Small Law Firms, Solo Practitioners

Sometimes You Have To Push Back

What are the benefits of having interests outside your work? Columnist Keith Lee explains.

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Last week I wrote about the times when you experience loss in your career. It is a thing that everyone will face at some point. I touched on how to set aside and move on from these losses in order to continue on with your day, serving your clients, and doing your job.

But lawyers often let themselves get wrapped up in their jobs, letting them define who they are. When you are at work from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. five days a week and a few hours on the weekend, your job can come to define who you are whether you want it to or not.

You have to push back….

If you speak to successful people who are deep into a career that requires a large time commitment, they usually fall into two camps. One group has no life but work. They are their jobs. They come in on the weekend whether they have to or not. They send emails out to the firm at bizarre hours, almost rubbing their (over)commitment to work in other people’s faces. Quite likely they are good at their job, but they are miserable to be around. Their only challenges or defining moments in their life come from their career.

The other group still works long hours when needed, but they also have a life outside of work. They coach little league baseball, they volunteer to help the homeless, or take on duties at their church. They play music, join a club, or play pick-up games on the weekend. They work to live, not live to work. Their career is still incredibly important to them, but they also recognize that they need to take the time to carve out their own life outside of work. Somewhere they can receive acclaim and support without it being tied to a paycheck.

And taking the time to have activities and hobbies unrelated to your job often times makes you appreciate your job more. You will be able to look at it from a different mindset. You’ll acquire new insights and perspectives on your career and how you can function in it. It will provide with true interests that can help work become more satisfying as well. Because often times it can become easy to be stuck in a rut, doing the same work day-in and day-out. The drudgery, the monotony of it all.

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Having outside interests can help push back against the grind. It will lead to new opportunities and new relationships — some of which will likely be beneficial to your career, but that’s not the point of taking on these outside activities and roles. You can’t approach them as though they are part of your job or it will be slowly poisoned. It has to be genuine. You have to find something that you personally enjoy, and then approach it with great enthusiasm. Leave work behind you when you are there. Put it out of your mind for a time. Make the effort to enjoy your life. To be an active participant, the driver of where you want to go, and not a passenger on someone else’s trip.

Keith Lee practices law at Hamer Law Group, LLC in Birmingham, Alabama. He writes about professional development, the law, the universe, and everything at Associate’s Mind. He is also the author of The Marble and The Sculptor: From Law School To Law Practice (affiliate link), published by the ABA. You can reach him at keith.lee@hamerlawgroup.com or on Twitter at @associatesmind.

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