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[00:00:07] Scott Benton: Hey everyone, Scott Benton here. How are you? I’m the host of the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast where we help you easily transition from a law school student into your professional career as an attorney and where we make the practice of law fun.
[00:00:20] Scott Benton: And today we’re gonna answer the question of how do I avoid the void? How do I avoid the void?
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[00:01:15] Scott Benton: Now, what exactly is the void I’m talking about here? Let’s get that definition out of the way so we know how to avoid the void. Now, if you’re listening to this podcast on a regular basis, you probably heard us talk about celebrating wins, which is a topic we cover frequently because of how important it is to do on a regular basis.
[00:01:33] Scott Benton: Now, if you’re celebrating your wins and then ideally celebrating the wins of others, Then you’re gonna create a positively charged environment for you and for everyone else in the office. It’s gonna make it easy for you to go to work every day, and it’s gonna keep you from falling into the void. More importantly, Now, the deep dark void is that space of negativity attorneys potentially can fall into if they’re not careful, really can happen to anyone in [00:02:00] just about any type of work environment, and it tends to be a result of an ongoing negatively charged energetic feedback loop created by one or more persons in whatever group setting you’re working in.
[00:02:12] Scott Benton: This negative feedback loop can lead to a climate of generalized low morale, a work culture that’s potentially demoralizing, and it might even create or lead to a toxic work environment if it eventually gets bad enough and continues its downward spiral.
[00:02:30] Scott Benton: That’s the void. The void is the deep, dark place you definitely don’t want to end up in. And you want to work vigorously towards avoiding it at all costs if you see that you’re heading that way because of how much it affects the overall enjoyment level of the large amount of time you tend to spend at work.
[00:02:47] Scott Benton: Additionally, it also affects the quality of life outside the office. It slows down productivity and potentially the general quality of the work, which slows or stops the growth of the company. And it simply [00:03:00] makes your Sunday afternoons really difficult as you start to feel that growing dread inside your body about going back to work on Monday morning.
[00:03:07] Scott Benton: So as you can see, that’s a place you really want to know about. You want to have some tools that are going to keep you far away from the deep, dark void, which is what we’ve been talking about in other Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast episodes. So the first thing you want to do, and what I’ve mentioned already, is you want to celebrate your wins.
[00:03:24] Scott Benton: Anytime you have a victory of any kind, whether it’s a big victory like winning a case, or it’s a small victory like sending out a status report to a client, you want to make sure you’re reflecting on those accomplishments because that alone helps inject a healthy burst of positively charged, uplifting energy into your workspace.
[00:03:45] Scott Benton: The more you celebrate wins, the more you build up that necessary storehouse of goodwill, forward, productive momentum, a high level of quality work, a positive mental attitude and a strong sense of a can do attitude.
[00:03:59] Scott Benton: Now [00:04:00] another thing you can do that’s going to help keep you from falling into the deep dark void in addition to celebrating wins, and as contrary as this might sound, is that you can also celebrate your setbacks, or you might say celebrate your failures.
[00:04:14] Scott Benton: Now that doesn’t mean you want to celebrate setbacks and failures as negatives and beat yourself up for causing them. You want to instead convert these into negatives. You want to convert them into positive learning experiences.
[00:04:27] Scott Benton: Celebrating negative events in a positive light keeps you from falling into the void. Because you’ve reframed those events and you’ve prevented them from drowning out the already long list of positives that you have.
[00:04:40] Scott Benton: Now another nice aspect, and even a key towards developing yourself as an expert in your field when it comes to celebrating the setbacks and the failures, is that you’re getting better and stronger at your abilities as an attorney. So if you ask any attorney who’s been practicing for a long time, how they got so good at their work, [00:05:00] they’re going to tell you that they learned from every mistake they made.
[00:05:04] Scott Benton: And they’re going to tell you they made every single mistake in the book possible. They might even tell you about all the dumb mistakes that they made and what they learned from them. Those expert attorneys were willing to convert their setbacks and their failures into wins. And they would learn anything they could from their reframed wins, which made them excellent at their practice.
[00:05:24] Scott Benton: It gave them invaluable tools to work from, and more importantly, it kept them in a positive mindset that kept them from falling into the deep, dark void. That’s the key. Lastly, you want to make sure that you’re always maintaining positive forward momentum with your cases while providing your legal services, and that you’re never stopping.
[00:05:43] Scott Benton: You do that by updating your to do list without fail every night before you go home.
[00:05:49] Scott Benton: That way, when you return in the morning, you already know where to pick up and what you need to get done for the day. And by keeping yourself squarely on track, that is an excellent way to help [00:06:00] keep you from derailing and falling into the deep, dark void. So I hope that’s useful information for you to consider in order to avoid the void.
[00:06:07] Scott Benton: I’m Scott Benton. I’m the host of the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in and listening to this episode. If this is information that you’re finding valuable and you’d like to receive an alert whenever we put out a new episode, you can go to our website. Our website is classroom2courtroom.
[00:06:20] Scott Benton: com. That’s classroom, the number two, and courtroom. com. You can leave us your contact information. We will send you an alert. whenever we post a new episode. And if this is information that you’re enjoying, of course, don’t forget to share and subscribe. That’ll also help you stay on top of all of our newest episodes.
[00:06:36] Scott Benton: And until next time, we hope you’ll join us in making the world a better place, one client at a time. Thank you so much.
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