The Lawyer’s Plight

You clock back in after the kids are in bed, and before they wake up.

You take calls while out with friends and family, and on your vacation.

You take your laptop to soccer games, and work weekends trying to keep up.

All your hard work and sacrifices are going unnoticed.

But the moment you don’t deliver, they notice.

So you sacrifice, constrict, and shrink yourself some more.

Hiding parts of yourself,

the most important aspects of your life.

Because no one wants to hear that your personal life and needs are getting in the way of your job.

And there are endless demands to take on more.

You don’t have the capacity,

yet you are afraid to say no.

“What will they think of me...?”

“They’ll probably think I’m lazy…”

“…that I’m not making enough profit for them.”

So you try to hold it together,

while feeling drained and depleted.

Living in a constant state of stress and overwhelm.

You know you can’t do it all, and what you can do isn’t enough.

I get it.

How can something you have worked so hard for be so constricting?

It’s exhausting trying to live up to someone else’s expectations.

Unreasonable expectations at that.

No wonder you are so stressed, unfulfilled, and burned out.

You’ve been living in a state of too much and never enough for too long.

It’s Time for a Shift

I know what you’re thinking…

“I want to throw in the towel and burn it all down.”

But that is not what you really need.

What you really need is support;

to feel empowered and confident;

to reconnect with your own inner voice;

to create reasonable boundaries;

to build a client base that is authentic and aligned with you;

to work in a supportive environment that celebrates all of you,

that values you,

honors your capacity and wellbeing,

and respects that you have a personal life.

You didn’t go through hell to get to where you are in your career just to give it all up

because it’s hard right now,

because you don’t want to deal with it,

because you’re afraid,

because you haven’t found the right environment yet,

or because you choose to believe someone else’s narrative about the legal profession that frankly isn’t true.

The truth is whatever you want to run away from will only follow you into your next job, whatever that may be.

This is a process of finding yourself and building up your self-worth and authenticity in a world where the “powers that be” try to put you in a box,

and tell you who you should be, what you should want, what you should do, and how you should do it.

We’re all adults here.

The last thing you need is to get caught up in other people’s expectations.

I recently heard a quote that delivered the ultimate gut punch:

“The gift of law school is learning how to think like someone else, but the tragedy of law school is that you never unlearn that.”

I’m here to change that.

Because it is never too late to fully realize your unique gifts and create an aligned, fulfilling life and career that is true to your authentic self.