Excerpts taken from  Admired – 21 Ways to Double Your Value by Mark C. Thompson and Bonita S. Thompson:

In global studies with world leaders, we’ve seen over and over that the only way to do your best work is to employ as many of your passions as possible to get it done.  By trusting this instinct and pursuing what you love… by becoming more skilled at that passion, you can create a win-win for your career, your organization, and your life.  But can this philosophy translate into a courthouse or is this approach solely a private sector thing. Judges do perform a unique service but that does not mean that judges can”t learn or can’t invest in themselves. DISCOVER YOUR STRENGTHS:   What are you doing when you are at your best?   This question is deceptively simple but incredibly powerful.  When you are a very good judge what are you doing when you are at your best?    StrengthsFinder 2.0 can give you a head-start at discovering your strengths. The StrengthsFinder test will identify your top 5 themes and provide suggestions for utilizing them to the utmost.

 

DO A TIME DIARY:  How do you (really) spend your time? For one day, write down what you want to accomplish and then use an online tool called Time Tracker  to keep a record of everything you do. At the end of the day compare your goals with what actually happened.  This is an amazingly revealing exercise because it shows you how much time you waste on random, useless activities. How much time do you spend checking email?  How much time endlessly browsing the news, feeling productive but not actually accomplishing anything?  As an exercise, see if you can identify the 20% of your time that produced 80% of your results. What can you do to have more highly productive time like this?

 

SET WEEKLY GOALS AND REVIEW PROGRESS:  What is your #1 goal this week?  This personal investment strategy is similar to time management, but it lasts for an entire week. Oftentimes, we get so caught up in the day-to-day rush that we fail to step back and look at the things that are most critical.  It’s the old urgent-versus-important problem. We spend our time dealing with small, urgent issues, when we should be focusing on important (but non-urgent) tasks.  This week, fight back against the chaos by setting one main goal that you want to have accomplished in seven days.  You can also pick two secondary goals if you’re feeling ambitions, but no more than that.  Look back on how you did at the end of the week. Did setting goals help you work more purposefully and effectively? If you had done nothing but work on your three main goals, what would have happened?

 

GET A MENTOR:  This is a harder challenge, but the benefits are worth it.  You need to find a mentor.  Most likely the mentor will be another judge but it maybe someone else. Try to set up a regular meeting time and overarching goals for the relationship when you first get together.  Establish a task to work on in between each of your meetings, so you can get feedback and support from your mentor.

 

FIND YOUR WHY:  Purpose is a powerful thing. Too often judges don’t reflect on something as important as how they approach their job.  It gets you up in the morning and keeps you awake at night. Anyone who accomplished anything great was driven by a strong, deeply-held belief of what is wrong with the world and how it can be made right. What is your purpose? Why do you work?  Take an hour today to sit quietly by yourself and reflect on what you care about most deeply. What types of “bigger than yourself” activities really get you fired up or make you feel most fulfilled?  Don’t skip this challenge. The benefits of knowing your purpose will last a lifetime.