Life & Career Coaching for Lawyers
Life & Career Coaching for Lawyers
Many of my clients are resistant to making themselves a priority. Time is money. I get it.
I also get that you have the choice of just “doing” your practice or “investing” in your practice. One will take you much farther than the other but it will first require some priority shifting.
We all have our thing that we turn to when we’ve had a long day–cookies, Doritos, wine, chocolate cake, ice cream, beer. It’s that little reward we give ourselves for a job well done. I’ve had a long day, I deserve to treat myself. But what do those “cheat” days really cost us?
When trying to make a big decision, so many of my clients get stuck in the quagmire of indulgent emotions.
Indulgent emotions are those emotions that seem really important. They feel like we should pay attention to them. They suck us into their black hole and keep us from moving forward.
They are indulgent because we linger and stay with those emotions for far too long; we allow those emotions to take over and before we know it, we have been out of the game for weeks. We’ve been “busy” worrying.
Becoming a lawyer is a huge accomplishment in itself. As female attorneys, we join the ranks of all those women who fought so hard to become a valued part of this profession — after all, we have only been doing this since 1923 when women were finally allowed to be admitted to the bar.
We’ve come a long way, baby, so why is it that we often struggle recognizing our own value?
Lately, I had several clients who are struggling to make decisions. One client was struggling to select a topic for a presentation she was giving at a seminar. Another client was struggling to decide whether to ask for a raise. These decisions were weighing heavily on them and they were paralyzed with the options. In their minds, these decisions were momentous. Decisions that could make or break their careers. How to move forward?
One of the reasons so many of us struggle to “find the time” is because we are not being decisive about how we spend our time. We take everything that comes at us.
We live our days drinking from the fire hose. But there is one simple shift that can change everything.
Disagreements usually happen because we want to treat our thoughts as facts. We are clinging to our thoughts and treating them as if they are a universal truth that everyone, including our current adversary, should endorse. And when they don’t, we lose it.
How can this simple awareness change our tendency to argue?
Ever reached for a glass of wine (or two) after a “really long day” to “take the edge off” or “wind down”? Ever plow through that whole package of Oreos because you were feeling lonely on a Friday night?
I have been thinking a lot about our emotions and how it is so amazing that those subtle, invisible vibrations in our bodies drive everything we do.
We all have our baggage and ugly thoughts we carry around.
Even with all the
skills I can teach you, you will
never EVER do away with ugly thinking.
With practice, you can get better at shifting where possible. And, where that’s not possible, carry it with you.