An important question.

I was talking to a client recently about a thought error that she had, and it's one that I see it a lot of my clients, so I wanted to share with you. 

What she was doing was she was mistaking her level of comfort with an activity with how good she was at that activity. 

Working in a billable hour model warps your view of time.

We already get so much messaging about time and productivity before we even make it to the practice of law. (How old do you think you were the first time you heard “Time is money”?)

I know you have a specific partner in mind…

"You will never change the fact that being human is hard [sometimes], so you must change your idea that it was ever supposed to be easy [all the time]." Glennon Doyle, Untamed

When it comes to managing up as a law firm associate, here’s one of my top tips: Err on the side of communicating more than you think is necessary

All the time management techniques in the world — no matter how good you get at them — aren’t going to help you feel good about your time without an accompanying shift in some of your current beliefs. 

On deck for March in the Survival School for Associates webinar series: Managing Up

Because the action you take is actually fueled by you trying to escape the shame and self-judgment. Usually by trying to achieve your way out of it. By getting the promotion. The new job. The title. The degrees. The relationship. The body. The habit streak. 

Sometimes the decision you need to make is deciding not to decide right now.

One year as a mid-level associate, I spent 10 months straight annualizing about 2300 billable hours. 

It’s Monday. Are you putting together an overly ambitious to-do list that you inevitably aren’t going to complete? So that you can then beat yourself up about it? 

The ones who have a ton of work all the time…

And yet somehow still think they're not good at their jobs. 

Experiencing self-doubt and imposterims is a common human experience. There's no need to pathologize it,* and there's nothing wrong with you.

But if you find yourself having more of those feelings than you'd like, there’s a good reason.

For any given an external circumstance, there are multiple ways we can view the facts of that circumstance.

And unfortunately, our brain is often choosing a perspective or a view that doesn't really serve us.

Spoiler alert: You don’t.

You may be familiar with the quote “Stop expecting you from other people.” I can't figure out who exactly it originated from, but it’s a great one.

There’s an additional important component to this idea that you have to wrap your head around if you want to truly reduce the negative emotion and brain drama you have around the way other people show up.

Not just that it felt bad or that I experienced a lot of it. Both of which were true. 

But that it was in fact bad. And so was I. It was a problem that I experienced it all. And useless. And disruptive. And it meant something about me as a person that I was anxious so much. And I should be able to handle it better. None of which made me feel less anxious.

I know, I know. Gross right? Plus, if you’re anything like me, you’re probably never wrong, so this question is hard to wrap your head around. 

All kidding aside though. Are you willing to be wrong?