night. I was determined to change my situation. I also just don't like being told what to do.

I share this story with you for a handful of reasons. If you're reading this odds are you also do not like to be told what you're capable of.  If you've landed in my corner of the internet, you are probably a high achiever, maybe a little bit intense, and looking for something more for yourself.

I also share this because while names have been omitted, it's important to take a step back and see that the experience of being told I wasn't good enough, that it wasn't impossible, and that nobody had done it so I surely would not could certainly have been taken negatively. This isn't that kind of story.

This story is about sunshine, your own capabilities, and seeing what's possible for you and your life even when others do not.

You cannot change your circumstances if you stay where you're at. If you want your life to look a whole lot different then you have to take massive action.  There's a lot of fear in the world. It would be easy to spin up a story about all of the things that you should be scared of, if that's what you're looking for, this just isn't a place for you.

I hope today's story time leaves you feeling strong, capable, unstoppable, and ready to take massive action to shift your life.

Oh, and if you're wondering…

I finished my coursework, my capstone, my review course, and I sat for that exam. And you know what? As it turns out it is possible to obtain that particular designation and just over four months.

Until next time, my friend. -Darcie