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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 like to make the practice of law fun for you. Now today, we’re going to take a look at visualizing your way to success as an attorney.
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Scott Benton: Today, in order to help assist your overall use of the success cycle, which is what we like to talk about on this podcast to help you learn and perfect the actual practice of law, a subject not taught in law school, we’re going to take a look at visualizing your way to success as an attorney. In the world of law, where the pressure is high and the challenges take place every single day, maintaining a positive mindset can become just as important as sharpening your legal skills.
In that regard, visualization and positive thinking are very powerful tools that can really help you reach your goals, maintain and build momentum in your work, and then ultimately succeed as an attorney during the entire course of your legal career. [00:02:00] Visualization means taking a short period of time and mentally picturing a successful outcome before it actually happens. Now this is a technique used by athletes and performers and actors and Yes, even lawyers, to set themselves up for success. Now, by vividly imagining positive results for the legal services that you’re performing for your clients, you prepare yourself to act in alignment with that vision.
In fact, some people out there consider vision coupled with action even more important than just action alone.
Through visualization and by incorporating the success cycle, it means aligning your to do list with better and probably with higher quality tasks. And then, of course, when performing those legal services, it means performing them in a way that’s just more precise, or maybe faster, or with a higher degree of accuracy.
It might even mean writing better billing entries that help maintain the connection that you’ve built with your client because They understand exactly how their [00:03:00] case is moving forward.
And then let’s say you’re preparing for a major trial. So you’re busy visualizing the whole courtroom scenario as well as your arguments being well received and a favorable verdict ruled in your favor. This kind of visualization exercise can really help you approach the case with greater confidence and better clarity.
That kind of mindfulness rehearsal can translate into an overall superior performance and with better advocacy in the real world. It helps your mind focus on the major tasks in front of it, and while not going too far down the rabbit hole, it really engages your whole subconscious mind to begin to work out problems even without your conscious awareness.
And that’s really what’s been happening the whole time, for instance, when an answer suddenly pops into your head, already fully worked out, and the problem’s solved. You know, maybe sometimes it’s late at night or early in the morning or something like that. So pre visualization becomes an extremely useful [00:04:00] mechanism.
That’s what’s been happening the whole time, for instance, when an answer suddenly appears or just pops into your head already fully worked out and the problem solved. Maybe sometimes it’s late at night or early in the morning, so previsualization becomes an extremely useful mechanism that you can consider using.
Positive thinking, on the other hand, which you really want to layer on top of your visualization, is about maintaining an optimistic attitude and outlook, even in the face of challenges. Now, it doesn’t mean ignoring problems or difficulties. It means approaching them with a mindset that believes that you’ll find solutions and overcome the obstacles.
In fact, research has shown us that positive thinking can reduce stress, it can improve problem solving skills, it can enhance your overall performance in really whatever activity you’re busy doing.
For attorneys, that’s good news because it means approaching cases with a strong belief in your ability to succeed, which can bolster your confidence and bolster your resilience.
On a [00:05:00] practical level when using visualization, you want to take a few minutes to sit down by yourself and picture in your mind, sort of like streaming a movie, the event that you’re going to be going through. And at each step of the way, you’re met with a positive outcome. So you want to create and then build that positive energy in the scenario that you’re picturing, which means that if you’re in a court hearing, for instance, you want to be able to see yourself presenting your argument with confidence in front of a judge.
You wanna see yourself effectively responding to the opposing council’s questions and objections, and creating a positive rapport with everyone else inside the courtroom, including the courtroom staff and witnesses.
And finally, you want to picture the judge ruling in your favor and then you walking out of the courthouse with a walking gait of victory. You might even see yourself celebrating and enjoying a nice dinner afterwards at your favorite restaurant. So keep in mind that with visualization, you want to make your images as detailed and vivid as possible.
You also want to try to incorporate all of your senses. [00:06:00] So you want to know what the courtroom sounds like, or what the courtroom smells like, or what do the tables and the chairs feel like. And finally, you want to make sure that you’re practicing visualization regularly. So, it’s less effective if you do it, let’s say, once a year, and it’s going to be far more effective if you do it every week or even every day.
And like anything else, just like the law, the more you practice, the better and more effective you become, and visualization is no different.
So I hope you can see how visualization and positive thinking together can be far more powerful than just using, let’s say, motivational concepts. They can be used as practical and powerful tools that not only enhance your day to day performance of legal services, but also they’re going to help set up the positive feedback loop that over time will pave the way to the winner’s circle for you as far as your career goes.
I’m Scott Benton. I’m the host of the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast. Thank you [00:07:00] so much for stopping in to say hi and checking out this episode.
If you like this podcast and you’d like to get more information about us, you can always go to our website at classroom2courtroom. com. That’s classroom, the number 2, courtroom. com where you can send us a message to keep in touch. Or you can even inquire about our seasonal associate programs we have available for law school students.
You can come and work with us. And as always, don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe to stay on top of all of our newest episodes. And until next time, we hope you’ll join us in making the world a better place, one client at a time.
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