Austin is a NINJA CPA Blogger.

I’m 32 years old and I guess I should have learned this lesson a long time ago and long before I became a NINJA, but that isn’t the case. I just learned it this week.

Quit beating yourself up when study time gets bumped.

I had a plan on Monday night. I was going to ride my bike for an hour and then eat dinner and then grab my 2 hours of Late studying. Instead, I came home to a toilet that wouldn’t stop running.

After an hour of diagnoses and another hour and a half of hardware store, replacing toilet parts, and cleaning up the mess…the night was just about over and I hadn’t eaten dinner yet.

I could feel the familiar, “You let a night of studying get taken up by the toilet, you moron,” internal speech coming on, but strangely I didn’t let it get that far. I just looked at my calendar, realized I had plenty of time this weekend to “make up” the hours and moved on.

I hope you guys can get there way before I did at 32. Give yourself permission to address necessary things. (Duck Dynasty is NOT a necessary thing.)

It’s okay if your child is sick and you miss an hour of studying to help care for them, it’s okay when your toilet is broken to fix it, and of course it’s okay to go to dinner on your birthday instead of study.

Just be careful my fellow NINJAs not to turn everything into a necessary thing. Stick to the NINJA method, allow some time for unexpected necessities, and keep studying.