By Trisha Daho

Join a mastermind program specifically designed for attorneys, starting in 2021! Contact Trisha Daho for more information: trisha@empoweredlc.com.

We know you love control. It’s part of what makes you a great attorney. Knowing what’s next, anticipating the next fact, the next action, we get it. People rely on you for your skills of anticipation. The plans you implement in the present help them mitigate the future.

But this year, the ability to plan and predict fell apart. Most of us didn’t see this coming. (Though Bill Gates gets a pass.) The courts closed. Schools closed. The world closed. You have done what you needed to do to keep your law practice going. You’ve not only pivoted but bounced, twisted, and leapt. And you are still here! That is something to celebrate.

If you are like the rest of us, you’ve also done some soul searching about your life as a lawyer:

Do I love this? What am I doing that isn’t working very well? Many have gone even further and asked what the legal industry should be doing differently, both to handle the present situation and permanently. Because guess what? Not only do you not have to run a law firm like they’ve been run for 200 years, your firm will thrive if you don’t. You can be more successful thinking and doing in a different way.

First, it takes a mindset shift. You need to change how you think about yourself, your job, and your law firm. All of it. That may seem a bit dramatic, but it also means dramatic growth. You may also start to regain that feeling of control you once had.

But how? Here are some great steps:

1. Ask yourself: What is my strongest aspiration for the new year?

If the answer is “build your firm and grow business revenue,” good for you.

It may seem vague, but this goal allows you flexibility with how you’ll grow your business, and your expectations can start small. Multiple quick, small wins will breed more wins and you can scale up from there. The key is to feel good because that will encourage you to want to change further. Pain, criticism, and failure only sow seeds for more pain, criticism, and failure. Success breeds more success.

Read more: The aggregation of marginal gains.

2. Ask yourself: What type of person do I want to be in 2021?

Then answer for yourself: “The type of lawyer who has an ever-growing business.”

This is the mindset you want. Your brain has to buy in. You need to see yourself as the type of person whose business is always growing. In other words, success begins between your ears. It starts as an inside job.

3. Begin the brainstorm!

Now you need to prove to your brain that through your actions – what you do (not just think) – you’re becoming the type of attorney you want to be. This is when you begin brainstorming different strategies to grow your law firm.

Select the ideas you want to pursue, that you have the skills to do, and that will be effective in helping you grow your practice. Create a brand for yourself and the firm, design a marketing and business development strategy that produces predictable and sustainable results. Be strategic, insightful, innovative. Think big, about how the whole industry could be doing it differently, then move small and decide how to implement changes that lead there, starting with you and your firm. Measure what happens.

We predict you will grow between 20-35% in your first year when you get truly intentional instead of reactional. Your law firm and practice will be differentiated from the thousands of similar attorneys still stuck on the rollercoaster of marketing then practicing law, instead of laying new tracks like you will be.

4. Now really begin to build your firm: start tiny and celebrate every small action.

(Do not skip the champagne because it feels foreign!)

Based on 20 years of research at Stanford University and 40,000 case studies, BJ Fogg’s 2020 book, Tiny Habits, smashes various habit myths. Change does not have to be hard!

Habits can be formed quickly and easily but assertive self-motivation is not the key – that wavers and can be unreliable. What you need are good anchors for new habits: start with micro behaviors and celebrate your actions immediately. This is the recipe for a successful mindset shift.

As your results steadily improve day-by-day, you will literally see yourself become the attorney and person you want to be and this avoids self-sabotaging. Your brain and your thinking are in sync. The final step: teach your team to do the same. Commit to these practices and they become a culture, a thriving one.

Intentionality and focus are hard in times like these. While the solution lies solely with you, we can help.

AMATA Law Office Suites, Empowered, and Breakthrough Bound have collaborated on a growth mindset mastermind designed specifically for lawyers looking to thrive differently. Are you in? Email Trisha Daho: trisha@empoweredlc.com