Sorry, I missed yesterday. I know you are all waiting with bated breath (that’s holding your breath in fear. I just looked it up) for my new blog. So here goes:
I asked myself as I coach more and more attorneys, what holds back attorneys from working their goals. You have to understand that as a collaboration, the client and I set goals that are derived from what he or she wants to accomplish. That is the client’s decision in coaching. So if he or she and I have an agreement that working those goals will make the client richer, happier, more successful, have more leisure time, or whatever else they want, why doesn’t the attorney work them?
What happens time after time, that many clients have some reason that the goals are not even started. Not to instill guilt because that is not healthy, but I ask myself what the heck is going on?
Now, we do know that some people don’t really like to set goals. The Myers/Briggs Temperament system can spot those people and we can work with them a little differently. However, still if a person is scattered and not focused , it is extremely difficult to be successful. For example if a solo is trying to practice in too many areas of the law, this can be not only unsuccessful but very anxiety producing. Think of all the different target markets to solicit and all the different laws to learn. It is a disaster waiting to happen.
Good time management needs to be leaned and used. The discipline to plan a calendar out the week before seems overwhelming to some but is the bedrock of getting a lot done without a great deal of anxiety. Everyone who is a lawyer found a way to get through law school and pass the bar. This took the same kind of time management. So why are many attorneys so resistant to learning and using time management on a consistent basis?
Probably the answer comes in very personal ways, such as:
- To be held accountable for accomplishing something in a given time produces anxiety when its not done. Better to never start at all.
- Better not to start something that they might not finish.
- Better to keep putting goals off to do when there is a “better time”.
- Better to fail so that people can’t expect more.
These are just a few of the answers I’ve come up with. I’m sure there are plenty more. Do you see yourself in any of this? If so, let me know. I can help.