Has your billable work slowed down? Are you starting to feel a little anxious? Maybe a lot anxious? (If you’re fine now, but you know this feeling all too well, keep reading…)

The strength of your feelings has nothing to do with how true your thought is.

The strength reflects the level of your belief in the thought. Your level of attachment to that thought.

"This is going to be hard.”

“This is going to be complicated.”

“This is going to be a lot of work.”

These used to be some of my go-to thoughts about anything new, especially anything new at work.

We all have seasons in our lives where we don’t think we are doing our “best.”

Where we compare the current version of us to some past version of us that was doing “better.”

Where are my overachievers at?

A question for you: How selective are you about when you overachieve?

Did you know you can be proud of yourself any time you want?

Including right now?

This very minute.

So much of our everyday frustration comes from expecting people to be different than they are. To act differently than they do.

If only they would behave the way we wanted, then we would feel better.

For a majority of my Big Law career, I referred to myself as a “lifer” with pride and joy.

You aren’t good at multitasking. No one really is.

What problem are you solving for?

The actual problem or the emotion you’re feeling?

You are not your negative feelings.

You are not anxious. You FEEL anxious.

You are not an anxious person. You are a person who feels anxious sometimes.

You really don’t.

Working hard and overworking aren’t the same. I’m sure you know that intellectually. But trying to do the former and not the latter can sometimes feel like a tightrope walk over a canyon with no safety net. 

If you Google “how to say no at work,” there’s no shortage of ways to phrase your “no.”

But I’m guessing that’s not really your problem.

It isn’t WHAT to say. It’s HOW to make yourself say anything at all.

Artificial and arbitrary deadlines are an inevitable part of being an associate.

Being frustrated by them is not.

When we have decisions we need or want to make, confusion can often be a cover up for fear.

You’re probably wrong about what motivates you.

Cognitive biases are happening in your brain all the time. Especially if you aren’t paying attention to what is going on in there. 

A cognitive bias is a systematic error in your thinking. It happens when you are processing and interpreting the world around you.  

Imagine if you gave the same amount of air time to things you love about yourself as you do …

what negative thing you think other people are thinking about you, what you don’t like about yourself, that thing you said that you wish you hadn’t, that decision you made that you think was terrible, and all the ways you think you should be showing up differently than you are.

What would change for you if you stopped judging yourself for wanting external validation? For caring about what other people think of you?