Watch Your Fall Semester Reel

Insider Tip: Last semester is a reel you can replay to understand your study habits.

Challenge Yourself: If you’re willing to look at them honestly without shaming yourself, what worked—and what didn’t?

If I missed a goal in the past, I sometimes avoided replaying my reel of why I missed it because it felt like a form of punishment.

Almost a self-sabotaging event where I replayed everything I should have done differently and somehow turned it into a personal, Lisa-esque, stagnant character flaw that could not be improved.

Over (lots of) time and practice, I’ve learned to watch my reels without making them personal.

Not to judge them. Not to justify them. Just to see what actually happened.

I now replay them under the guise of, “How could I have been a better human (or wife, mom, daughter, sibling, friend, lawyer, or professor) in that situation?” This reframe helps me stick to my character values and view the assessment as a positive review instead of a condemnation of my soul (yuck).

That’s when it becomes useful instead of painful.

In coaching sessions, one of the first questions I ask law students is: “What are you currently doing (or what did you do last semester) to achieve your goals?”

It’s a simple question, but the answer is often hard to articulate if you’ve never really thought about your actions and their connection to your grades.

Some students stammer. Some give immediate autopilot answers, thinking they have to perform for me (they don’t, in our safe space). Most offer broad statements and overlook the individual steps that led to their grades—until I press further to uncover a complete picture. 

What I love most about that question is that, by the time we’re done, the student already has a lot of clarity about how to improve performance—before I even have a chance to introduce my proven study system.

That makes crafting a personalized study system moving forward so much easier.

Law school makes it easy to get lost in intentions, in what should happen.

But results come from the concrete choices we already made. Watching your own reel forces you to see those choices clearly—without judgment.

Once you see them, you can start deciding what to stop, what to tweak, and what to double down on. That’s how you get different results in a new semester.

Hit play on your own reel with this exercise below:

Please share your systems—I read every response and honestly love learning about your plans (I geek out on this stuff)!  

Last thought for this newsletter: enjoy replaying your reels. They are beautiful pieces of your history book and soon you'll see them as the steps you conquered to become the lawyer you are meant to be. 

Sending my best always,

That's all for this week, thanks for being a part of my community!  

Schedule coaching session to uncover your reels together!