Start Where You Are

Sounds pretty obvious, doesn’t it? But how often do we really give ourselves that gift? How often do we stop and tell ourselves, wherever we’re headed, this is where we start? It means being willing to let go of the past. It means resisting the need to race ahead.  It means controlling the stories of why we can’t get started.

It may be creating a marketing plan when you only have $500 a month to realistically dedicate to the project. It may be finally firing that employee who “knows everything” when you don’t have the rehire in place. It may be making the unyielding commitment to hardwire five hours into your calendar for marketing when you have to answer the phones, draft trusts and greet clients who arrive 20 minutes early so they can tell you all about their grandbabies.

Sometimes the simplest truths are the most slippery. We convince ourselves that it “isn’t that bad” or that we might be “overreacting” or have “unrelenting standards.” These are all especially true if you lead with responsibility and/or harmony on the strength-finder assessment. But if we simply allow ourselves to start from where we are today, that is often more than enough.

Last week I was working with a firm, and the focus of our Coaching, Consulting & Implementation (CC&I) call was “getting the right people in the right roles.” They had just hired two new people within the past four weeks and had let go of a “lifer” employee. They were trying to train the two new hires for the role of “Legal Assistant,” i.e.  “please do it all and take the pain and pressure away.”  The attorney went into explaining about how the firm can't do Y until X and when A is up and running they can implement B. I listened intently to the mental download and then started with “I've got all that.  But we are here and let’s start from exactly where we are. Because in my experience, the have, do, be method never works out to your advantage. (When we have A, then we can do B so we can be the law firm I have always envisioned.) That's because I have never met a firm that woke up one day and all the missing pieces were finally in place (i.e., people, time and money). We’re going to take a different approach.”

The approach of starting where you are:  It allows you to originate from a clean slate so you can get to the root and cultivate a deeper understanding of what you need, right here, right now!  It gets to the heart of the matter – which eliminates all opportunities to create a bigger-than-necessary project. The approach of start where you are allows for one small step at a time. This may sound hokey, but this approach allows us to get down and dirty and take a look at our distractions – the things that tend to get between you and your optimal success.

We'll see you next week at the Members Tri Annual Retreat in Chicago and begin working on your next quarter Money Plan (and yes, we'll be starting right where you are).  In which areas of your practice do you need to start where you are?

Molly L. Hall, Co-Founder, Lawyers with Purpose, LLC, and author of Don’t Be a Yes Chick: How to Stop Babysitting Your Boss, Transform Your Job and Work with a Dream Team Without Losing Your Sanity or Your Spirit in the Process.