Different researches conducted at the turn of the century show that, out of over one hundred professions, legal practitioner (lawyers) had the highest rates of depressions, and were found to suffer from clinical depression at a rate of almost four times than that of the norm.

Even amongst the ‘successful’ in the Legal Profession, a greater percentage of them are constantly frustrated, at having to beat their brains out against the wall to justify ‘Success’ in their careers.

They have advanced in their careers over the years yet, the volume of responsibilities, duties and workload they have to trade for ‘success’ has not changed.
Most professionals do not believe that they can have good success in their careers, and have the freedom to devote time to the things that they are most passionate about.

• Time – That has been stolen from friends, loved ones and the other passions and dreams that you have? All in order to get work done for clients.

• Health – What’s your true age? You could be 30, 40, 50 and actually be far older than that health-wise.

• Family – How many anniversaries, birthdays, graduations etc. have you missed? Were you there for your children as they grew up or were you tied to that job?

• Are you at your best when you have work piled up in front of you that you are not able to attend to, even if you worked 26 hours a day?

There is this belief that has been passed on from generation to generation, that “Law is a jealous mistress” and spending more time at the office or courts than you do at home is just “all part of the practice of law.”

Whenever your family complains about you being more out of the home than ever being at home, you simply see them as not being understanding enough. You see them as the ones who are wrong, and just don’t get it when it comes to the Legal Profession.

Your reality has now become – the life of the law is a life unto itself. You don’t have to give up or trade any of these things in order to achieve the success you dream of daily. You need to find that secret recipe for success, of acquiring and retaining your ideal clients.

What you need to do is, build a business based on systems and strategies that work for you and not you working for it. Remember our first post? – You need to buck industry norms.

You need to permit yourself to question the norm, search for better ways and embrace it.

Look at the truly successful lawyers. How do they think? What’s their mindset? What’s their behaviour like? Do they have patterns of thought or behaviour that make them successful, that can be modelled? Do they ‘accept’ every case from everybody? Do they have the mindset that a lawyer has to be everything to everybody?

THINK!

Having a great life and a balanced one is what leads to being a better lawyer. You can choose to have that balanced lifestyle that you desire, but it starts first with your mindset!

SUCCESS LEAVES FOOTPRINTS. Look out for our next post, we will get into that big time. Feel free to leave us any comments or questions.

To your Success!
Mayowa Johnson