Hello and welcome back to Gimbal’s Tip of the Week. Today we’re talking about changing your mindset about change.

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First, let me apologize. We didn’t issue a tip last week and for that, I’m sorry. We’re very committed to you, our loyal followers. We have undertaken to appear and be with you every week. Our decision not to appear last week was not taken lightly.

For us, the value of our weekly tip series comes down to quality over quantity.

Sure, we have tons we want to share with you. But last week, we were in the middle of Week 1 of Practice Accelerator, our newest online course.

We have 24 participants in the program and we were focused on ensuring a great initial experience with a smooth launch. We were also preparing for the first of our 6 live mentoring sessions. It was a very busy and exciting week for us.

We ran up against our own limitations. We could have pushed something out, but Tip of the Week has to provide you clear, practical, and actionable tips that deliver you real value. We were not prepared to compromise on that. And our decision not to appear last week was very purposeful and deliberate.

Now we’re back with our latest tip.

If you’ve spent anytime with us over the past 6 months, you’ll probably have heard us say some of this before. But the message here is SO important, it is worth repeating. In fact, it’s worth repeating over and over.

1. According to Clio’s Legal Trends Report for 2019, solo and small firm lawyers average just 2.4 hours of billable time a day. Much of the rest of their day is taken up with unbillable business and administrative tasks.
2. 80% of lawyers want to increase efficiency in their practice, but only a fraction of them will actually do anything about it.

While they recognize the need and they genuinely want to change how they work, many lawyers are simply afraid to fail. They don’t want to waste their time on efforts that don’t deliver the exact result they seek on the first try.

Well, if you are one of those people, you’ve got to change your mindset. Don’t be afraid to fail.

Failure is the basis of success

Successful, sustainable change is grounded in continuous iteration. Failure is the basis of success. If you don’t fail you aren’t trying hard enough.

If you overcome your fear and embrace the iterative nature of change, you can be part of the fraction of lawyers that do act to increase the efficiency of their practice and office.

You’ll distinguish yourself, create a significant advantage over your competition, and begin to enjoy more of the success you deserve. And most likely, you’ll be able to do it without having to spend any more hours at the office.

The key is to just get started. Carpe diem!

Let us know what’s holding you back from making the changes you know you need to make to improve productivity, profitability, and the experience of your clients.

And join us next week for more on building a profitable and productive law practice.

Thanks a lot everybody!