Fear holds many legal nurse consultants back from taking risks in their businesses. If you experience fear, what can you find do to help you with your legal nurse consulting fears? You’ve got to find something to help you get over this emotion.
Let’s examine what this fear means. The ability to fight it is the underpinning to building a positive mindset, the self-esteem and the confidence that you need to be truly successful. Fear will paralyze us and make it impossible for us to take action because we do not know where to head. So we need to stop and uncover what it is that we’re afraid of; we also need to go back and find out where that fear originated and learn how to subdue it.
We develop these thought and belief patterns when we are very young. If we’re told as youngsters that we’re brilliant, smart, or funny, that message becomes our belief about ourselves. We’re going to act out in ways that support our belief. We’re going to act funny; we’re going to act smart; we’re going to act special; we’re going to act as if we are attractive, whatever we’ve been told.
If we’ve been taught the opposite of that, we’re going to act out that way. If you are told you have nothing important to say, you’re going to turn that into a belief and you’re going to act that way. This is not a conscious process. It’s totally unconscious, but that is what happens.
Self worth drives legal nurse consultants fears
It really comes down to self-worth. Ask yourself, “Why am I afraid? What am I afraid of? What happened in my past that has validated this is something to be afraid of, and what can I do to get out of the state of fear so that I can take my business/career to the next level?”
1. Have you received messages from family, friends, or foes that eroded your self esteem? Were you bullied? Abused? Put down?
2. Are you afraid of a legal nurse consulting business failure? Are you afraid of the embarrassment of having to admit that you failed?
3. Are you afraid that you’re not good enough to help attorneys, no matter what your education?
Goal Setting for Legal Nurse Consultants
There are many ways that legal nurse consultants reduce their fears and develop self-confidence. The best way to build confidence is when you’re backed by a plan. This way you can get to exactly where you’re trying to go. You’re reliant on each baby step that you take. Set goals. We understand how to set goals for patients. Do we apply the same process to our business?
A goal is very specific; you can measure it. You may set up a graph and keep track of your results. What can you measure? Here are just a few items:
1. Make 20 marketing calls each week
2. Send out 25 mailings each week
3. Gain 3 new clients per month
4. Convert 75% of potential cases into actual cases
5. Send out 100 invoices this year
6. Reduce invoices that are 30 days past due by 50%
7. Spend no more than 5 hours to locate an expert witness
Legal nurse consultants’ goals should be attainable. Many times we set goals that are unrealistic and not attainable. That sets us up for failure and is another way to totally diminish our confidence and self-esteem. We need to make sure that they’re attainable and that the time that we’re allowing ourselves is realistic. Goals should be specific. We should be able to define what we expect to achieve.
Write specific goals to reduce your legal nurse consultant fears
Be as specific with your goal writing as possible. You might want to say something like “I feel incredibly empowered, encouraged, and optimistic knowing that I have completed 20 sales calls every week for the last 90 days that have resulted in 45 new conversations and 18 new clients.”
That’s your legal nurse consulting business goal, but you’re writing it as if it’s already happened. Do you see how specific it is? It’s specific about the timeframe and about the quantity of calls. You could even add a revenue number into that goal because where the mind focuses, the mind goes.
Think of goals as short-term and long-term, a model we understand from nursing. Short-term goals break the big goal into tiny steps so we don’t get overwhelmed with the big goal. We get encouraged and gain momentum by achieving the small goals. Every step brings you closer to the big goal, when you start to experience that feeling of personal and financial freedom, of fearlessness, of being empowered, of knowing who you are, of having strength and choice in your life as well as control of your life. Set your goals high so they stretch you, but realistically, so that you can grow and enjoy the accomplishment.
Set quarterly goals. Break them into steps with specific deadlines. Then review your quarterly goals at least every other week, adjust deadlines, and highlight those that are accomplished. Enjoy the process of accomplishing your goals. Use your quarterly goals to energize and focus you to appreciate what you have accomplished.
Goal setting by legal nurse consultants reduces fears and helps you move your legal nurse consulting business forward. Start today.
Pat Iyer MSN RN LNCC is president of the Pat Iyer Group. She is the author of the new book, How to Start a Legal Nurse Consulting Business. Get it here.