The 5-Part Billing Habit Tool

The Billing Coach Website

Learn the powerful 5-part framework that will become your go-to coaching tool for understanding and changing any billing behavior. Discover how circumstances, thoughts, feelings, actions, and results work together - and why changing your thoughts is the key to transforming your billing habits for good.

Key Takeaways

• The Model consists of 5 components: Circumstances, Thoughts, Feelings, Actions, and Results
• Circumstances are neutral facts - thoughts are optional interpretations that create your experience
• You can't control circumstances, but you can always work on your thoughts
• Negative thoughts create negative feelings, which fuel negative actions and create negative results
• The same circumstance can create completely different results depending on what you think about it

Topics Covered

Introduction to The Model

• 5-part framework: the main coaching tool for changing unhelpful billing habits
• Will be used day in and day out throughout the program
• An equation for your life that applies to billing problems and any life problems

The 5 Components Explained

Circumstances (C):

• Neutral facts we experience that are outside our control
• Observable by anyone, free from interpretation or judgment
• Examples: "No time billed between 10am-5pm," "Received email from client at 3:15pm"
• Key point: Circumstances don't mean anything until we assign meaning through thoughts

Thoughts (T):

• Triggered by circumstances - your interpretation of what happened
• Not factual - they're optional
• Either create what you want or what you don't want in your experience
• Same circumstance can generate many different thoughts

Feelings (F):

• Caused by thoughts, not circumstances
• Physical sensations/vibrations in your body
• Can be located in your body (guilt in stomach, fear in throat, dread in chest)
• We take action to avoid or escape uncomfortable feelings

Actions (A):

• Fueled by feelings - what you do or don't do
• Include procrastinating, freezing, second-guessing, avoiding billing
• Create tangible results in your life

Results (R):

• Outcomes created by your actions and inactions
• Often provide evidence for your original thought, creating a cycle

The Think/Feel/Act Cycle

• Always operating - no instance when you're not in this cycle
• Positive thoughts → positive feelings → positive actions → positive results
• You'll never think negative thoughts, feel negative feelings, and create positive results

Billing Example: Problem Billing Model / Reconstructing Timekeeping Model

• C: Billing
• T: "I'm a terrible biller"
• F: Hopeless
• A: Avoid billing, procrastinate, scroll social media instead
• R: Don't bill time, proving you're a terrible biller (self-fulfilling prophecy)
• 
  

Billing Example: Solution Billing Model / Contemporaneous Timekeeping Model

• C: Billing (same circumstance)
• T: "I'm learning to be a better biller"
• F: Hope
• A: Practice billing more, try different systems, enter time consistently
• R: Bill more time, proving you're learning to be better
• 
  

Key Insights

• Circumstances don't create results - thoughts about circumstances do
• Most people think feelings come from circumstances ("I feel overwhelmed because I have so much to bill")
• Actually: You feel overwhelmed because of what you're thinking about having so much to bill
• You're not at the mercy of your circumstances

Tools Introduced

• Feelings chart for labeling and managing emotions
• The solution model technique
• Personal responsibility and empowerment through thought management

Your Action Steps

• Look at any billing challenge and ask: What am I thinking? How does that make me feel? What actions am I taking? What results am I creating?
• Experiment: What if I thought differently? How would that feel? What actions would I take?
• Practice this model with small billing challenges
• Notice your thoughts, feelings, and actions - awareness alone starts shifting things

Next Episode Preview

The four stages of billing belief - how to identify where you are on your journey to becoming a contemporaneous timekeeper and what it takes to move to the next stage.