I am spending the first 3 weeks studying for a series 6 exam to get a license to sell mutual funds. I've never taken a business class in my life, so this is my first exposure to this type of material. It's interesting but I'm a bit overwhelmed at how much I need to know in a short time. There is a group of recruits learning this alongside me. We are all in the trenches together, studying all day long at our desks then going home to study for a few hours every night. It's a lot of time and effort.
My sponsor kind of threw me for a loop today. She was disappointed that I'm missing a meeting tonight (to study). She says what ever you put before sobriety you lose; sobriety comes first. She's going to be disappointed for the next two and a half weeks til I take this exam. She doesn't seem to understand the time and effort involved because she was also upset that I didn't offer to do service at a meeting this month. She also told me that I say Im "too busy" to put up walls.
In the past I would have amplified my stress over our misunderstanding, pulled people into my emotional whirlwind (or at least tried to), and frankly drank over it. Today I felt the stress. As it grew, I figured out how to modulate it. Then I processed through the problem, brainstormed a few solutions, and moved back on to my work.
Can I run them by the Febbies? I could:
- ignore what she said
- tell her that I don't like the meeting she wants me to do service at, that I just go to make her happy, and that id do service if it were at the meeting I preferred to be at that day
- tell her I prefer a different meeting and leave out the service part
- explain the overtime hours needed to study for the test outside of work, and tell her that my career hinges on it so it's nonnegotiable for me me to skip studying
- i agree sobriety is important but I don't think she realizes that I have an ongoing daily discussion about sobriety on SR. I don't want to give up my online anonymity to her, though. (Giving it up to someone in real life is different than developing an outside friendship with existing, active SR users).
Let me know what you think. Even though I haven't been able to post every day this week with all the studying I'm doing, I am still thinking of everyone here daily. I love you guys!