The topic of this post is a gift from a business mentor, who saw me fuck things up and fix them better multiple times.
Because I have never accomplished any of 2021 goals before, all I have is the story (i.e., the plan) about how I will get there. I am choosing to believe the story. By believing the story, I feel like the actions I am taking will be effectual.
I say this because when things get hard, I have a tendency to do something unproductive (some combination of giving up, panicking, freaking out, hiding out, et cetera), thinking that I set something too ambitious for myself and I’m not up to the task. It’s this fucked up thing I do to hold myself back.
The beauty of believing the story is that I don’t have to believe in myself. I don’t even have to respect myself. I just have to follow the directions I have myself, no matter the circumstances. The belief has gotten me through a series of difficult (at least for me) events the past few months.
I believe my own business plan and how I will get from point A to point B. I believe my story about how I will grow my overall revenue. I believe the story about how we will double our average case value. I believe the story about how my firm will wind down all our probate litigation matters and only take estate planning cases, with occasional uncontested probate filings. I believe that people will be excited about our new packages. I believe that our marketing will work. I believe that our sales will work. I believe that we are bringing the right people into our staff. I believe that we can turn our staff into a team.
In my own life, I believe the story about how I will lose weight, so I go the gym and actually pay attention to what I’m eating. I believe the story about how we’ll pay off the house and the law school loan (Duke was expensive), so I actually watch my money. I believe the story about how I am becoming the person I need to be to handle all the success that we will have.
I believe these stories because I am willing to do whatever it takes to make them true.
