We all know that a tiger is one of the largest cats. A tiger’s body can become as long as a station wagon. It walks flexing powerful muscles. Imagine this mighty and forceful cat lifting its head, baring large canine teeth. Razor-Sharp claws ready to strike. It requires vigilance to hang on to a tiger’s tail.

Once this striped feline turns its head towards its tail, the lawyer is no match. An attorney who makes a crucial mistake or falls behind becomes at the effect of his or her law practice. The massive strength of an unwieldy law firm can crush.


Meet Lucas

Lucas, a client, told me, “Pamela don’t give me that reflection and meditating “crappola”. It’s not on my radar screen. I’m going 100 mph, and all I can deal with is what’s on my plate. Anything else is superfluous!”

I said to Lucas the same things I always say to my clients, “If you don’t make the time to see where you have been, you will never gain enough focus to get where you want to go.”

” If you keep operating and using your knee-jerk responses, your blind spots are in charge. You will end up with a fiasco again and again. It is never what you know that is the problem.   It is what you don’t know. That is where blind spots come into play. With blind spots, you aren’t even aware of what you don’t know.”

Lucas knew he was a darned good lawyer, yet he hadn’t lived up to his potential in years. He was baffled. He always seemed to get a great start at the beginning of the year. But somehow and at some point, his efforts began to derail.

I find that everyone has a blind spot either in their law practice or their personal lives. Many have blind spots in both their professional and personal circumstances. To be effective, every attorney must learn from their past mistakes. Then, building and expanding on the wins gives them the focus needed to change.

Be sure to make time to review your law practice. Otherwise, you will constantly be at its effect. That is like dealing with an out of control tiger’s tail.

If, however, you make no plan other than showing up at the office and doing what’s on your desk, you might as well be a skilled laborer like a welder or an assembly-line worker. Your creativity will be crushed.

Lucas discovered that making time to evaluate the previous year, he honed in on his past mistakes and then focused on where he had won. With a workable plan, Lucas consistently performed far beyond the business plan required by his firm. This personal blueprint proved to be invaluable as the year wore on.

“Pamela, I always presented my goals and my business plan to the Section Head in my group. However, investing time and effort on my past mistakes revealed several blind spots. This knowledge made a huge difference. I performed better than I had during the past eight years. I no longer felt lost in a sea of deadlines. I always knew where to begin. I was no longer tossed from one crisis to the next. My nightmares began to go away.”

Although Lucas resisted initially, he came to realize that being accountable to a coach could reveal his blind spots and keep the tiger’s claws and teeth facing the opposite direction.

Here is a quote from Benjamin Franklin:

“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!”

 Respecting the power of the tiger, your law practice will cause you to incorporate preventative measures in your goals. To make a thorough assessment of the previous year is not a fifteen-minute exercise.

Don’t let your law practice be on autopilot in 2016. If you haven’t made some time yet to review last year, here is a link to an exercise to help you. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/3-easy-steps-finish-strong-2015-pamela click here https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/3-easy-steps-finish-strong-2015-pamela

Pamela DeNeuve
Attorney Life Balance Coach

★ Stress ★ Depression ★ Anger Management ★ Career Revitalization★

One Complimentary Strategy Coaching Session

pamela@boldandbravelegalladies.com

About Pamela:

http://https://youtu.be/n718WSL0OBU