Attitude is Everything…Especially During Tax Season

Posted by Traci WheelercloseAuthor: Traci Wheeler Name: Traci Wheeler
Email: traci@redmoonsolutions.com
Site: http://blog.redmoonsolutions.com
About: Traci is a member of the executive leadership team and leads our sales and marketing efforts at Red Moon Solutions. She has over ten years of software business experience serving small and large clients in a variety of industries.See Authors Posts (120) on Feb 1, 2012 | 6 comments

Last summer, my oldest son, Garrett, joined a U9 Academy soccer team to work on his skills and start transitioning toward more competitive play.  Needless to say, we have spent countless hours at the soccer field for practice and traveled every Saturday to compete against local teams in our area.  One of the things that has shocked me throughout this experience is the bad attitude of some of the kids on opposing teams and even more shockingly, some of the parents.   Regardless of how my son plays or whether his team wins or loses, my husband and I have always tried to impress upon him the importance of a good attitude.  In fact, we have gone so far as to tell him if he doesn’t exhibit a positive attitude and good sportsmanship, we will personally walk out on the field and take him off.

While playing soccer is not the same as working in a tax department, all tax professionals at one time or another can succumb to the pressures of being under a tremendous amount of stress during tax season.   There are long days.  Most times there is more work than bodies to get it done.  Data is manipulated, worked and re-worked.   Software is utilized to its fullest capacity.  It is understandable that stress would be at an all-time high.  However, I think it is important to have a reminder that it will be your attitude that determines what kind of tax season you have.  It can either be miserable and stressful and you can dread getting out of bed in the morning.  Or, it can be bearable, less consuming and you can look for the silver lining in everything you do.

This summer we took a family vacation to Isle of Palms outside of Charleston.  On one of our day trips into Charleston with the boys, we stopped to eat lunch at Hyman’s Seafood.  The food was good, and we had a great time, but one thing really stood out about the place.  It was the employees.  During our meal, we had amazing service from our waiter, but we also had a number of other employees and managers stop by our table to check on the food, our experience and chat with us and the kids.  There was definitely one thing that was different about the people that were working at Hyman’s.  It was their attitude, and it showed!

As we were walking out of the restaurant, I picked up a magnet that had the Hyman’s Seafood motto, a quote from Chuck Swindoll, by the register.  It read:

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.  Attitude, to me, is more important than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do.  It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill.  It will make or break a company…a church…a home.  The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we embrace for that day.  We cannot change our past…we cannot change the fact that people act in a certain way.  We cannot change the inevitable.  The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have…and that is our attitude.  I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.  And so it is with you….we are in charge of our ATTITUDES.

How important do you think attitude is to the kind of tax season you will have?  What kind of changes will you make during tax season to keep a positive attitude?  I would love to hear from you, so please share your thoughts in the comments below.