Law is not an easy business. The work is stressful, tedious, adversarial, and time sensitive. Adding to the stress is the nature of law; the work is never done. It can always be edited, another cite can be added, an argument added. The work is never finished, it is merely due.
All of these factors relentlessly weigh on an individual. As a lawyer’s responsibilities grow, the weight gets heavier and seldom becomes lighter. This chronic stress can quickly turn unhealthy, both mentally and physically, and lead to diminished performance or burnout.
Lawyers experience burnout at a greater rate than other professions. Professional burnout happens when an individual is under chronic stress and eventually becomes detached from his work, apathetic, pessimistic, and possibly depressed. Burnout doesn’t happen quickly. It quietly walks with you as it slowly swallows your joy. If you are depressed or suffering, please seek help. There is no reason to suffer when medical technology and professional therapists exist to provide relief. But for those who are only walking with burnout right now, for those who are beginning to feel the tentacles of ennui latching onto their soul where passion used to live, is there anything to stop the demon from taking over so completely?
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Most literature about burnout recommends taking a break from work, devices, exercise, and taking time for yourself. All of that is good advice but it isn’t always practical. A brief isn’t going to have a different deadline because you need some “me” time. Billable hours aren’t going to be adjusted because an associate has malaise. Deals don’t get put on hold because I can’t bring myself to care anymore. There are certain standards of performance we have to meet and nobody is going to cut us slack in meeting those standards.
When I feel the cold fingers of burnout grasping at me, I try to find a way to challenge myself at something I know I’m skilled at and devote my focus to that activity. In other words, I find my flow state. Flow has gotten attention over the past few years as a means to improve performance and increase happiness. Dr. Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi, a prominent flow researcher (sometimes referred to as “optimal experience”), and author of “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience,” has identified the following nine elements necessary to achieving the flow state:
- Clear goals every step of the way;
- Immediate feedback;
- Balance between challenge and skill;
- Action and awareness merge;
- Distractions fade away;
- There is no worry of failure;
- Self-consciousness disappears;
- Time flies; and
- The activity is autotelic (meaningful for its own sake)
Law does not lend itself to flow — there is seldom immediate feedback, we are always worried about failure. It is unlikely any one of us can create a work environment where we achieve flow on a daily basis, but we can modify elements of our daily routine to give ourselves a greater opportunity for optimal performance. Of the nine elements for flow, we can control the first three. If you find you are being pulled into the orbit of burnout, try changing how you look at your daily assignments to contextualize them into more flow-possible chunks. For example, if you can identify clear goals, give yourself a challenge within the assignment and a means by which you can determine you are meeting your self-assigned goals, that may be what you need to give yourself a mental break from the perpetual stress and drudgery this job can create.
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For example, when writing a brief that feels like the same insurmountable mountain you’ve climbed numerous times over the past year, focus on specific terrain. Find a toehold in the facts, traverse through your arguments individually with a defined start and end point. If you are deep in a tar pit of a deal, try to find a way to break the actions into digestible bites for the sensation of moving forward towards accomplishment. Your work doesn’t change, but how you approach it does.
Most of us need our jobs. Most of us like our jobs and wanted to become lawyers for a reason. That doesn’t mean the job won’t wear on us. We can’t all take a vacation or leave of absence when we start feeling burnt out. We can, however, give our brain a little bit of a break. Flow gives your brain and soul a tiny vacation from real life that may be enough to escape burnout’s pull. If we can create the conditions for optimal performance in our workday, our work and our lives can both improve.
Celeste Harrison Forst has practiced in small and mid-sized firms and is now in-house at a large manufacturing and technology company where she receives daily hugs from her colleagues. You can reach Celeste directly at [email protected].