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Is It Time to Challenge Yourself as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant?

Is It Time to Challenge Yourself as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant?

People often ask me: “Vickie, of the places you’ve been, what is your all-time favorite trip?” I’m not a fan of this question because every trip is a favorite in its own way. My response has been the same for years: “If I can only pick one, it would have to be Nepal.” Nepal was my first expedition, so I felt daring, rugged and adventurous. I also fell in love with the incredible contrasts there.

The Himalayas were the most stunning mountains I’ve ever seen and I hiked on trails that were carved by generations of use and felt like sacred ground. The dramatic mountains and 14,500 feet of altitude took my breath away. With every step I took I simply marveled at what I saw. To this day I’ve seen nothing that rivals the beauty or the thrill of my first view of Mount Everest.

If there was a counterpoint to the beauty of the surroundings, it was the places we stayed. I’ve done the camping thing. It’s great; I love being in nature no matter the weather and I don’t mind getting really wet or dirty. But after a long day of hiking I enjoy a hot shower, a good meal and nice surroundings. There were few of those in Nepal. Some of the places we stayed were downright dirty. The communal toilet (if there even was one) was often overflowing and covered in a combination of excrement and urine. Luckily, my hospital experience with all sorts of bodily fluids helped me to cope and being a nurse I knew how to use a toilet without touching anything but I quickly started looking forward to using a hole in the ground instead of a Nepalese toilet.

Then, there were the uncomfortable beds made from 2x4s covered by mattresses stuffed with “local materials” shaved from a zopkio. They didn’t bring me joy. When Tom and I zipped into our sleeping bags at night, it was for protection from the mattress and whatever was living in it more than the elements. It almost made me wish we were camping outside, not tea-house trekking. Next there were the four minutes of luke-warm, sun-still-heated water per person. Tom and I made the most of that one. Don’t get excited though – any flames of romance were quickly extinguished when the water returned to freezing in the 9th minute.

Finally there was the food. Being an Italian gal from New Orleans I live to eat, so Tom was shocked to find that not only was I not eating, I had no appetite whatsoever. After three days he watched in awe as I chowed down on a dubious-looking jar of American peanut butter.

Despite the worst food and the worst accommodations of my life, Nepal will always be a favorite trip.

Sometimes the most rewarding and enjoyable things come with some discomfort. This applies to our legal nurse consulting businesses too. We can be working away in a business we love, on a case we’re interested in or a challenging project and then something happens and suddenly the day turns bad. What do we do – lose our momentum and quit? No, we have to push through it. When this happens, I’ll joke and say “Hey, if business was easy everyone would be doing it.” I think that’s what makes any business, especially legal nurse consulting, so rewarding.

We often think easy or soft is what we want, but what we really want is something that will challenge us and in the challenge we find a special reward. To be in Nepal, I needed to work to get there. Enjoying the Himalayas involved not only bad food and accommodations, it also included training for long and high-altitude hiking we’d be doing and traveling almost halfway around the world to get there. One day we walked for 12 hours to get to the next tea-house (breaks not included). At first I resisted the discomforts, but on Day 4 of the trek I woke up very hungry for even bad food and on that day had the epiphany, “Without the discomforts I wouldn’t be having this wondrous experience.” Suddenly I was all in, truly alive and savoring each and every moment.

Embrace the discomforts of your own CLNC® expedition, whether it’s a prospect call, writing a challenging report or simply emptying the trash can in your office. When you embrace the discomforts you’ll wake up to each and every moment and opportunity available to you for your legal nurse consulting business.

Also, vow to do something each day that makes you uncomfortable. It could be offering a new CLNC service to your attorney-clients, finally attacking and organizing that mountain of paperwork or simply making a call to retie the connection with an attorney-client you haven’t spoken to for some time. Pick something that you’ve been resistant to and see how it makes you feel when you’ve completed it. There just might be a greater payoff or reward than you expect. You may feel like you’re climbing Mount Everest, but just imagine the view from the top!

Success Is Yours,

P.S. Comment and share those moments where you pushed through a discomfort to CLNC success.

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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.

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