WHAT KEEPS YOU AWAKE AT NIGHT?

You get pleasure from helping people yet often to the detriment of yourself; you say it’s in your nature; you just can’t help yourself. You work ridiculously long hours, day in day out, like a hamster on a hamster wheel, going faster and faster with no solution for escaping the destructive pattern of your professional life.

The surprising truth however, currently hidden from you, is that no one else is expecting this much of you, other than yourself.

You’ve been doing it for such a long time though, that it’s become an ingrained habit and you have no idea how to get out of it. You’ve created a monster work routine because for all your mastery of the law, you have never been taught to charge properly or to celebrate saying “No” to clients who I describe as PITA – pain in the a…!.

STOP!

Have you ever stopped to think what the consequences of your behaviour are on the quality of your professional life, on your family and friends, on the firm you are part of, but most importantly the impact on you personally?

Probably not, because a truly honest self-appraisal of that kind would be too painful and you already have plenty of pain, don’t you?  Besides which, ironically, you simply don’t have the time …

So let me ask you, examining the situation in monetary terms only, how much revenue is being lost each month because of over-servicing/under-charging clients?

Here’s a simple exercise with a calculator if you dare. It requires great honesty, which is fine because only you will see the results. 

How many waking hours during any working day are devoted to your professional life? 

Next, how much did you invoice clients, after discounts, in your last financial year? 

Divide the total invoice figure by 232 (260 working days annually less holiday) then divide that figure by the first figure, your average daily hours committed to work.

It’s nowhere near your official hourly charge-out rate or anything close, is it?

Lost hours is one of the great unsolved mysteries of professional life.

Is this sustainable?

If nothing changes, what is going to happen to the business?

And how is this impacting on others in your life, in and out of work?

And just as importantly, what’s the impact of this on you emotionally?

You really dare not look at this one; yet all those around you are very aware of what’s going on.  They know you’re stressed and tired, and probably your spouse or family is complaining that you’re never at home.  Even when you are, you’re just too darn tired to engage with them.  You snap at them and then you feel bad about yourself.

You’re probably also feeling resentment and even overwhelmed.

The list goes on.

Now here’s the BIG question.

If nothing changes what is going to happen to you? 

Where will you be in one year’s time, two years’ time, and five years’ time?

Are you really going to work like this until retirement or, Heaven forbid, an early grave?

In your heart of hearts, you know this can’t continue indefinitely, yet you don’t believe it can be resolved.  You simply don’t believe that you can have a manageable professional life, rewarding and properly rewarded, balanced with a pleasurable and fulfilling private life, in spite, perhaps, of being surrounded by other professionals, in a range of disciplines including the law, having achieved just that.

I’m here to tell you that I can help you fix this.  You can change and you can take charge.  You just need to be willing to take the first step. And that is to say enough is enough.  And then get in touch.