Solo Practice

My nine year old son tested into the gifted program this year which required him to change schools.   He is no longer on the bus path.  As a result, I get the privilege of driving him to school each day at 7:35 in the morning. 

It?s only a four minute drive but each day we find something significant to talk about. 

Today, I was finishing up a GAL blogpost on my portable dictation as we were walking out the door.  I asked my son whether or not he minded if I finished the post.  He listened as I finished what you now see as the last post before this one.  He asked why I was always ?talking into that thing all the time.?  I laughed and told him I had a lot to say.  I lead a pretty balanced life and spend good quality time with my family.  But I?m also constantly working in the background.  Evenings, weekends and vacations.  My digital dictation isn?t far away and my laptop computer is almost always on and handy.  Yes, sometimes this interferes with family time. 

The fact is, I do have a lot to say.  And my cases require a lot of attention.  And you never know when that critical task or client message is going to pop into your head.  And there is a beauty and benefit to being able to download it onto your portable dictation before it melts away.  Doing a data drop is better than letting the data pile up in your brain, continually pushing you out of the moment. 

I told my son that someday I wouldn?t be such a workaholic.  But I told him that there are things that I was saying and the things I am doing are important.  The GAL blog will be a permanent biography of one of the most exciting, creative and important periods of my life.   It will be here for my children and their children.  In the lessons found herein may be some of the most important lessons I ever teach to them.

We talked about how important it is to identify and then fulfill potential.  I encouraged him to be patient in finding the things that mean the most to him and then driving towards them over the course of his life.  I explained that I was fulfilling my potential in how important it is to balance your obligations to mankind, in my case the legal profession, myself and my family.  Everyone is Superman at something.  He understands that it would be inappropriate for superman to ever sit on the sidelines and watch his potential to help and change the world go unrealized.

Have you found your inner Superman?  Does your firm support and encourage you to find and realize all of your super powers?  The reason that I ask is that it?s almost the end of the year.  It time to start thinking about changing your life.  Most lawyers leave their firms in January, after bonuses are paid for the previous years work.  And any lawyer that works for their firm for a half a year never gets paid for the half they worked since that payment comes only at the end of the year.

So I encourage any lawyer that feels unfulfilled, unsupported and uninspired to consider change.  There is much more to gain than there is to fear.