SMALL TOWN VALUES BIG CITY RESULTS Rinehardt Law | www.rinehardtlawfirm.com | 419-LAW-2020
AUGUST 2020
CLIMBING MOUNTAINS One Step at a Time
of me when I decided to return to work after several years as a stay-at-home mom.
But all of those mountains, and lots of other hills along the way, were manageable when I focused on taking one step at a time instead of standing at the bottom gazing up at the entire slope. I think about that type of mountain climbing when I talk with our clients here at Rinehardt Law. People who are facing serious injuries, folks who are bringing a case on behalf of a lost loved one, and people struggling with the injustice of having been harmed by someone else’s fault all face a steep mountain climb. It can be overwhelming. An important part of my role is reminding those people to focus on taking the challenge step by step instead of trying to climb the whole mountain all at once. I also am grateful that I get to hike that sloped journey with them and celebrate with them when they turn around at the end and see just how high they’ve climbed. Now that you know about National Mountain Climbing Day, I hope you will use it to think back on the mountains you have already conquered and to remind yourself that by taking on new challenges one step at a time, you can climb even the steepest mountains that lie ahead.
as I sat alone in my room staring out the window at the campus, I decided not to worry about the mountain but instead to just take a few small steps upward. The next day, I focused on buying books and checking assignments. The day after that, I thought about getting through orientation. And a couple days later, I just wanted to make it through that first day of class. I kept moving forward: one day at a time, one friend at a time, and one class at a time. Before I knew it, it was the end of the first semester. From that point on, I had not only momentum but also confidence to keep working my way up that mountain. In the same way that I tackled the mountain of law school, I also had to conquer other mountains over the course of my career. Starting out as a new lawyer was a pretty steep climb. So was the hill ahead of me when I had to learn how to balance my career with my new role as a mother. Even steeper still was the mountain ahead
It’s August … the month with no holidays, right? That’s what I thought, too. But then I learned about National Mountain Climbing Day, which falls on Aug. 1, and I thought it would be a great opportunity to think about how we tackle all the challenges — or “mountains” — in our lives. When I think about the mountains that I have climbed in my career, I often start with the challenge I faced when moving from a small Ohio town and close-knit college to a large, intimidating law school hundreds of miles away. I left everyone and everything I knew behind and faced a rather scary unknown. As I dragged my belongings up three flights of stairs in an unairconditioned, bare-bones dormitory on a scorching day in August, I wondered if I had made a big mistake. The mountain ahead — three long years at Harvard Law School, surrounded by unfamiliar and often unfriendly faces — seemed like too steep of a mountain to climb. But that first night,
–Melanie Fahey
1
Rinehardt Law | www.rinehardtlawfirm.com
Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online