You Matter! And that's all that matters!
But as you know, there is more to figuring out life's existential mysteries than bold statements and exclamation points.
Good news! So many tools are available to help navigate the journey to your unique and satisfying state of being!
This 10-hour CLE serves as a road map along that journey. Together, we explore the questions that must be asked to figure out the who, why, and where of YOU! Once you have that figured out, we will discuss how you do the you that you do so well, to contribute to yourself, your family, your community and your profession as a leader.
There will be fancy words like ontology and phenomenology thrown about. But the gist is finding out who we are, how that affects our perspective, and what we need to do with that information to be the best and happiest versions of ourselves.
There will be reflection, exercises, group discussion and strategy planning to make progress and keep progress.
This work considers the meaning of integrity, authenticity, service, and accountability as the foundation of personal and professional success.
We then examine strategies to protect that success with healthy relationships and boundaries to recover from and prevent the harmful effects of stress associated with life in the law.
Once you are convinced You Matter©, you will be able to (1) identify goals to improve well-being, physically, mentally and emotionally, and the steps necessary to achieve those goals; (2) figure out how the practice of law fits into that; and (3) improve resilience as the result of feeling empowered to identify capacity for positive engagement.
Sessions will include (in only the fanciest terms) :
You Matter© This introduction to the course will discuss the circumstances in which you practice law, and evaluate the dynamic between you as a lawyer and those circumstances. Participants will engage in a guided assessment of current well-being as a professional, as a lawyer, as an employee or employer, and how that translates into other areas, including personal life. Participants will take measure of resiliency, well-being, optimism, and energy/engagement within their practices. Participants will consider the difference between goals and dreams, consider the source of those goals or dreams, and explore how those goals or dreams may be manifesting as a refuge or a barrier to greater professionalism and satisfaction.
The Matter of You© Using evidence-based theories of analyzing our physiological being, or how we exist as humans, participants are invited to identify core values and strengths of character that serve as the hallmarks of their unique way of being in and contributing to the legal field.
Participants will be coached in identifying circumstances or characteristics that do and do not support these core values and strengths of character. Discussion and group interaction will allow you to consider why or how those qualities or actions separate from yourauthentic being may have invaded or been invited to frustrate our beings. And how this identified authenticity relates to professionalism in the law.
Because You Say So© Having identified our values and strengths as people, and consequently, as lawyers, we will explore how to act with integrity as those people. This discussion will explore a definition of “integrity” that is beyond a moral code, but rather how we as people of integrity honor who we are, and how we show up. We will discuss integrity in terms of psychological, ontological and phenomenological perspectives.
It Matters© So we know who we are, and how to be that way, but to what end? It Matters© will engage participants to identify as valuable and necessary to a bigger cause in serving and contributing to their identified communities, nature, or humanity. Participants will be invited to find purpose in their unique contributions to this facet of practice, and in doing so, identify their motivations for service, as well as how to fully embrace those motivations with proper perspective.
Giving It Shape© Once participants have learned how to explore their purpose to pursue their meaningful contributions that align with their authentic values and character, we will identify how to shift from the dream of a purpose-driven practice, to having an actual purpose-driving practice, in a way that aligns with authenticity and integrity. Engagement will invite participants to consider to what degree a misalignment between authenticity, integrity, purpose, and practical experience serves as a source of stress. And whether that stress is so significant that it interferes with his or her day-to-day well-being, practice, professionalism, or relationships.
It Matters to All of Us© As a concrete transition to implementation, we will discuss concrete actions to align authenticity, integrity, and purpose with accountability to operate as professionals fully empowered to offer our best and highest abilities to the practice of law, as lawyers, leaders, and people.
The concept of accountability as both celebratory and evolutionary will be discussed as a necessary part of engaging as an authentic person of integrity. We will also explore areas of practice where participants may not feel empowered to be accountable as a person of authenticity or integrity. Participants will be asked to consider whether these circumstances are in alignment with their core values and strengths to either consent to those circumstances, or develop a plan to become empowered within them.
Upon concluding the course, participants will be invited to revisit their assessments to again take measure of resiliency, well-being, optimism, and energy/engagement within their practices. Participants will again consider the difference between goals and dreams, consider the source of those goals or dreams, and explore how those goals or dreams may be manifesting as a refuge or a barrier to greater professionalism and satisfaction.
"You Matter©" is a seminar prepared and presented by Stacie Odeneal, JD CWLS. After experiencing great dissatisfaction in her own practice, Stacie set out to find joy and happiness in her career, and through whimsy, academic study, exploration and experimentation, and found passion and purpose in a calling empowering both clients and community to embrace their own healthy and unique life journeys to better implement solutions and identify goals in their own lives. Her journey has been deep, wide and dense. Save yourself the decade of stress by letting her do the hard work of desperately seeking answers, then filtering the grain from the chaff.
That work is manifesting in her continued education as a master's student at Johns Hopkins University in Public Health Policy where she has studied leadership as a state of being as well as organizational leadership theories and techniques. Her studies and research center on mental health as affected by the HPA Axis, gut health, and adverse childhood experiences, as well as leadership in the entities that serve children and families.
