As you may know my previous articles and my bio above, I am a personal trainer as well as a speaker to law firms on growth and profitability. In my first persona, one of the questions I get asked most about weight (resistance) training is, "When is it time to add another plate, some more weight?" A good rule of thumb is when using the current weight becomes easy. Of course, easy is a very subjective term. I am a hard head, and my threshold definition of arduous usually involves a bruise, limp or story I can tell for the next 20 years. For others, arduous is when the first beads of sweat appear on their furrowed brow.

So, how does this concept translate into helping your career?

Most people have heard the phrase in business that "if you are not growing, you are dying." I have two corollaries to this common sense axiom:

1. If you are not learning, you are getting dumber. There is a reason that many professions require continuing education credits. The world changes. If you do not keep up to date on the latest changes, you cease to become a technical expert. You become a history expert. Most lawyers recognize this in the practice of law. However, the same principle applies to knowing the latest scoop on your clients, competition and the market. If you are not constantly in front of the players, you are working with outdated information. If you’re not keeping up on your clients’ businesses and needs, you’re becoming a history expert. In effect, you know less and less every single day.
   
2. If you are not generating new business, you are losing business. Companies merge, clients are fickle and bad luck happens. As many researchers have found, attrition is almost inevitable. And what’s that firm that just set up a new office in your town? Nothing is guaranteed in sales except the fact that you constantly need to prepare to replace clients. You will need to be able to adapt and adjust to remain effective against both your direct competitors and other viable alternatives to your services.

In both corollaries, there is a common theme: when it gets easy, it is time to move up. The passage of time is the tyrant that demands your constant vigilance. With a fitness program, you can reach a desired state and try to maintain it. In your career, you can't because others are trying to take your gains away from you.

So, when you know the most you ever have and have more clients than you ever dreamed, it has become too easy. Step it up. Add another plate.

© 2008 PBDI/SAGE PDI. This article comes from the September 2008 Issue of ORIGINATE!, the online monthly newsletter (with ongoing support resources) dedicated to helping individual lawyers develop business successfully in order to build their careers. The contents of this anniversary issue are complimentary; otherwise articles are usually available to subscribers only. Find out more about subscribing at www.pbdi.org/originate.