Solo Practice University® » Tip of the Week

"Tip of the Week" – The Grass is Greenest Where You Live

Susan Cartier Liebel — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 09:11:08 +0000

I am back to my favorite blog, today, Pick The Brain, because everyone needs a shot of pseudo-psychology to appreciate what they have and where they are regardless of economic news and their employment situation. And it seemed appropriate after all the vitriol within the comments of my past blog post (OT) Response to ATL’s Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To be Contract Lawyers. (Anonymous comments with fake e-mail addresses will no longer be published. If you have something to add to the conversation, own it under your real name. You can read the new Comment Policy here.)

Realise that happiness is just a feeling and you can have all the feelings you want right now, without changing your life.

Most people think that our happiness is caused or limited by the circumstances around us. Sure our circumstances are triggers for happiness or unhappiness, but you always have the choice about how you feel in response to what’s going on around you.

Everything is a choice including not doing anything about your current circumstances…..even when you find them untenable.

I caught wind of a blog the other day highly critical of those who encourage others to help themselves. They claim the ‘self-help’ industry is profiting off of individuals who are not be blamed for their own inability to rise above their dire circumstances. The structures in place in our society are to blame. These are the same structures which allowed the mortgage crisis, Enron, bank failures, the collapse of Wall Street and even the implosion of Big Law including outsourcing of certain legal tasks. And when we don’t blame the systems and blame those impacted by the systems we are preventing important change from taking place. We are allowing those who are ‘helpless’ and victimized to now suffer the additional burden of guilt for their inability to effectuate change in their own lives when it’s simply not their fault.

There is some truth to the argument. We are all impacted by systemic failures. When someone works hard, qualifies to take out a mortgage to buy a home, does everything right then loses their job, can’t get another job to provide the same income to support the home and then loses the home, they are not to blame. Or if a new lawyer feels they were misled to spend huge sums of money on an education with promises of a great return only to end up with no employment and the feeling there are no options, they can feel victimized.

What the author doesn’t allow for, however, is that after the losses are suffered at the hands of a broken model, what does the individual do? How should they behave? Does he take solace in the fact he is the victim of a systemic failure and go live under a bridge beating his chest in despair? Or does he have the choice to reinvent himself within his new circumstances?

Nazi death camp survivor, Viktor Frankl, said, “The one thing you can’t take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me. The last of one’s freedoms is to choose ones attitude in any given circumstance.”

We all have choices. We may not like the choices, but they are choices nonetheless. And if there are people out there giving you guidance on the options available to you, it doesn’t mean they don’t feel your angst. But their job isn’t to change the system. Their job is to help you improve YOUR circumstances if you’ve made the decision you don’t want to play the role of victim any longer.

So on that note, I leave you with today’s brain candy:

Circumstances and material things don’t make you happy – your thoughts about those things are what makes you happy. You have full control over your thoughts, so you can be happy anywhere. Realise that changing where you live, what stuff you have, what work you do or who you sleep with will never make you happy. It’s always your thoughts and the stories you tell yourself about your life that will do that for you.

If you want to read the full blog post from PickTheBrain, you can do so here.

Written by Susan Cartier Liebel

Tip of the Week – WiseStamp.com

Susan Cartier Liebel — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 10:17:21 +0000

Let’s face it. As we have more and more contact information to share, we load up our signatures until the text following our e-mail is ridiculously long and cumbersome. I’ve certainly been guilty of this as are others I know. Or, we don’t use our signatures effectively.

Now there is WiseStamp.com, a very cool plug-in my tech guru, Dave Carson, found. It works with all major e-mails and allows you to customize your signature with urls, RSS, social media icons, chat icons, images and more in a very user-friendly way. (This is a Firefox plug-in.)

Of course, there may be a temptation to overload, again, as Dave made a point of telling me after my first attempt. Of course his is cool:

Here is my (almost) final product.

My favorite part of this service (which is in beta) is feeding the RSS from SPU into my signature block. It changes every time I post to my blog. It keeps my signature block dynamic without any effort on my part. And I didn’t have to be ‘techie’ or know code. If I created mine so can you.

So, if your struggling with your signature block, trying to make it more effective without going over the top and are using Firefox as your browser, check out Wisestamp.com

Written by Susan Cartier Liebel

"Tip of the Week" – 'The Ultimate Guide to Solo and Small Firm Success'

Susan Cartier Liebel — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 12:03:12 +0000

A month ago I received my autographed copy of The Ultimate Guide to Solo and Small Firm Success by Connecticut solo attorney Renee Caggiano Berman. Naturally I was a little excited as she had requested I write the foreword to the book and I agreed after seeing two sample chapters.

There is currently one staple out there, ‘How To Start and Build a Practice’ by solo icon, Jay Foonberg. A year ago another breakout book by Carolyn Elefant, ‘Solo by Choice‘ brought a fresh and current perspective to solo practice and is destined to be a solo practitioner’s desktop classic because of its attitude and content.

The Ultimate Guide to Solo and Small Firm Success (a title that I would not have chosen…and don’t think Renee did, either) may very well create the perfect trifecta of solo books because Renee brings balanced information from her own perspective in a basic yet power-packed primer on getting started.

What I found most appealing (and different) in Renee’s book are two unique chapters:

Chapter 11 – The Misnomer of Balance

‘Balance does not exist. It is the holy grail of the attorney.

Balance is synonymous to a scale of justice. Even if the scales appear balanced for a moment, it only takes a little pressure to make one side rise above the other. The scales are constantly adjusting and realigning themselves based on the pressure they receive.’

As a solo practitioner, although it now may be easier to attend your child’s school play or coach little league baseball, those brief moments of retreat from the office are often followed by a Friday night hunched over your desk at 10:00 pm to catch up on what was missed when you were away. You have attained the ability to make choices. You can now determine what is most important at that moment.

Renee goes on to offer perspective, areas which create the most stress for solos and advice on how to handle.

Chapter 13 – Lipstick In A Briefcase: The Female Solo Practitioner

Here Renee exposes very elegantly the issues unique to the female solo practitioner. It’s not always pretty. Her observations are honest and she provides very practical and beneficial advice for the female solo. It’s just one short chapter but it packs a wallop with startling statistics which encourage you to take care of yourself on all fronts.

Renee also has 49 pages of forms, templates of letters, retainer agreements, authorizations, affidavits, case management forms, settlements letters and much more in print and a CD filled with templates which is included with the book.

It is a well rounded, thoughtful primer on starting a solo practice.

If you would like to check it out you can do so here.

(I do NOT receive an affiliate commission. I simply had the pleasure of writing the foreword and happy to promote to my readers.)

Written by Susan Cartier Liebel

"Tip of the Week" – Furnishing Your Office For Free

Susan Cartier Liebel — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 11:30:13 +0000

Furnishing your (home) office doesn’t have to cost you much at all…possibly nothing. If you haven’t heard of freecycle.org you are missing out on one of life’s best kept secrets. Freecycle.org is an organization which has exploded, thanks to the internet, with more than 4000 groups/chapters and nearly 4 million members worldwide.

But now with this new economy, people starting to save money and looking for other ways to economize, Freecycle.org might be the answer to saving money…and the planet.

You’ve heard the cliche, ‘one man’s trash is another mans’ treasure?” Freecycle.org recognized you could have a perfectly good desk you are replacing, don’t want to put the old desk on e-bay, or advertise it in the paper, or transport it yourself to your ungrateful sister who probably doesn’t want it anyway. But you don’t know what to do with it. It’s got to go. Well, post it on freecycle.org as an OFFER through your local chapters and you will get many other freecyclers ready and willing and able to take it off your hands…basically ‘free’ – recycling of good quality merchandise.

The rules of the game:

Join;
Make an OFFER of goods first. Once you have selected someone to receive the goods and they have picked them up;
Post TAKEN so others don’t keep contacting you.
After your first offer you can post WANTED (such as gently used desk and office chair, filing cabinets, printer, etc.) and you will be amazed and what you can get to furnish your office for nothing more than picking the items up, gas, and a little time.
You can receive e-mails individually or in digest form.

It’s simple, it’s easy and it will certainly help many solo practitioners starting out who are in need of furnishings. And for those who simply choose to be generous, it’s a great way to clean out your house and help others. Naturally, there is every manner of offer on freecycle from baby clothes to cars, firewood to jacuzzis.

As an inspirational story from freecycle I will share this: An older woman had a huge barn which needed to come down because it was a hazard. The barn was also filled with timber her deceased husband had collected over the years. She didn’t have the money to take it down. She didn’t have the money to have the lumber removed from the property. She posted “OFFER: free lumber” on freecycle providing the recipients took the barn down and removed the lumber themselves. An organization which builds playgrounds for inner city children asked for the timber. They tore down the barn, removed the lumber (which is very expensive) and built a beautiful playground in a nearby inner city community which did not have the financial resources for a playground. The city in turn dedicated the playground to her and her husband because without the lumber the kid’s playground would not have happened.

So, check out freecycle.org and start ‘freecycling.”

Written by Susan Cartier Liebel

"Tip of the Week" – Understanding What Powers Motivation

Susan Cartier Liebel — Sun, 17 May 2009 13:44:20 +0000

The tip of the week this week is to read this powerful blog post from one of my favorite blogs, ‘Pick the Brain’. (It also seems fitting given Ed Poll will be continuing his course this week at Solo Practice University with a live teleseminar on Tuesday, May 19th at noon EST on Setting Personal and Professional Goals).

Without motivation, true motivation, life and success can be a struggle. The most powerful phrase in this post (for me personally) is that which I have always said to those who wish to open a solo practice but who continue to get too caught up in listening to the negative chorus:

You will not find this happiness, productivity, motivation or inspiration if you are trying to achieve things based on others’ standards.

This is true in all aspects of life. But it is especially true when trying to create your own business. You are going against professional convention while others try to impose their own fears upon you. Or worse, try to tell you that what you are trying to do is harmful to your clients, especially if you are newly minted from law school.

I’ve always trusted myself to make the right decisions. And as a new lawyer right out of law school starting a practice, the only one who was ever harmed when I was wrong (and usually financially from a client who would not or could not pay) was myself, never my clients.

It takes hutspah to believe in yourself, your goals, and your ambitions in the face of those who don’t believe in themselves. It’s easy to take the path of least resistance, to cave when facing those wagging fingers warning you of the perils of starting a solo practice.

All I can say is this. If you are motivated, passionate and committed to the solo option forge ahead. It’s not as scary or dangerous as others would have you believe. Not by a long shot.

Written by Susan Cartier Liebel

"Tip of the Week" – How To Deal With Indecision

Susan Cartier Liebel — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 12:00:48 +0000

This may sound contradictory, but it’s not. Often, those who believe they would like to go solo think if they make this choice it is a ‘forever’ choice. Therefore, they fret and worry and think it must be done at an absolutely perfect time or they will be doomed professionally and broke. Same goes for those who believe they must get employment first or be forever branded as inexperienced or ‘failing to gain employment’ as a lawyer. This mindset in either direction is debilitating.

You’ve heard the adage, “It’s not the choices you make but what you do with the choices you make.” This is as true with the decision to go solo as any other choice.

In another great Tejvan Pettinger piece he discusses indecision:

“Ummm… I’m not sure…” We all suffer from indecision at times. If we
are not careful, this can become a debilitating problem which feeds on
itself. Indecision is often related to lack of self confidence and a
tendency to worry about potential problems. To overcome indecision we
need to have the faith to follow our intuition, bearing in mind that
sometimes it is not what we do, but rather how we do things that is
important.

Both Options Can Work

“Indecision is often worse than wrong action.” – Henry Ford

Sometimes we feel that it is of vital importance to choose the right
course of action. We feel that one choice must be the ‘right’ one and
the other option ‘wrong’. However, this is often a mistake. What is
important is how we make use of our choices. Maybe we have a choice
between going to two different places (employment or self-employment); as long as we have the right
attitude we can cultivate happiness wherever we go. If we are
constantly worrying about our decision, then we will not be able to
enjoy life even if we choose the so called ‘right action’.

For many, the traditional ‘right’ action is working for another first because this has become the party line for both good and bad reasons. For others, they know being employed by another is categorically the ‘wrong’ action.

Once you make your decision, be peaceful with it until such time as you need to make another decision. It’s that simple really. Talk to others openly and candidly about how they arrived at their current destination. You’ll realize you are not alone.

Make a decision. Move forward.

Written by Susan Cartier Liebel

"Tip of the Week" – 10 Things That Won't Matter in 10 Years; 10 Things That Will

Susan Cartier Liebel — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 12:57:08 +0000

Life is about perspective and everyday we have to remember to keep perspective. As always, a huge fan of Pick the Brain for inspiration, I came across this post Ten Things That Won’t Matter in Ten Years’ Time and Ten Things That Will.

I don’t know about you but I sometimes live too much in the existing 24 hours and its ups and downs and lose sight of the bigger picture and in doing so lose sight of what really matters.

You’re stressed, overworked, and tired. You feel like you’re dropping the ball on so many things. You find yourself lying awake in the early hours, thinking about those items still on your to-do list, those emails not yet cleared.

Have you ever heard the phrase “don’t sweat the small stuff”? There are so many things that we waste huge amounts of energy on (and worry is always wasted energy), which just won’t matter in a week, let alone ten years.

And in doing so what ‘important’ things, those things that will matter 10 years from now, are you forgetting to take care of?

I’ll make my list.

Ten Things that Won’t Matter in 10 Years

1. A sink full of dishes even though the dishwasher is empty.

2. Answering every e-mail quickly

3. Less than ideal internet speed

4. Saving a few dollars instead of saving time.

5. Being somewhere on time but at the cost of making everyone around me crazy.

6. Getting stuck behind a slow driver.

7. Circling for ten minutes to find a parking space

8. Getting a bad meal at a restaurant

9. Feeling guilty I don’t make gourmet meals every night. (Thanks @nikiblack)

10. Someone bumping into me and not even saying ‘excuse me.’

Ten Things That Will Matter

1. Calling my parents everyday, sometimes two or three times a day

2. Telling my son and husband I love them for no reason everyday, all day long

3. Making sure my son eats ultra-healthy and explaining why broccoli is good for his body as he gags on it.

4. Always finding the money to take vacations and gain perspective

5. Keeping my brain stimulated

6. Not being materialistic

7. Rescuing a chipmunk (rabbit, mouse, baby squirrel) from my cat’s jaws of death

8. Dropping everything to kiss my son’s boo boos

9. Recycling

10. Buying organic and fair trade whenever possible.

Keeping perspective on your solo practice as you ride the 24 hour cycles are just as important. Those days that go south and make you want to chuck it all are the days you need to step outside, take a breath of fresh air and say, ‘will what is bothering me today and seem so critical or earth-shattering or annoying matter in 10 years?’ And then keep sight of the goals you have for yourself in ten years, both personally and professionally. You’ll be able to find your priorities fairly quickly and expend your energies accordingly.

It’s a habit that must be learned, nurtured and respected. It will make your day, week, month and life better.

So, what’s on your list?

Written by Susan Cartier Liebel

"Tip of the Week" – You Must Understand What Balance Is Before You Can Attain It

Susan Cartier Liebel — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 12:00:33 +0000

As solos we are always hearing those who go solo do so to achieve ‘balance’ in their lives. Yet, what is balance really? Some describe it as a different percentage distribution between personal fulfillment and work fulfillment then one gets while working for another as if somehow when we work for another we are not permitted to give our family or personal relationships ‘priority’ like we do when we work for ourselves. But it is a concept which is both slippery and elusive and ever-changing and I think we need to get out of the work/life balance conundrum and go back to nature to understand what balance really is. Only then can we hope to achieve it.

A recent piece from Pick the Brain I think states the concept of balance very well:

Life really is one thing after another. The physical environment we
each live in is in constant streaming flux. Physically when it’s cold
we shiver to bring our body temperature up. When it’s hot we sweat to
bring our body temperature down. As living organisms we live in a
constantly changing environment. Our bodies are well adapted to this
state of affairs and respond appropriately when conditions deviate from
their optimal state. This ability of an organism to maintain
equilibrium (balance) by adjusting appropriately to the external
environment is known as homeostasis.

And there in lies the key to understanding balance. Balance is the
taking of appropriate action when circumstances dictate so as to
maintain equilibrium. It is said that the great achievement of the
sages of old was the achievement of great balance as human beings. How
did they achieve great balance? In the present moment, when things
would come up, they would respond accordingly.

“There is no secret to balance. You just have to feel the waves.” – Frank Herbert

*******

Finding a sense of balance and harmony at some point in any aspect of
life will soon turn to disharmony and loss of balance if you try to
hold on and freeze that moment forever. Such action is futile……

Being able to maintain equilibrium in an ever changing world IS key to a satisfying professional life. For the solo it is a necessity because of the nature of solo practice which has tremendous ups and downs. Your ability to maintain your balance through these ups and downs is critical. And your ability to do so allows you to maintain ‘balance’ between your personal and professional life, too…that which you originally were trying to achieve by going solo.

How do you respond to the ‘waves’ in your life?

Written by Susan Cartier Liebel