Practicing Resilience as a Byproduct of Discipline, Focus, and Determination

Josephine 'Josie' Guico Villanueva served as President of the Association of Government Accountants (AGA) Guam Chapter for the 2022-2023 program year. This article is adapted from her President's Message, published in AGA's Guahan Gaseta. 

Have you ever been in a position where your mind just keeps playing the things you should be doing and yet you have done nothing at all? You just procrastinate, imagine the details, and just get overwhelmed and consumed by it? Talking from my own personal experience, this is a common struggle for me where discipline and focus are out of the window. How do you develop that resilience as a byproduct of discipline, focus, and determination?

A lot happened in the month of September and there are significant events that we in the accountants and finance world can draw lessons from.

The Throwback:

I would like to make a tribute to Ms. Lourdes “Lou” Rodriguez Perez in this section of my message. She died on September 3 at the age of 57. She was a member of AGA for 31 years and had served in various capacities and one of them was the Community Service Director. I may not be so visibly close to her, but she had a great influence and inspired me in my volunteer work. Despite her demanding schedules, she had always been with us serving at the Annual AGA 5K, Kamalen Karidat Soup Kitchen, painting the school projects, and doing many other volunteers work. May she rest in peace and our memory of her live on.

Like her, there are many of those members at the AGA Guam Chapter that have been an inspiration to us in one way or another. They are those who regardless of their status in the community, and their leadership roles, still find the time to support and encourage us when life gets tangled with competing priorities and have the humility and sensitivity to pull us up when we are down and lost.

In the Now:

September was a very busy month for most of us. But before that, the month of August membership meeting was highlighted by our guest speaker Dr. Kelly Richmond Pope who presented about Financial Fraud Prevention and Detection which is just in time for our financial closing and busy months ahead. Despite her hectic speaking engagement, she was able to present in the Guam time zone. Other than she had been featured in several Ted Talks, you will know more about her advocacies and work as you visit her website at www.kellyrichmondpope.com.

September 11, 2022 was the AGA Guam Chapter Anniversary which was founded in 1970. A sincere gratitude to those 20 individuals with finance and accounting backgrounds who met for the first time with the desire in advancing government accountability and to date, we have over 260+ members.

This month, we also donated to the Island Girl Power in honor of our guest speaker last July - Ms. Pam Sherman as one of her advocacies is empowering young girls. As our member gives generously, the AGA Guam chapter also received a monetary donation from the AGA Saipan Chapter. The donation will go a long way toward our mission, and we hope to continue to connect and network with them and build on our relationship with the members.

The Guam International Coastal Clean-up also happened this month. Along with other volunteers, AGA Guam Chapter supported the Guam Community College site assignment at Pago Bay. It was another experience which reminded us of needing to be responsible citizen and to take care of our beautiful island.

The event was also followed by the GASB 87 Implementation which was sponsored by the Office of the Public Accountability. It was well attended by over 100 accountants and the in person training transpired for several days. Other than the loaded information of the GASB 87 and other related changes and updates on financial reporting, it was also an opportunity to network and get together and have brief catch up with fellow colleagues. We are grateful to Public Auditor BJ Cruz for pulling this event along with his OPA team.

Take Aways:

My featured photo was taken in Niagara Falls back in April 2018 as a derivative of my travel attending the Human Resources Conference in Baltimore, Maryland. Niagara Falls is known for being one of the world’s wonders and for its awe-inspiring scenery. Several facts taken from my readings at the www.niagarafallstatepark.com website, it is an area of 12,300 years in the making and has a strong current with annual freezing and thawing which wears away at the rocks under the surface and gradual erosion and periodic rockfalls steadily move Niagara Falls farther upstream. There are so many stories behind the Niagara Falls but one of its significance is the industrialist who worked to harness its force and convert it into hydroelectricity, which has the capacity to produce 2.4 million kilowatts of electricity.

How do these historical sites relate to us in the field? Looking back at Ms. Maripaz Perez’s, past AGA Guam Chapter President program year’s theme about “Resilience: Turning Obstacles into Opportunities.” which speaks volumes. Working on back-office support has so many challenges such as staffing issues, lack of resources, competing priorities, regulatory and leadership changes, long hours of work, and evolving demands. Harnessing resilience is so much easier said than done. But how do we turn it to be an opportunity to renew ourselves and become resilient, adaptive, and modernized in our workplace through the use of technology? This is a question which we must work out, day in and day out, which will somehow get through us on a better position as we are today.

The death of Queen Elizabeth II has also made a significant impact on this month for many top leaders in the world. She was the longest-serving monarch and celebrated 70 years on the throne this year according to several press releases. We all can take away so many lessons learned from the write-up and documentaries about her life. As CEO Today magazine described her (https://www.ceotodaymagazine.com/2022/09/5-leadership-lessons-from-queen-elizabeth-ii/) during her remarkable time as a monarch, Queen Elizabeth II lived through war and peace, recessions and times of growth, family scandals and tragedies, and one global pandemic. She’s seen a mind-blowing number of changes and challenges in her lifetime and has demonstrated an extraordinary level of resilience and adaptability. According to The Healthy Leader post https://healthycompanies.com/queen-elizabeth-reigning-with-resilience/, resilient people share three distinct characteristics 1) facing down reality, 2) searching for meaning, and 3) ritualizing ingenuity.

As we tackle our daily tasks and come to work every day, let us all find purpose and meaning. Be reminded of no matter the circumstance we are all in, we continue to practice mindfulness, flexibility, and self-care enabling us to bounce back and regain our energy after a long day. Let me close my message with one of my favorite quotes, “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” by Helen Keller.

AGAPresidentsMessageSeptember2022.pdf

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