I love asking my clients what they like about being a lawyer. They light up.
“I like that it’s intellectually challenging”
“I enjoy solving complex problems”
“It’s great working with clever people”
“The team, the camaraderie is so brilliant, even when it’s the worst transaction”
“I like that there’s the opportunity to progress”
“I like that I’m always growing”
But when I ask about the last time they enjoyed their work, the response is very different.
“I remember exactly when it was” said one client recently. “It was 3 years ago, after this crazy deal. That’s the last time I enjoyed my work.”
When you’re a lawyer with Imposter Syndrome, it’s hard to enjoy your work. You’re so stressed and overwhelmed, you lose touch with what attracted you to the job in the first place. You don’t enjoy your work. You suffer it.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
It shouldn’t be this way.
You may not be able to change your clients. You may have limited control over your workload. But you can control how much negative emotions like fear and anxiety drive your day and define your experience of work.
You do this by learning to process negative emotion. If you have Imposter Syndrome, it’s one of the most important skills you can learn.
Processing negative emotions like fear and overwhelm starts with awareness. You learn what triggers these emotions, so you don’t freak out when they surface and then you learn how to experience them without letting them take the wheel.
When you can process negative emotions, they stop being so central to your experience. You can get yourself from anxious and stressed to calm and in control quickly and efficiently. Less time suffering. More time to experience the things about work you genuinely enjoy.
Enjoy the festive season. I’ll see you in 2022.
P.S. Processing negative emotions is one of the skills I teach in the Imposter Speech programme. If you’re a lawyer with Imposter Syndrome and you’ve had enough of fear and anxiety defining your experience of work, let’s talk.
