Lawyers may deserve the “asshole” label at times, but not because we are all mean, nasty people. Yes, there are many lawyers who are. But many more lawyers act poorly because they’ve never learned differently.
I’m not saying that you shouldn’t ever argue the correctness of your position, because I am not an idiot. But choosing the right time and the right place for that argument is where we lawyers often stumble. Far too many attorneys have their “I’m right” dial set permanently at 11, one of the reasons lawyers’ interpersonal relationships suffer.
I particularly don’t believe in lazy when it comes to people who managed to make it through an academic career with the grades to get into law school, to get through law school, and to get through the bar exam.
What I do believe in is fear. One way or another, fear is the root of behavior that we misguidedly call laziness.
Your brain needs time to mull things over and roam freely in odd places. Lacking that kind of freedom, your brain (and therefore you) gets frenzied and spastic, going through lots of motions but accomplishing little.
Writing a novel in a month isn’t impossible, as long as you’re willing to write badly. If you want friends for the journey, join the Nanowrimo Lawyers 2018 FB group.
Not every single law firm environment is toxic. Yet a shockingly high percentage are. If we lawyers could see our psyches in physical form, I’m confident we would see many ugly scars, spirits broken from verbal lashings, and disfigurement from scathing attacks on our eyes, ears, and voices.
I was working on a post about lowering your lawyer stress level by creating space in your life. And I’m still going to write it, because I don’t know a lawyer who isn’t stressed and in need of mental space and peace. But now, with the added stress of all the trauma being re-triggered by…
A personal brand isn’t about creating some fictitious persona. It’s about creating a reputation for yourself about attributes that matter to you. What do you want to be known for? Your brand should emphasize not just your strengths, but the strengths you care most about. Figure out what those are, and you are on your way to an authentic, useful personal brand.
Time alone gives back far more than the minutes it takes. By paying attention to your own unique interests and pulls, you connect more with your wellspring of inspiration. I don’t know anyone who can’t use more of that.
The thing that makes you a writer is pretty simple: You write words. There’s no need to pick apart whether your words are good, or what’s your motivation to write, or whether you can make a living as a writer. If you want to write, and you write words, you are a writer.
Anxiety makes your brain less able to think clearly. You are like that guy at the bar who insists, after 3 beers in an hour, that he is FINE to drive. And everyone sober around him takes one look at him and says, “Dude, you are so not fine!”
In a nutshell, that’s why you need to meditate.
You want to know why lawyers are such raging assholes? It’s that a huge majority of them are quite below-average when it comes to emotional intelligence. Lawyers are, in fact, a bunch of emotional fuckwits. They go through their days competing to the death, or avoiding like the plague.
