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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 I know that was a lot of work.
[00:00:18] Scott Benton: We’re also here to make the practice of law fun. Now today, we’re going to take a look at when you get stuck. and how to almost instantly navigate your escape from being stuck because it turns out that taking action is the best kept secret. Taking action.
[00:00:34] Scott Benton: [00:01:00] Sometimes you’re going to find yourself stuck somewhere along the line and especially when you first start your career as an attorney where Everything’s new and all the processes at the firm you’re working for are just, they’re probably unfamiliar, or some of them are. And you’re likely going to confront a lot of new material that you’re going to have to spend time learning, which means there’s the potential for you to get stuck at some point along that process.
[00:01:45] Scott Benton: Now, let’s say you’re a full year into your attorney job by now. As you get new cases, you might find that there are going to be areas of the law or, I don’t know, maybe certain types of assets that you’ve still got to learn about, that you don’t know anything about. Maybe [00:02:00] there’s a real estate property involved that it’s specialized or unique in some way.
[00:02:04] Scott Benton: Maybe there’s, there are timeshares or, syndications or vacation rentals or something that’s a little bit more unique. Or maybe there’s a stash of gold and silver coins included in a trust that you just, you don’t know anything about metal. So you’ve got to go learn all about that.
[00:02:19] Scott Benton: Maybe you reach a point where there’s a case that has to go to trial and you just haven’t been in front of a judge yet as the lead attorney for a client that you represent. So there’s going to be a fear factor that you’re suddenly bombarded with because the idea of going to a trial is, overwhelming and you find you’re freezing up a little and maybe not completely sure how to prepare for the trial.
[00:02:39] Scott Benton: You might have an idea from what you’ve seen on TV or in the movies and maybe what you studied in moot court during law school, but this isn’t law school anymore. It’s the real deal and besides aren’t all judges different and have different preferences and expectations about how they run their own courtrooms?
[00:02:57] Scott Benton: So there’s a lot to take in and you [00:03:00] might get yourself stuck somewhere in your mind or just maybe even overwhelmed and thinking about the many unknowns that you’re up against or maybe the fears that you’re confronting and you’re putting off doing anything about it. So getting stuck or freezing up might happen frequently.
[00:03:15] Scott Benton: So it helps to know what to do at that moment because as an attorney, remember, you’re selling your time by providing legal services, which you perform for your cases and for the clients that hire you. The more you get stuck and the more that you freeze up and become immobilized, the less billing you’re actually able to do because you’re just, you’re not performing legal services if you’re stuck and not moving forward.
[00:03:40] Scott Benton: Somehow you need to find a way to get yourself going once again. And the best kept secret for getting unstuck is simply to take action. Action kills the freeze state that you’re in. Action kills the mental quicksand that feels like you’re getting pulled down into a state of inertia. Action kills [00:04:00] fear that contains you. Action is the default, go to, fail safe response system that you always want to remember to move towards when you find yourself stuck or when you just don’t know what to do.
[00:04:12] Scott Benton: Just start moving.
[00:04:14] Scott Benton: Now you might say I’ve never taken an online deposition before, and I don’t know how to work my computer properly, and where do I send my exhibits so they can be displayed to the person I’m deposing, or do I do that myself, and how do I share a document, and what if I mess something up and I look incompetent or foolish?
[00:04:31] Scott Benton: You know all the voices that go on, all that doubt. If the default go to fail safe response system is to take action, and the online deposition example here seems like it’s going to be too overwhelming, and taking action is just not going to be a possibility, then don’t let yourself get backed into a corner of inaction, which is easy to do, and it’s a trap that you can avoid.
[00:04:58] Scott Benton: Instead, if [00:05:00] taking action seems like it’s going to be a lot and you’re not going to be able to do it, then you need to break down bigger actions into smaller actions, and small enough so you can actually do them.
[00:05:11] Scott Benton: The point is to get the motion of action in play and to get that train moving down the tracks and building momentum until you’re full speed ahead. And that is how you break through it. Get yourself moving one way or the other.
[00:05:26] Scott Benton: In the case of an online deposition. Make a short to do list for yourself and break down any little component of that online deposition process to do, such as watch three YouTube videos on doing online depositions. Or, talk to another attorney at your firm who’s done them before and ask how to present documents online.
[00:05:46] Scott Benton: Or, Call the administrator of the online deposition platform and ask them for more information on how their platform works. And then do anything else you need to do as part of that process. Maybe you don’t know how to use the office copier to [00:06:00] send yourself a scan of a document that you’re going to need to present, so you might go ask the office manager to show you how to scan something if you don’t already know how to do it. Whatever little piece of business it is that you need to do that ultimately builds up your ability to successfully tackle the completion of an online deposition, all of those items should go on your to do list so you can take action.
[00:06:20] Scott Benton: and not let yourself get or remain stuck. The more you take action, the easier it becomes. And this is going to go with everything that you do. If you’re facing your first trial, for instance, you’re going to want to go through a similar process. But you’ll probably have many more items on that to do list than you do with an online deposition, but at least you’re taking action.
[00:06:42] Scott Benton: You’re moving forward and you’re not remaining immobilized. So you always want to remember that action is the best kept secret for when it comes to getting unstuck.
[00:06:54] Scott Benton: My name is Scott Benton. I’m the host of the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. If this [00:07:00] is material that you like and you want to receive an alert every time we put out a new episode, you can go to our website, which is classroom2courtroom.
[00:07:07] Scott Benton: com. That’s classroom, the number two. Courtroom. com. You can leave us your contact information. You’ll get an alert when we put out a new episode. So how cool is that? Additionally, if you like this material, don’t forget to share and subscribe. And by doing that, it’ll help you stay on top of our newest episodes as well.
[00:07:23] Scott Benton: Cause you’ll get an alert through the podcatcher that you’re on. So 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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