Do you ever feel trapped by your job as a lawyer? Whether it’s the amount of work on your plate, limitations in your role, or simply the lack of time for anything else, I know how frustrating and demoralizing it can feel. In today’s episode, I’m diving deep into what it really means to feel trapped in your legal career and offering concrete strategies to help you gain clarity, take back control, and start feeling better.

 

We explore the common reasons why lawyers end up feeling stuck and how this “trapped” mindset can become a self-fulfilling prophecy that keeps you in a negative loop. But don’t worry, I’ve got you! I’m arming you with powerful tools to break free, manage your expectations, investigate other opportunities, and reclaim your autonomy.

 

Does prioritizing your well-being feel like one more thing you don’t have time for? Do you frequently tell yourself that not feeling great is just the reality of practicing law and that this is what you signed up for? How could it be possible for you to advance your career, prioritize the things that are most important to you, and incrementally improve your well-being at the same time?

 

Joan Parsons Ziady spent 30 years in private practice at a national US law firm before founding Winslow Workplace Advisors, where she now helps lawyers and law firms advance professional development while fostering connection and well-being. Having experienced the pressure points of practicing law firsthand, she created the well-being roadmap she wished she had as an associate for working smarter and feeling better.

 

If there was one thing you could change about yourself, your practice, or your life, what would it be? What kind of impact would making that transformation have? And what’s currently keeping you from making that change?

 

Tomorrow marks our first call inside my new six-month group mastermind program, which has me thinking about transformation and the meaningful changes that can be accomplished in six months. The sneaky thing about transformation is that while other people might see it, you often don’t. That’s why, this week, I’m giving you a framework that will help you evaluate and measure your progress so you don’t find yourself at the end of your journey unable to appreciate just how much you’ve transformed.

 

Do you identify as a perfectionist? If so, are you aware of where and how it’s holding you back?

 

If your perfectionistic tendencies are keeping you stuck in inaction, paralyzed by the fear of the unknown, obsessing over tasks that have diminishing returns, or spending time on projects that don’t align with your broader goals, I have great news for you this week. The Pareto Principle is a powerful antidote to lawyer perfectionism, and I’m showing you why it’s so effective and how you can apply it to your practice right now.

 

Who in your life do you find stressful to deal with? If you interact with other humans on a daily basis, chances are there’s someone you can quickly identify as a person you don’t love dealing with. Maybe you describe them as difficult to be around, stressful, or unreasonable, and interacting with them leaves you distracted and depleted.

 

We all wish we could only be in relationships with the most wonderful people who make us feel amazing, but the reality is there are always going to be people in your life who you find stressful. If you find yourself feeling frustrated, ruminating about what you said or didn’t say, and these interactions are pulling you away from what matters most, you’re in the right place because I’m offering you my favorite strategies for dealing with stressful people.

 

Your job often feels like a high-pressure environment and can be hard and demanding. As a lawyer, you probably have multiple commitments on your hands at any given time within your professional work, but life is about so much more than just your job. You also have a life outside of work, family, friends, and other interests you want to prioritize, but you’ll need support to do it all.

 

Imagine the power of stepping into a coaching container full of women lawyers just like you. They’re smart, high-achieving, values-driven, excellence-seeking women who want to pursue big goals, overcome their challenges, and grow their professional careers. For the last 18 months, I’ve hosted my own group coaching program for women lawyers where I help them do this, and I’m revealing everything you need to know about the power of coaching in community.

 

By this point in the year, you’ve probably added considerably to your plate. You might be faced with physical things you’ve accumulated along the way, but you may also notice a piling up of non-physical clutter in your life that is holding you back from spending your precious time the way you want.

 

This mid-year mark is the perfect time to check in, see how you’re doing, and assess how you want to spend the balance of the year. If you have a gnawing feeling that you have more on your plate than you want or need and you’re tired of feeling weighed down, a mid-year reset could be the ultimate way to pare things down so you can speed up your growth over the rest of 2024.

 

The leadership mindset is a common and emerging theme in my work with women lawyers. They often come to me at an inflection point in their careers where they need to make a big decision around their development, and it usually involves examining the role that leadership plays in their lives.

 

Whether you’re in a senior role and want to refine your leadership skills, or you’re earlier in your practice and don’t feel like you’ve quite found your footing as a leader yet, what would be different if you were to step into a leadership mindset? This is what I’m inviting you to reflect on this week as I help you embrace and embody the notion of becoming a leader.

 

The legal culture is often one of “yes.” There’s a tendency in law to attract individuals who are helpers, high-achievers, or predisposed to want to do more. If this resonates with you, setting and asserting boundaries might feel like going against the grain of your work culture and your own internal wiring.

 

What do you do when you’ve mustered up the courage to set a boundary, tried to have the hard conversation, and it hasn’t worked? Setting boundaries is uncomfortable enough as it is, but what can you do when you get pushback and feel like you don’t have the support you need? 

 

Did you know that at least 12.5% of lawyers have ADHD? From lawyers who have come to me for support around their ADHD diagnosis to learning of close family members who have it, this topic has sparked a deep desire in me to learn more about ADHD so I can better support those around me.

 

Whether you’re a lawyer who has ADHD, suspect you have it, or you’re someone who supports somebody in your life with ADHD, this week, I’m sharing some of what I’ve learned about how coaching can help. In furthering my coach training specific to ADHD, I’ve discovered ADHD-specific resources that I’ve found to be helpful in my understanding of it, and I’m sharing my insights with you this week.