How Do I Even Start? A Power Tool for Unhappy Lawyers

Sometimes, signature strengths help clients see themselves in a whole new light. One client, who had worked in a big law firm and then in an attorney general’s office, found that “creativity” was one of his top, or signature, strengths. At first, he thought, “but I’m not artistic!” When he read the description of creativity, though, his world changed in an instant.
He realized that opening a business aimed at an emerging type of health and wellness was highly creative, and went off to do just that.

What Wannabe Lawyer-Writers Can Learn From My 10 Year-old

When it comes to creative endeavors, we’re usually taught that if we don’t do something better than average on our first try, we don’t have talent and should just move on to something else. Imagine if we took the same attitude toward reading or math in schools?! Sure, some people are more creative than others. Some people are way more creatively blocked than others. Guess what? The ones who have less raw talent, but get in there and keep trying and failing and then trying again, are often the ones who produce something less than perfect, but get the accolades.

Walking Into a Better Law Life

Especially for lawyers, many of us love, love, love to be in our heads and not so much in our bodies. Exercise is usually one of the first things to go when the work demands really ratchet up. Lawyers also tend to bring their perfectionistic tendencies into their views on exercise. Shocking, right? If they can’t do a full hour of a complete and demanding workout, they won’t do one at all. This is one of they myriad ways that lawyers are brittle and not resilient. The all-or-nothing attitude leads to important but not urgent stuff simply not getting done.

Surviving the Worst Job Ever

Yes, it does absolutely, totally suck to get kicked in the teeth. It hurts. It makes you vulnerable. I’m not suggesting you should pretend otherwise. But it’s hanging on to those hurts that gets all of us in trouble. When you get stuck in the story of just how bad life is treating you, it doesn’t help you move on, heal, and live joyfully. What does help, ultimately, is getting in touch with your strengths.

Questioning Your New Year’s Career Resolutions

Too often, New Year’s resolutions focus you on the wrong thing, on only the goal. So yes, you might use all that fresh-start energy of the new year to find a new job. But if you haven’t figured out the reasons behind where you are now, and more importantly what your purpose in life is, the chances are good you’ll find yourself a lipstick-on-a-pig new job.

Chasing the Perfect Job, Ruining Your Alternative Legal Career Search

As I’ve written about several times (here, here, and here, for starters), perfectionism is an especially strong demon for most lawyers in their alternative legal career search. It’s one of the six attitudes that hold lawyers back in their search for a better career and life, and it’s got such a powerful hold over most…

Point Blink

Point Blink often looks like a very culturally acceptable thing, embracing certainty. Certainty is a dream-killer. Anne Lamott calls it the opposite of faith. Embracing certainty turns seeking your unique path into marching to someone else’s drum. To paraphrase Cameron, certainty is a very expensive illusion. Pursuing certainty looks like you’re doing all the right things, but your true self knows that for you, you’re doing all the wrong things.