By the inch, it’s a cinch

April 14, 2016 by
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I saw a quotation the other day that is a testament to the value of personal growth. It said, “You don’t overcome challenges by making them smaller but by making yourself better”.

Jim Rohn said, “Don’t wish for fewer problems, wish for better skills”.

If we want to achieve more, we need to become more because we don’t necessarily get what we want, we get what we are.

As we increase our skills and knowledge, we can handle bigger problems and achieve bigger goals. But is personal growth the only path to success? Are there no shortcuts, no ways to bypass the rigors of personal growth?

I think there are. I think we really can overcome challenges by making them smaller.

If you have a big problem right now, break it down into a series of smaller problems that are easier to solve. Break down your big goals into a series of smaller goals that are achievable now.

Let’s say you have a goal to double your income in the next two years. Traditional thinking says that to earn that kind of income you must first become the kind of person who earns that kind of income.

But maybe you don’t.

Maybe you could double your income by getting some better-paying clients or bigger cases. Maybe you could partner up with another lawyer who’s better at marketing than you. Maybe you could change practice areas, open a second office, or finally take the plunge and do something about that website of yours.

Am I saying we don’t need to work on personal growth? Not at all. For long-term success, it’s imperative. Think about the many lottery winners who go broke in a few years because they weren’t millionaires on the inside, they simply had millions of dollars in the bank.

What I’m saying is that while you’re growing and developing, look for ways to break up big problems and big goals into smaller ones. Because by the inch, it’s a cinch.

Attorney marketing made simple

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Filed Under: Personal development Tagged With: ,

If you’re not growing, you’re dying

August 3, 2015 by
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James Clear had an interesting post about something called The Repeated Bout Effect. In simple terms, it means, “the more you repeat a behavior, the less it impacts you because you become accustomed to it.”

He quotes Marshall Goldsmith, author of “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There,” who says, “Doing the same thing over and over again, even if it worked for a long time, will eventually lead to a plateau.”

Clear uses examples from weight training, but the principle applies to other aspects of life, including marketing and managing your practice. If you continue doing the same things you’ve always done, or you do them the same way you’ve always done them, you limit or retard your growth.

And if you’re not growing, you’re dying.

Clear suggests deliberately practicing new skills that you can master quickly, i.e., “in one to three practice sessions”. This will stimulate growth and help you reach new levels of achievement.

Identify skills that could prove helpful to you in marketing and managing your practice. Once a week or so, choose a skill to focus on for the next few days.

For ideas, read blogs and articles and books on those subjects. Talk to your colleagues and business contacts and see what they do to build or manage their business or practice.

Regularly add new skills to your bag of tricks and encourage your staff to do the same.

But don’t stop there.

I think it’s also wise to periodically examine your current skills and activities and seek ways to improve them.

Over the next few days, take note of everything you do–small tasks and big tasks, highly skilled tasks and rudimentary or routine tasks. Include everything: writing, speaking, presenting, signing up new clients, meeting with employees, interviewing job applicants, dictating a motion, prepping for trial, reviewing a new client intake, touch typing, and everything else.

Then, look at each task and ask yourself, “How can I do this better?”

Can you change the order of the steps? Add in an extra step? Use a different tool?

Can you do it faster, perhaps by leaving out a step or two?

Can you get better results by practicing the underlying skills or delegating some of the tasks (or the entire task) to someone else?

Acquiring new skills, combined with an ongoing effort to improve your current skills, is a powerful recipe for growth. And if you’re not growing, you’re dying.

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Filed Under: Personal development, Productivity Tagged With:

Why “Be Yourself” is NOT Good Advice

September 2, 2014 by
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“Be yourself,” we are told. There’s just one problem. What if we’re not good enough?

Whatever you are right now, whatever it is that defines you, was created by you. You took what God gave you and made yourself into the person you see in the mirror.

As long as you continue to be that person, you will continue to produce the same outcomes.  Be yourself only if you don’t want anything to change in your life.  If you want something better, however, you need to change.

If you want to be a better lawyer, you need to improve your skill set. If you want a bigger income, you need to change your habits and attitudes and activities to match the income of someone who earns what you want to earn.

You can’t say, “When I earn more I’ll change.” It doesn’t work that way. Change comes first. You can’t change your future until you change your present.

How do you change?

You read good books. You study them. You apply what you learned.

You associate with people who have what you want. You listen to how they speak and look for insights into how they think. Most of all, you watch what they do and you emulate it.

You get help. A mentor, coach, or accountability partner. A mastermind group.

You master the mundane. You practice. You get better and better at what you do.

As you become better, you attract better opportunities. Because you have grown, you’re able to capitalize on them.

Change doesn’t happen overnight. You don’t go from earning six figures to earning seven figures in a few months. But in a few years, you can accomplish just about anything.

But only after you stop being yourself and start being the person you want to become.

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Filed Under: Personal development, success Tagged With: ,

Thinking outside the box: what it means and why we need to do it

November 11, 2013 by
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Human beings live inside a box, the walls of which are comprised of our beliefs and habits. (For the record, lawyers live inside two boxes. In case one breaks.)

Our beliefs and habits protect us from harm. They help us avoid dangerous situations and make decisions that mitigate risk. They also make our lives more productive and less chaotic. Once we have found the love of our life, for example, our belief in monogamy keeps us from looking elsewhere. (Okay, we may look but we don’t touch.)

Our beliefs and habits our foundational to how we govern our lives and by and large, they serve us well. But if they are too rigid, they keep us from growing. In the context of marketing legal services, for example, our old beliefs can cause us to fall behind our younger, less constrained competition.

The world is constantly changing. We must be aware of, and responsive to, those changes. We must be prepared to try new things and learn new skills, and update the old ones.

But how? How do we get outside of our comfort zone?

With some things, we just do it. We pick up the phone and make the call. We show up at the meeting. We write the report.

With other things, we need some preparation. So we read about them and talk to people who are doing them. We make notes and jot down ideas. And then, we try something.

We start with something small and easy. We dip our toes into the cold water. Once we get used to it, we jump in. Or, if it’s harder than we imagined, we wade in. Eventually, what was once scary and difficult is familiar and easy. What was once firmly outside of our comfort zone is now comfortably inside.

But there are some things that are so far outside of the box we can’t imagine ourselves doing them. They are too difficult, too risky, or too far away. What then?

The first rule of change is having the desire to change. If you’re happy where you are and don’t want to try anything new, despite the possible rewards, then be okay with not trying. You can’t change if you don’t want to change. But if want something better, admit that you do.

Second, you must be willing to do the work associated with that change. That means being willing to invest time, physical effort, and money, in new things. Of course that means you will probably have to re-allocate resources from things you’re currently doing. There are only so many hours in a day and you only have so much energy.

Finally, and most importantly, you have to be willing to undergo the emotional transformation that takes place by thinking and doing things that challenge your existing habits and beliefs. That’s the hardest part of thinking outside the box, and why most people don’t do it.

Change is emotionally difficult. Giving up old beliefs and ingrained habits, learning new philosophies and methodologies, are the very essence of personal growth. This is the hardest part of the journey. And it takes place outside of the box.

Do your clients pay you on time and in full? If not, you should learn how to Get the Check.

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Increase your income, Marketing legal services, Personal development Tagged With: , , ,