Practicing Law Sucks

Learn from your failures

No one likes to fail - least of all, lawyers; because failures, for lawyers, can prove to be very expensive and/or demoralizing.

But, from time to time, all of us do "fail" in one way or another. And, the "good news" is that we can learn from our failures.

Harvey Mackay says that he has learned two equally valuable lessons from his failures:  That there was at least one reason why he failed, and that he could rebound from that failure.

According to Shiv Khera, author of "You Can Win," failures most often occur for one of the following seven reasons:

1) LACK OF PERSISTENCE.  More people fail not because they lack knowledge or talent, but just because they quit.  INSTEAD: Try new approaches. Persistence is important, but repeating the same action over and over again won't get you any closer to your objective.  Decide what changes are necessary.  Keep making adjustments.

2) LACK OF CONVICTION AND COURAGE.  People who lack conviction and courage take the middle of the road.  But people "in the middle of the road" often get run over.  INSTEAD: Decide what is important to you.  Let your passion show even in mundane tasks.

3) RATIONALIZING.  Winners may analyze, but never rationalize.  Losers have a book full of excuses to tell you why they could not succeed.  INSTEAD: Change your perspective.  Don't think that every unsuccessful attempt as a failure.  Do your best to learn everything you can about what happened and why.

4) NOT LEARNING FROM PAST MISTAKES.  Some people live and learn, others only live.  Wise people learn from their mistakes.  Failure is a teacher if we have the right attitude.  INSTEAD: Define the problem better.  Determine what you want to achieve, what your strategy is, and why it didn't work, etc.

5) LACK OF DISCIPLINE.  Anyone who has accomplished anything worthwhile has never done it without discipline.  Discipline takes self-control, sacrifice and avoiding distractions and temptations - - it means staying focused.  BUT, don't be a perfectionist.  Be clear on what will satisfy your objectives, and don't obsess about superficial details.

6) POOR SELF-ESTEEM.  Poor self-esteem is a lack of self-respect and self-worth.  People with low self-esteem are constantly trying to find themselves, rather than creating the person they want to be.  INSTEAD: Don't label yourself.  You may have failed, but you're not a failure until you stop trying.

7) FATALISTIC ATTITUDE.  A fatalistic attitude prevents people from accepting responsibility for their position in life.  They attribute success and failure to luck.    INSTEAD: Know that YOU are the one in control.  Know that YOU are responsible for your own happiness and success.

Interruptions...the biggest Time Killers

Busy - Busy - Busy.  We lawyers are all very busy (or, at least, we would like to be).

So we must recognize that our "time" is very precious.  If we are going to be honest about the time we expend on behalf of our clients, we had been be cognizant of those daily interruptions that rob us of our valuable (billable) time.

Phone calls, emails, social networking, chatty colleagues and well-meaning clients and friends who stop by every now and then - - the list of daily interruptions is almost endless.  And once interrupted, it is very difficult to get back on task.  So, a better strategy is to avoid the interruptions as much as possible during the workday.

Here are a few suggestions for keeping your workday working:

Arrive at the office earlier than everyone else.  Try to arrive an hour before others in your office start to trickle in.  Use that hour to answer emails that need attended to and check your phone messages.  Then when you are ready to start your work, you will not have the task of getting to those things throughout the day.

Set one or two times a day to deal with your emails and phone messages and stick to them.  Don't constantly check your emails or answer each message as it comes in.  This will distract you from achieving your daily work goals.

...and, speaking of "daily work goals," at the end of each day, set out (on paper or in the computer) those things that you want to get done the next day.  In that way, you will be able to get a "jump start" when you arrive at your office the next day.

Go through your "in-box" and take care of everything you possibly can as you come to it - - admittedly, difficult for lawyers to do.  But, try not to lay too much aside for later, which usually just creates piles of things that you might be tempted to procrastinate taking care of.

Be friendly with others in your office, but don't start conversations that are likely to linger.  Stay focused and get on with your work.  Learn how to end conversations, by saying things like, "OK, nice talking with you.  I better get back to what I was doing or I won't finish what I'm working on before lunch," and such.

You, "dear reader," undoubtedly have many other such suggestions and, if so, kindly add them as a Comment to this Post to share with other readers of this Blog.

 

Setting goals for the New Year

Many of us make New Year's Resolutions for the coming year - - e.g. to lose weight, to do more exercise, to stay better connected with relatives, etc, etc.

But, even more of us DON'T.  We don't make ANY resolutions, because we either do not have (or avoid setting) GOALS.

I like what Harvey Mackay had to say about "Goal Setting" in an article that appeared in the Orange County (California) Register newspaper on January 2, 2010.

Mackay said that one can get by without setting goals - - most people do.  They fall into a routine and inertia carries them through life.  They never suffer great disappointments in their work or life, but they never get very far along their career path, or in fulfilling their life's dreams, either.  Then, before they know it, it's all over, and they realize that they could have accomplished so much more if only they had set some goals and had been willing to risk failure.

Getting by without setting goals is the ultimate form of self-delusion.  It is a guaranteed way for people to achieve failure without ever having to admit it to themselves.

With the New Year upon us, this is the perfect time to set your goals for the year, for the decade or for the rest of your life.  After all, if you don't set goals to determine where you are going, how will you know if, or when, you get there?

Goals not only give you more than a reason to get up in the morning; they are an incentive to keep you going all day.  Goals tend to tap the deeper resources and draw the best out of life.  Achieving goals produces significant accomplishments.

Mackay believes that goals need to be realistic; beyond your current grasp, but within your reach in the foreseeable future. 

Setting goals is a step-by-step process:

1. DREAMING. This is fun and easy to do. Take a pen and legal pad and write down whatever it is you REALLY want.  Free your mind and open yourself to possibilities that you might not necessarily recognize otherwise. 
2. GOAL-SETTING.  Most importantly, setting good goals is about plotting the incremental, but necessary steps to start the journey.  The achievement of a goal requires the accomplishment of little steps.  Document each of those little incremental steps.
3. SET A TIME FRAME. Set a time frame for the accomplishment of each of those little incremental steps.
4. BE COURAGEOUS.  Don't be scare to try the unknown.  Rather than letting the ultimate goal scare you, keep focused on your next small incremental step - - and "do it."  Before you know it, you will have accomplished your goal.

Here's to a good BETTER life !