Before I get started, just a quick heads-up about the Monthly Group Coaching Program for accountants that meets every month. We meet on the third Friday of every month at 12 pm EST, and it’s a great space to get support, grow, and connect with others who get what you’re going through. 

In January, we’re turning our attention forward—but not with pressure or unrealistic resolutions. We’re going to talk about setting meaningful goals that actually matter to you—goals that are grounded in your values, your energy, and your season of life.

Goal setting isn’t just about deciding what you want to accomplish — it’s about getting clear on why it matters to you, identifying what might stand in your way, and deciding how you’ll follow through when things get tough.

Besides the group session, I also provide a workbook that will walk you through a simple, 5-step goal-setting process that helps you create a meaningful goal and make a realistic plan to achieve it — without relying on willpower or motivation alone.

I’d love to see you start off this New Year on the right foot so if you’re interested in joining us, simply email at dawn@thesmarteraccountant.com and I’ll send you the details.

Okay, let’s get started with this week’s episode…

You wake up, go to work, do your thing, come home, and then do it all again. At some point you think, “Wait… I don’t even like this. Why am I still doing it?”

I’ve been there. Most accountants have.

Sometimes it feels like life is just happening on its own. You look up and think, “Did I choose this… or did it just happen?”

For example, maybe you keep saying yes at work even when you’re already stretched thin. You don’t like it, but it’s what you’ve always done.

Or maybe you stay in a job or task that drains you. But it feels familiar, so you stick with it.

It’s okay if you’ve felt that. Nothing is wrong with you.

A lot of us think we make choices because they’re the “right” ones. But honestly, the truth is that most of the time we just choose what feels familiar.

Why?  Because familiar feels safe. Even when it’s not actually helping us.

It’s like an old pair of shoes. Maybe they don’t fit anymore, but your foot still slips into them out of habit. You know them. They don’t surprise you.

I just got a brand new pair of slippers for Christmas but I found myself automatically putting on the old ones even though they’re completely beat up.  I was just laughing about that the other day.

Well, the thing is, life works the same way. We go back to what we know, even if we want things to change.

Trying something new can feel big and weird. Even if it might make life better, it still feels… uncertain.

And uncertainty can feel scary. It’s like stepping out on a wobbly bridge. You can feel the pull to turn around.

So your mind says, “Let’s go back to what we know.” And boom — you’re doing the same thing again.

That doesn’t mean you’re weak. It doesn’t mean you’ve failed.

It’s just how the mind works. It likes what feels sure.

Even if “sure” is stressful. Even if “sure” isn’t fun.

For example, maybe you’ve said, “Next week I’ll change this.” Then next week shows up, and… nothing happens.

I’ve done that more times than I can count. And I used to be so hard on myself for it.

You might even think you’re not strong enough or ready. But that’s not true.

You’re just used to the way things have been. It’s the same path your mind has walked for a long time.

The interesting thing is that your brain thinks it’s helping you. It sees the old way as safe, simply because it knows it.

But that can make life feel stuck. You feel the pull toward something better, yet you stay where you are.

The truth is that it’s confusing to want change and still repeat the same patterns. It can be frustrating, and honestly, a little lonely.

But please hear this: nothing is wrong with you. You’re not broken.

Your mind is doing what minds do. It’s trying to protect you.

And here’s the interesting thing — once you understand what’s going on, everything starts to feel lighter. You stop fighting with yourself so much.

Have you ever felt like part of you wants something new, but the other part just wants to keep things the same? Yeah… that’s being human.

There’s a gentle way to handle that. A way that doesn’t beat you up, but helps you see what’s really going on inside.

That’s what we’re going to talk about today.

Why Familiar Feels “Right” (Even When It’s Not)

Here’s the problem in a nutshell: your brain cares more about feeling certain than feeling better. It wants to know what’s going to happen, even if what’s going to happen isn’t that great.

Because of that, familiar often gets labeled as “safe.” It doesn’t matter if the familiar thing is stressful, messy, or slowing you down. If your brain knows it, your brain trusts it.

Think about how often this shows up at work. Maybe you still follow an old process because the team has “always done it this way.” Even if it takes twice as long as it should, it feels easier to keep doing it than to try something new.

Or maybe you’ve stayed in a job you’ve already outgrown. You might tell yourself you don’t have time to look for something better or that now isn’t the right moment. But if you’re being honest, it just feels less scary to stay where you are than to step into the unknown.

This can show up with technology too. You might avoid new software or tools because learning them feels uncomfortable. You know the old way isn’t great… but it’s familiar, so it wins.

And time habits are the same story. You might keep squeezing tasks into random free moments, telling yourself it’ll all get done somehow. You’re tired of the chaos, but changing the routine feels overwhelming, so you don’t.

In all of these situations, your brain is doing the same thing. It’s mixing up “familiar” with “correct,” and it repeats the pattern without question. You end up walking the same path over and over, even when it doesn’t feel good.

The truth is that you’re not stuck because you’re doing something wrong. You’re stuck because your brain is wired to choose what it already knows.

So, now let’s talk about why this becomes such a problem—especially for accountants trying to grow and feel better at work.

Why Settling for Familiar Keeps You Stuck

This becomes a real problem because choosing familiar over better keeps you stuck, both at work and in your personal life. In other words, you miss chances to grow because it feels safer to stay where you are than to do something new.

When you keep repeating the same patterns, your skills stay the same too. That makes it harder to move forward in your career, try new roles, or even enjoy your work more. Life starts to feel smaller, even when you want more.

Over time, this gets pretty tiring. You might feel burned out because you’re stuck in a way of working that you don’t like, but changing it feels too hard. There’s this feeling of, “I hate working like this… but I don’t know how to do it differently.”

This is also where procrastination and overthinking sneak in. You might make long to-do lists or think about making changes, but never take a step. Thinking becomes easier than doing because doing feels uncertain.

It’s important to understand that it’s easy to start tolerating stress simply because it’s familiar. Stress begins to feel normal. You might not even notice it anymore because you’ve lived with it so long.

The hard part is that this comfort-with-stress makes you miss opportunities that could help you feel better. A new tool, a new role, a new boundary… all of those things could help. But stepping into something new can feel uncomfortable, so you talk yourself out of it.

Little by little, you drift into a reactive mode. Instead of choosing what you want, you respond to whatever comes at you. You tell yourself you’re picking what’s easier, but really, you’re just picking what you already know.

That’s how “easier” turns into “more of the same.” You stay in patterns not because they’re good, but because they’re familiar. And the longer you stay there, the harder it feels to break out.

Okay, now that you see why this is such a big deal, let’s look at what’s actually happening inside your brain.

What Your Brain Is Really Trying To Do

Here’s something helpful to know: your brain’s main job is to keep you alive. It cares way more about safety than progress.

To your brain, anything familiar feels safe. Anything uncertain feels risky, even if it might make your life better.

That’s why your brain would rather repeat a pattern that makes you stressed than try something new that it can’t predict. It’s not trying to hold you back — it’s trying to protect you the only way it knows how.

Inside all of us, there’s a fast, automatic part of the mind I call the Toddler Brain. It loves habits and sameness. It wants to stick with what it knows.

Then there’s the Supervising Parent Brain. This part is calmer and more thoughtful. It helps you make choices on purpose instead of reacting without thinking.

When you feel stuck, it usually means the Toddler Brain is running the show. It doesn’t like change because change feels uncomfortable. But discomfort is a normal part of growth.

Smarter Accountants start paying attention to simple questions, like: “Am I doing this because it’s helpful… or just because it’s familiar?” That tiny awareness opens the door to better choices.

The truth is that real growth lives in uncertainty. When things feel new, your brain is learning new patterns. That’s where change begins.

You can teach your brain that new doesn’t have to mean scary. You can help it feel safe while still trying new things one small step at a time.

The big shift to remember is this: familiar doesn’t always mean right. And unfamiliar doesn’t always mean wrong.

Once you understand that, you can start making choices that help you grow — not just choices that keep you where you’ve always been.

Now let’s look at a real story of how this shows up.

Becoming a Smarter Accountant: Breaking The Familiar Cycle

I once worked with a client who always felt buried at work. She wasn’t behind because she lacked skill — she was behind because she kept doing everything the same old way.

Her workflow was stressful, jam-packed, and had no breathing room. But she stuck with it because it was what she knew.

She would say things like, “I want to try a better system, but it feels like too much work to change.” She felt the same way about delegating — it sounded harder than just doing it herself.

So she kept repeating the same routine, even though it left her exhausted. Part of her knew there had to be a better way, but the familiar pattern always won.

The turning point came when she learned why she kept resisting change. When she saw that her hesitation wasn’t a personal flaw — it was her brain choosing what felt familiar — everything softened.

She stopped beating herself up. She took one small step instead of trying to change everything at once.

She started by giving one task to someone else. That was it. One task.

It felt uncomfortable at first, but she stayed with it. And slowly, things shifted.

Her stress dropped. She felt more in control. And she actually got more done.

What once seemed impossible suddenly felt doable, all because she understood her own mind better. She stopped seeing herself as the problem and started seeing the old pattern as the problem.

Now that you’ve seen how small shifts can make a big difference, let’s pull everything together.

Key Takeaway and Action Item

If you remember one thing from this episode, let it be this: your brain is not trying to hold you back — it’s trying to protect you. It chooses the familiar because familiar feels safe, even when it’s not helpful.

Once you understand that, everything feels a little easier. You can stop blaming yourself for staying in old patterns and start gently guiding your brain toward something better.

You don’t need to change everything overnight. Small steps count. What matters most is noticing when you’re choosing something just because it feels familiar.

That simple awareness opens the door to better choices.

A question to ask yourself this week is, “Am I doing this because it’s helpful… or just because it feels familiar?”

This question works because it slows everything down. It gives your Supervising Parent Brain a chance to step in and take the wheel.

When you ask this, you’re not judging yourself. You’re just getting curious. You’re giving yourself a moment to see what’s really going on.

If the answer is “just familiar,” that’s okay. It means you’ve spotted the pattern. And once you can see a pattern, you can change it — gently, one small step at a time.

This is how you start moving from automatic choices to intentional ones. And that’s when life begins to feel lighter, calmer, and more on purpose.

Next, let me share a personal story about how I can relate to this topic.

Pulling Back the Curtain

Pulling back the curtain…

I want to share a moment from my own life because I’ve been right where you are. There was a time when I stayed in a work routine that left me drained, frustrated, and feeling like I was always behind.

I knew there were better ways to do things. I knew I could try new tools, set clearer boundaries, or ask for help. But honestly? The old way felt easier — even though it wasn’t working.

It felt familiar. And familiar felt safe.

I told myself, “I’m used to this. I know how to handle it.” But deep down, I also knew I was tired of feeling stuck.

For a long time, I thought the problem was me — that I just wasn’t organized enough or strong enough to change. I thought other people had something I didn’t.

But once I learned how the brain clings to what it knows, everything clicked. It wasn’t that I couldn’t change. It was that my brain thought it was protecting me.

That shift made all the difference.  I stopped fighting myself and started taking small steps instead.

And those small steps became a turning point. Life felt lighter. I felt more in control. And slowly, things got better — not because I changed everything at once, but because I understood my mind and worked with it.

I share this because I want you to know you’re not alone. We all have moments where the familiar feels safer, even when it isn’t helping us anymore.

If this episode spoke to you, I’d love to help you go even deeper.  You can start by taking The Smarter Accountant Quiz at https://thesmarteraccountant.com/ to get insight into how your brain may be holding you back.

And if you want personal help making these shifts, you can schedule a free 30-minute call with me at https://thesmarteraccountant.com/calendar/. We’ll talk about what’s going on for you and how you can move forward in a calmer, more intentional way.

And if you know another accountant who might need this message, please share the episode with them.  Sometimes one simple share can help someone else feel less alone.

The truth is that you’re already smart.  But this podcast, I promise, will show you how to be smarter.