When it’s your first time, everything is exciting. Sure, you’re nervous, but that’s a good thing, like the way you feel waiting in line for a roller coaster. Your knees are knocking and you’re thinking “I don’t know if I really want to do this.” Then you go on the ride and squeal, “Wheee! That was fun! Let’s do it again.”
When you first start a new legal nurse consulting business, a new quilt, a new marriage, even the little things are exciting. But how do you sustain such excitement for three years or 30 in your legal nurse consulting business, not to mention in your relationships with attorney-clients?
Managing a legal nurse consulting business is challenging and can be potentially exhausting. Whether you’re dealing with employees or subcontractors, there’s one of you and all of them – all with their sick children, flu season, bad hair days, bare midriffs (and that’s just the men). When you have problems you think they’re worse than anyone else’s, but when you’re the boss, they are indeed magnified 25 times, plus you get your own and your spouse’s too! You need renewal time to joyfully come back for more of this punishment day after day after day.
My solution is a simple one. I am a voracious reader. My day is off if I don’t read something each morning. 15-30 minutes of a nourishing book (not a newspaper or gossip rag) accompanied by a steaming cup of healthy green tea in a quiet environment renews me and energizes me for the day. Then I head to the gym or take a walk.
I don’t pop up like a piece of toast – I have to get hauled out of bed at an early hour to make time for my quiet time and exercise, and yes as strange as it sounds, it’s totally worth it. I choose to start my day for me, so that I can freely and happily give to everyone else what is demanded all day, every day. By starting my day for me (not my business, spouse or someone else’s cause), I can step into my office with a smile and the attitude of “Bring it on! I’m ready.”
Except for my first cup of tea, my day is never predictable. While I always start with a plan, the plan rarely plays out the way I designed it. I once naively scheduled Pilates lessons at the end of the day. When I was paying for more no-show classes than classes I showed for, I faced the music and started hitting the gym early instead.
You don’t expect the batteries in your kids’ toys to keep going forever without recharging. Don’t expect it of yourself. Revitalize your mind, body, emotions and spirit frequently, and you’ll find the energy abundantly available when you need it. Certified Legal Nurse Consultants who invest in renewal have the energy to enjoy the ride long after the carnival has left town. Believe me, your attorney-clients, your family, your friends and your spouse will see the difference a little renewal time can make. For more renewal ideas (and I have a few), read Wicked Success Is Inside Every Woman.
Whether you’re consulting part-time or full-time, you’ll love your legal nurse consulting business more if you start your day for you. Design it today to assure you’ll be here tomorrow.
Be safe and stay healthy,
Vickie L. Milazzo, RN, MSN, JD
LegalNurse.com is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.
The National Alliance of Certified Legal Nurse Consultants (NACLNC®) is the largest and oldest association of legal nurse consultants.
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*The opinions and statements made by Vickie Milazzo, the founder of Medical-Legal Consulting Institute, Inc. are based on her experiences and expertise, should not be applied beyond the specific context provided, and do not guaranty or project actual results. Vickie Milazzo is no longer involved in the operations or management of the business, but is involved as an independent education consultant.
