It’s Easy to Be First as a Legal Nurse Consultant – Just Work Harder and Smarter Than Everyone Else

During my polar bear watching trip, one of the naturalists, Richard, was often one of the first to spot a polar bear. Now, if they’re sitting next to the ship or licking the bow that’s pretty easy, but Richard could spot an off-white bear in a white environment as far as 2½ miles away. Everyone was in awe of him. Plus, it wasn’t just polar bears that he’d spot. We’d be scanning the ice flows for anything that looked like it might be alive and when Richard would spot a bear he’d tell me something like, “It’s lying on its belly, off the bow at 2:00, about a mile out, just past the two ivory gulls and to the left of the walrus with the cavity in its left tusk.”

Richard could see things that others could not and everyone commented on his ability to be the first to spot wildlife. What went uncommented on, however, was the fact that it was more than just his talent. He had a slight advantage because he started off as a birdwatcher. So in comparison to spotting and identifying tiny, quick-moving birds, the large polar bears were relatively easy. When we were on land, he’d spot Arctic foxes, reindeer (easy) and tell you about every bird that swooped by seemingly without looking at them directly.

It was when I stopped to watch Richard spot wildlife, that I noticed why he was so successful. He never stopped moving and searching. Richard was a combination of constant movement and stillness, starting on one side of the ship’s bridge, searching, moving to the other side, searching, moving outside to the observation deck (in his flip-flops) and searching. When he was moving, he moved quickly (even faster than Tom), but when he was searching, he was a portrait in stillness. Richard achieved the perfect balance of movement and stillness, one that I certainly envy – not just for polar bear spotting but for everyday work.

Other passengers and crew were also looking for wildlife but without the success rate that Richard achieved. Some would spot for half an hour or so and then give up. Others would simply look to see where Richard was searching and then try and search in that same direction. But none of them realized the essential difference between themselves and Richard. He was working harder (and at the same time smarter) than anyone else.

I learned a lot from Richard over the course of my trip. He taught me the best way to spot a polar bear (at least one that isn’t sleeping) was to slowly move my binoculars or spotting scope (and I do mean infinitesimally slowly) across the landscape looking for the slightest bit of movement, any movement. On an ice flow, that movement might be an indication of wildlife or it might just be a bergy bit rolling over. In any event, I learned first to watch for movement as the first step in locating a polar bear or a walrus.

Next, Richard taught me to watch for variations in color. Polar bears, despite what you see in most photos, are not pure white. They’re really sort of a yellowish white but when photographers edit and color correct the photos, the bears tend to come out whiter than real life. Richard knew to scan for variations in color at the same time he was looking for movement – all in the white on white icescape.

But most important, Richard’s actions and lessons reinforced something I’d learned long ago and something that even Thomas Jefferson had commented on when he said, “I’m a great believer in luck. It seems the harder I work, the luckier I get.” Richard was making his own luck by working harder than anyone else on the ship. When he was on duty he never quit and I even ran into him transiting from the bridge to the observation deck during his off-duty hours. He was a man driven to succeed.

The successful Certified Legal Nurse Consultants I’ve met aren’t the lucky ones or even the ones that are better at marketing than anyone else. The successful CLNC^® consultants are the ones who work the hardest – day in and day out. They’re the ones constantly searching and looking. If you find yourself commenting on how lucky or more talented some other CLNC^® consultant seems to be, maybe you should ask yourself whether or not you’re willing to put in the hard, smart work necessary to find your own polar bear or just sit back and look at someone else’s CLNC^® success. In the meantime you’ll find me on the bridge searching like crazy for my own polar bears.

Success Is Inside!

P.S. Comment and share one step you will take today to be the first in legal nurse consulting.