BRAUN RECRUITING
“Keep After It” Affirmations
I. “We are anointed to do hard things.”
Joel Olsteen (taken from St Paul, I believe)
II. “I learned that when you are willing to make sacrifices for a great cause, you will never be alone…” Coretta Scott King (1927-2006) (Martin Luther King, Jr’s wife)
Continue reading “Keep After It”
Sound like a pleasant professional environment? Unfortunately, some things never change. Attitudes in Shakespearean England and twentieth-century America bear a striking resemblance. For example, a typical modern lawyer joke goes as follows: Continue reading “Lawyers & Mental Health”
In the last Pocket Parts, I noticed a flyer for HYLA’s Professional Development Symposium. One of the main topics for the symposium is “Lateral Movement,” a very important subject for attorneys of all ages. I hope to attend the symposium and learn more because I occasionally speak on the topic of”Making Life Transition Decisions.” A lateral move frequently qualifies as a major life transition decision, especially if it requires moving to another city or state. Also, many of my attorney clients are coping with these tough decisions-whether they be career changes, unemployment, Bar discipline, divorce, or lateral movement. Given this background, a column on career/life transitions seems appropriate to coincide with the Professional Development symposium. Here goes!
Continue reading “Life Transitions”
To help me prepare for a presentation entitled “Walking the Line – Balancing Home and Career Lives” for the National Association of Legal Secretary’s Annual Convention, my girlfriend faxed me the following parable from the Internet. It is a useful big-picture introduction to time management and life balance. Micro tips for time management and balance will follow in a subsequent column. Please read and enjoy.
Do you feel like your briefs or legal memoranda are never quite good enough? Even if you are doing well at your job, do you worry excessively that others are doing better with a minimum of effort, no mistakes, and maximum self-confidence? Do you put off submitting important projects, and thereby delay beginning other important assignments, because you want your work to be “perfect”? If so, you may not simply be working toward success, you may be trying to be perfect.
Continue reading “Perfectionism”
When lawyers hear the term “relaxation,” they typically think of two rounds of golf on a beautiful Saturday or a week spent sipping Pina Coladas on a sunny Caribbean beach. These forms of relaxation are certainly inviting and refreshing, but they may occur too infrequently to be the type of relaxation necessary to cope effectively with the pressures of busy professional and personal lives.
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Self-confidence is a vital attitude which allows individuals to have positive yet realistic views of themselves, their lives, and their daily situations. Self-confident people have developed the ability to trust their own capabilities, gained a general sense of control in their lives, and learned to believe that, within reason, they will be able to do what they wish, plan, and expect. Even when life is rough, or in the face of setbacks or unmet expectations, self-confident people continue to be positive and accepting of themselves.
Continue reading “Confidence”
February 14th-Valentine’s Day. A time to reconnect with our significant others and to express our undying “L-0-V -E.” The romantic notion of love is very hypnotic, but statistics show that one in every two marriages ends in divorce in the U.S.A. (At a recent conference I attended, a long-time family judge noted that the divorce rate in Harris County has exceeded 60% ) Continue reading “Spooning”
Is there a personality type which makes one better suited to practicing law? After years of debate and research, the definitive answers appears to be: “yes and no.” A study published in the June 1998 Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that several immune system measurements improved in optimistic law students but either declined or increased more modestly in pessimistic law students during the stressful first semester of law school. Seemingly, an optimistic personality would be beneficial to anyone regardless of the individual’s line of work.