Dear Client:
Once you decide to engage in litigation, whether by choice or force, your already overloaded to-do list will expand beyond recognition.
You will have to meet with your lawyer. You have to respond to requests from the opposing counsel. You will have to provide your attorney with mounds of documentation. You will have to prepare for court hearings. You have to attend to court hearings.
If you don’t have time to do all of the things that you are presently facing, how can you possibly find the time to meet the additional demands of the court action?
Whatever you do, don’t make the mistake of thinking about everything you have to do.
Thinking about everything you have to do will lead to exhaustion. And exhaustion will lead to feeling overwhelmed and being overwhelmed is just a few steps away from paralysis.
Instead, try to limit your focus to only the next thing you have to do. Don’t ask yourself “What do I need to do?” but rather, “What’s next?”
That is the only question you should allow yourself to entertain.
While it may be impossible to figure out how to do everything that needs be done as a whole, it is much easier to summon the strength to do the next thing that needs to be done.
For example, whenever your lawyer requests information, and it is likely that she will be requesting lots of it, break the requests down into individual units, and then approach one unit at a time. Complete one and then move on to the next.
If the thought of pulling together the names, addresses and account numbers of all of your creditors causes you to want to run and hide, narrow your focus to getting the name, address and account number of one creditor. Channel all of your energy on only that task. And once it is accomplished move on to getting the information needed for the next creditor.
If you continue to proceed by focusing only on what needs to be done next, eventually everything you need to do will get done.
This is an excerpt from Letters to a New Divorce Client. Download a copy below:
Letters to a New Divorce Client
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