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LIFE
BALANCE
How We Can
Help
Lawyers
receive a lot of training in how to stay out of balance
between their professional and personal lives. Law school
demands a huge time commitment and a large portion of
one’s life. Life as a young solo or an associate is worse;
billing requirements, competition and the new lawyer
learning curve make us virtually live through our work.
It’s easy to forget that there is another side of life,
the personal side.
Balance
is about comparing the needs and wants of our professional
life and our personal and family life and making decisions
as to how to juggle competing interests. It’s easy to give
all to your career, but I know a number of attorneys near
the end of their careers who would now give anything to have
spent more time with their children or to have had some
adventures along the way instead of constantly striving for
recognition, status and money. It’s up to each of us
individually to determine how we want to live our lives and
what we want to make of our careers. There are, however, two
guideposts to help us with these tough choices: our values
and a life plan.
Values:
Values
are what are important to us. Not what we should value,
rather what we truly care about. They don’t have to be
altruistic and should clearly reflect what we care about,
want to do more of and believe in. If you value sports and
adventure, a sixty-hour a week legal job probably isn’t a
good fit. However, if money is your prime value at this
point in your life and the sixty-hour a week job pays great,
perhaps that job fits your values. There is no such thing as
a right or wrong value, the important thing is to discover
the most important values to you and then live your life and
design your legal career to honor and reflect them. There
are many exercises designed to help you uncover your values
and we have some we can share with you if you like. Take
some time and uncover your values, they will be an
invaluable guide.
Life
Plan:
Do
you know what you want to accomplish in life? What you want
to do and when you want to do it? If you don’t know where
you are going, you won’t get there – so where are
you going? A life plan is a map of the future and most of us
don’t have the map. To develop a life plan requires some
work. Here are a few exercises to get you started:
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Imagine
your life if you could have anything you wanted. What
would that be like?
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What
would you do with your life if money were no object?
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Imagine
your life 5, 10, 20, 30 years from now. What do you want
to be doing at each of those times?
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Imagine
you could somehow be transported to the future and could
talk to your future self. What advice would he give you
as to how to live your life, what’s important, what he
is most proud of accomplishing…?
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Write
your own obituary. How would you want to be remembered?
These
exercises should help you envision the life you want. The
next step is to set out the steps to get to that ideal life.
Of course we need to be practical, but first we need to know
what we really want. After you are clear on that, then you
can, within reason, craft a life plan to get as close to
that ideal life as possible. A plan isn’t a plan if it
isn’t in writing, so write it down. Have fun!
With
a clear understanding of your values and a life plan in hand
you are well equipped to make the hard choices necessary to
balance your personal and professional life. It’s a
continuing challenge, but the guideposts make it much
easier.
Also,
the Lawyer’s Life assessment has many questions that
relate to balance. Take the test and see how you score and
where you can improve.
How
We Can Help
Lack
of balance has wrecked many a lawyer’s marriage and can
even wreck successful careers. Too much indulgence in
work, just as in any activity, isn’t healthy. It isn’t
healthy for the lawyer, it can be devastating to his
family and, in the long run, it isn’t healthy for the
law firm. We are individuals first and lawyers second.
Coaching for lawyers can help you keep that perspective.
It is understood that the work must get done and the hours
must be billed, however, by examining your life as a
whole, helping you become clear on your values and what
you want out the rest of your life, we can together craft
a life plan that provides for the best overall
professional and personal life balance.
TOP
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Daniel Roberts J.D., P.C.C.
dr@coachingforlawyers.com
(707) 570-2227
2350 Lakeview Drive
Santa Rosa, CA 95405
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