Work/Life Balance - What Being A Lawyer Can Do To Your Mindset
My first bike ride to work. May 3, 2013
It hit me like a ton of bricks. “Your flaws at work don’t vanish when you walk through the front door at home.”
I had to pause and lean back to let it in. I had always considered home and work as separate.
An insightful piece of wisdom from Marshall Goldsmith in his book What Got You Here Won’t Get You There.
Interestingly, for us lawyers, it might as well be: your features at work don’t vanish when you walk through the front door at home.
What are our features? What makes us better as lawyers?
A lot of us fight. We litigate or arbitrate. We operate in a zero-sum game where if we’re winning, someone else is losing. Being better at what we do often means being better at fighting.
And for those of us who are corporate lawyers, although we can work on deals where both sides win, we’ve got to think of everything that can go wrong. You’ve got to think of all the risks, how to protect against them. You’re training yourself to live in scarcity - where a good life is possible but you think you’ve got to hustle and be hyper-vigilant.
These are features for us - things that make us good at work. However, they’re not super conducive traits to a fulfilling and happy life:
Walking in the door and bringing up the five reasons why your partner’s suggestion for dinner wasn’t perfect. Ouch.
Holding your sleeping child in your arms and thinking of everything that could go wrong. Double ouch.
We discuss this and how to get past it in today’s episode.
Oh, and if you’re interested in the guided journalling/planning prompts to help you live authentically and milk every last bit of value and joy your of your life, check it out here.