Is it time to jailbreak your law practice? In a recent blog post called How to Jailbreak Your Life So You Can Live the Way You WANT, Peter Shankman wrote about the six excuses people give for not doing what they really want to do. Shankman, owner of the HARO newsletter and website I recommended a few weeks ago in an article called How to Become a Media Source for Legal News Articles and Gain Free Publicity, explains in his post how you can be a professional while still having fun and enjoying life. While Shankman's article was not written specifically for lawyers, I have no doubt he would say his advice applies to lawyers as well as to anyone else.
I know from personal experience that you CAN change your law practice to more closely match the life you want to live. If you are one of the lawyers who already loves your job, then this advice doesn't really apply to you. But if you are one of the thousands of attorneys who are miserable and who hate their jobs, then it is time to step back and think about what it is you really want to be doing. Sometimes the problem is less with the choice to practice law and more with the choices you have made in HOW you practice law.
Read Shankman's article on jailbreaking your life, along with his related post called Why Don't You Do Some Work? for some solid advice on building a career that you enjoy. And while we are on the topic, you can still vote in our reader's poll on If You Could Live Your Life Over Again, Would You Still Choose to Become a Lawyer? Cast your vote, and share your thoughts on jailbreaking your law practice in the Comments section below.
Comments
The ennui lawyers feel about their chosen path is due to the stresses of being a lawyer on top of the stresses of making enough money to afford to be in practice. I took a year off to pursue some non-lawyer pursuits (sorry about the redundancy there) and within three months I missed being a full-time lawyer. I’ve returned to my practice with renewed purpose and renewed commitment to the law.
A vacation can do wonders for your perspective on things. Lawyers are the worst about believing that they can’t get away from their practices without everything falling apart. It is great that you were able to regain your passion for practicing law by getting away from it for a while.
Too many lawyers quit their jobs and go into private practice with the simple belief that owning their own firm will liberate them and give them the freedom that they see their employers enjoying. Although they may be terrific attorneys, many do not have a clue about how to operate a business.
They quickly become owners of a job rather than the owner of a law firm and in the process obtain the worst boss imaginable. They do not allow themselves even the basic freedoms that they had in their former job. They never take a vacation, they never take a personal leave day just for themselves, or even a sick day. They become tethered to their job like never before. They also have more stress than ever before, because in addition to practicing law and keeping abreast of the changes in their field of practice, they have to worry about the daily grind of running of a business.
Owning your own practice can be great, I enjoy being in solo practice. However, I was a successful business owner before I went to law school and had an understanding of the differences between owning a business and owning a job.
Jail breaks can be great but make sure that you are not exchanging your cell for a much smaller one.
Joey, I spent a number of years being a slave to my job, despite being self-employed. I saw vacations as just being time I would not generate income, rather than a time to relax and enjoy life. It wasn’t until my wife (girlfriend at the time) convinced me to take a trip to Alaska that it finally sunk in how stupidly I had been managing my life. The day I went kayaking to a glacier near Valdez, Alaska, was the day that transformed my way of thinking, and I haven’t looked back.