Founder’s Note: I wrote this book review years ago on a different blog, but I thought about it recently because I am in the process of finalizing my own fable on mindfulness. After reading this book, I reached out to Laura Vanderkam via email and her response and encouragement stayed with me for many years. I am sharing this post here because Laura’s work is essential for busy lawyers and we all sometimes need a good story to help us see the possibilities for change. I hope you enjoy it.
If I suggested that you read a “time management fable”, you’d probably think I was losing my mind. A phrase like “time management fable” calls to mind a litany of business-speak phrases or the holier-than-thou preaching of someone offering “hacks” offered to help you achieve more in a day than you have time to do.
Though it is indeed a fable intended to offer insights as to time management, Juliet’s School of Possiblities by Laura Vanderkam avoids those issues. Rather, it is just a story about a young professional who, like many of us, needs a mentor to help her figure out how to manage her time.
An Expert on Time Management
I’ve liked Laura Vanderkam since I read I Know How She Does It years ago, when I was an overwhelmed new working mom. Her approach, in this most recent fable and in the wider variety of content she offers, is practical and based on facts. She isn’t holier-than-thou. She doesn’t pretend time management is easy. But, she also refuses to fall into the trap of throwing up her hands in disgust at how daunting it can be to manage a professional and personal life in today’s world.
In all honesty, when I read Vanderkam I am reminded more of the ancient Greek philosophers I studied in college than the business self-help gurus available now. Just like Aristotle offered ideas about how to find “the good” in life, Vanderkam offers practical solutions that one can use to live a good life. Her suggestions tend to be good ones because, like many of the ancient Greek philosophers, she is a scientist as much as she is a theorist.
Time Management Is Seeing All Possibilities for Life
Vanderkam does not merely think about time; rather she has studied the use of it for several years. As she’ll tell you in her books, articles and podcasts, she has tracked her own time in 30-minute increments and has studied the time logs for thousands of professionals, including busy lawyers. In other words, her philosophy on time management is rooted in a painstaking study of countless uses of it in a variety of contexts.
That view comes through in Juliet’s School of Possibilities where the smart, ambitious, but overworked protagonist, Riley Jenkins, meets a mentor, Juliet, who shows her the divergent possibilities created by each decision she makes as to the use of her time.
It is by seeing this divergent path that Jenkins learns she needs to think more about expectations, setting good personal boundaries, and rethink priorities. She sees the divergent path on a beach (rather than a yellow wood), but still you’ll see it makes all the difference.
Why This Fable Is Ideal for Lawyers
I’m sure there are lots of books out there competing for your time. This fable from Laura Vanderkam is a quick, charming read with a good message and more heart than you’d expect. In fact, the book at times is deeply spiritual since it forces the protagonist, and in turn the reader, to examine the merits in how we spend our waking moments.
This theme comes through when mentor Juliet offers readers the following prayer: “Expectations are infinite. Time is finite. You are always choosing. Choose well.” Though new book choices seem to be infinite and time certainly is finite, Juliet’s School of Possibilities is a good choice for lawyers or any busy person looking for practical and worthwhile insights about time management.
Want to learn more about mindfulness and compassion? Check out my new book, How to Be a Badass Lawyer, for a simple guide to creating a meditation practice of your own in 30 days. And to share mindfulness with your little one, check out my new children’s book, Mommy Needs a Minute.
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You can’t ignore a book with a title like Laziness Does Not Exist. It’s bold. Many lawyers might argue that it’s controversial. As soon as I heard it, I knew I had to read it.
Most of you probably aren’t surprised that a mindfulness teacher was interested in a book about laziness. After all, I encourage other lawyers to spend more time doing nothing in this blog on a weekly basis.
Keep reading to learn more about why I liked the book so much and what it may offer to you.
The Book Offers Deep Insights for Lawyers who May Fear Laziness.
Despite it’s seemingly simple title, LDNE is more than an argument about the nonexistence of laziness. Instead, it’s more of a conversation about our cultural and individual feelings about work and effort. It posits that a collection of values around work and productivity have congealed into “the laziness lie.”
Even so, as I read LDNE, I was repeatedly impressed by how much Price offered deep insights on these subjects. He didn’t skim the surface by making a generic plea for us to appreciate the importance of self-care. Instead, he went deep in explaining how laziness got such a bad rap in our culture. Then he invites each of us to explore how our own fear of being regarded as lazy causes each of us to overwork, whether at work, with our personal habits, or even in our relationships.
In various ways, the book is full of insights. It reframes fundamental issues that will change your mind, whether you start off believing in laziness or not.
It Also Shares Useful Tips to Help Lawyers to Set Boundaries.
More significantly, the insights in LDNE weren’t offered just to produce “aha” moments. Instead, they are intended to help each of us give ourselves a break. LDNE does this by offering a variety of useful strategies and practices to get oneself out of the grind created by the laziness lie.
Most relevant to lawyers, these include tips and strategies for managing one’s work day and work life. For instance, it explained that small breaks at work can actually boost productivity.Th
This can cause us to track and document on social media every activity in our lives to the point where we leave ourselves no place to rest. It was helpful that the chapters both offered permission and practical strategies to gradually find more ease with these life activities.
Encourages compassion and understanding for yourself and others
Price encourages us all to stop reflexively calling ourselves or others lazy when we struggle. Instead, he asks us to look more closely to understand what may be causing the problem. In many situations doing so may help us identify a very logical reason why effort, work, and motivation are a challenge.
Laziness Does Not Exist Is a Good Read for Lawyers
Overall, Laziness Does Not Exist by Devon Price is an easy to read, insightful, and well-structured book that will change your mind. It will help you identify the ways that worries about laziness come up in your own life and work. It may help you develop strategies to work a little less in ways that aren’t consistent with your values. But the end goal isn’t lazy at all. It is courage to look more clearly at the world, yourself, and other people so that you can act with greater kindness and compassion.
Want to learn more about mindfulness and compassion? Check out my new book, How to Be a Badass Lawyer, for a simple guide to creating a meditation practice of your own in 30 days. And to share mindfulness with your little one, check out my new children’s book, Mommy Needs a Minute.
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I’ve been blogging about mindfulness for almost five years. Today, I realized that I have never done a post explaining what mindfulness is. I’m going to correct that in this post and explain why it matters for lawyers.
Understanding what mindfulness is can help you see the benefits it offers. In this post, I will define mindfulness, explain how it differs from but relates to meditation, and identify the benefits that mindfulness practices produce.
Mindfulness Defined
Mindfulness is a faculty of the human mind. It is something that most humans have – even lawyers. It is the ability to be intentionally and nonjudgmentally aware of your present circumstances.
The definition I use most often when I teach mindfulness is one from researcher Jon Kabat-Zinn. I like this definition because it has clear elements that many lawyers would appreciate. According to Kabat-Zinn, mindfulness is:
awareness
that arises through paying attention
on puprose
in the present moment
nonjudgmentally.
What the Definition Means for Lawyers
No self-respecting lawyer would take the definition of a word at face value. If you are new to mindfulness practice, this is a great trait to have. When it comes to mindfulness practice, you may quickly see that the most common practices are aimed at training up each of these individual elements.
You may think awareness is natural and easy. To some degree it is, but most of are not used to paying attention to our awareness on purpose. Most of us are also not accustomed to doing so in the present moment and nonjudgmentally.
But in everyday life, it is often the case that one or more of these elements of mindfulness is missing. That may be due to a busy schedule, life difficulties, too much technology, or a special condition such as a history of trauma or ADHD. As such, most lawyers and people may need help putting the pieces together.
Is Meditation Required?
This is where meditation comes into the picture. Meditation and mindfulness are not the same thing. However, meditation and other practices, like yoga or pranayama, help us train mindfulness.
Many teachers correctly note that meditation and mindfulness practices cultivate, grow or build mindfulness. In my view, though, the better way of seeing this is to say that these practice remove barriers to mindfulness. By practicing breath focus, body scan, loving-kindness or open awareness, you are letting the clarity of mindfulness shine through. It’s almost like refining a diamond to make it brighter and clearer (hence the name of this blog).
The Benefits for Lawyers
Understanding mindfulness as a collection of skills may help lawyers understand how the benefits of practice emerge. Many lawyers consider mindfulness practice because they want the benefits that research have shown are possible. These include things like reduced stress, better focus, improved physical and mental health, and even more happiness.
Many of these benefits emerge, though, not from merely experiencing mindfulness as a state. Instead, they happen when we can cultivate mindfulness as a personal trait.
As I have written, there are numerous benefits from having a regular period in your day for mindfulness practice. These include clarity about your values and intention, resting your nervous system, and getting in touch with your feelings. These periods of calm are essential for lawyers who are often busy and in stress situations.
But as you rest in mindfulness practice, you also build skills. Slowly and surely over time, you build patience, self-compassion, focus for increasing periods of time, steadiness amidst adversity, and emotional awareness. It is through this regular practice and training that mindfulness becomes a trait.
In this way, mindfulness does not make the normal stresses of life go away. It does not make the challenges lawyers face disappear. Consistent mindfulness practice, though, may help you respond to and even see the challenges and stresses of life and work differently.
How Lawyers Can Get Started with Mindfulness
If you want to get started with mindfulness practice, here are some of my top pieces of advice:
start small and focus on establishing consistency;
find a teacher or explore resources, such as my book or many of the books reviewed on this blog, that can give you a roadmap and helpful tips;
Conclusion: The Benefits of Mindfulness Come from Practice
In short, mindfulness is a faculty of mind. You have mindfulness already or you wouldn’t have gotten as far as you did. With some practice and training, you can find a regular time for respite in your daily life and make mindfulness a more reliable trait to support your life and work.
As shared in this post, you can get started with practice with small and simple steps. The first step, though, is the hardest and the most important: getting a mindfulness practice started. The good news is that this blog has tons of teachings, meditations, and resources that can help.
Want to learn more about mindfulness and compassion? Check out my new book, How to Be a Badass Lawyer, for a simple guide to creating a meditation practice of your own in 30 days. And to share mindfulness with your little one, check out my new children’s book, Mommy Needs a Minute.
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I have a book club discussion with other lawyers coming up, so I recently read Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport. (paid link) Consistent with the book title, I was glad to have had a few hours concentrated time to digest the book during a long car ride.
As you might assume, Deep Work is about finding focus in an increasingly digital and unfocused world. Unlike the book, Stolen Focus, which a friend reviewed on the blog previously, this book is less about examining the role of technology in our lives. Deep Work addresses this but it is more interested in correcting the loss of focus that technology has caused in work and life.
Because Deep Work offers strategies around a common pain point for many lawyers, I decided to share a review here. Read on to learn my likes, dislikes, and takeaways from the book.
What I Like about Deep Work
Though I have a few criticisms of the book, here are the three things I liked most about Deep Work:
1. The Book Addresses a Common Problem for Many Lawyers
It’s hard to argue how distracted and unfocused most lawyers and professionals are these days. Many of us are too busy and our mental health, happiness, and and work performance suffers as a result.
Though Deep Work is now almost ten years old, it remains an important read because focused attention is so lacking for most of us. The book makes a compelling argument about the need to solve big problems and how essential uninterrupted attention is to doing that.
Perhaps my favorite part of the book was that it explains how intertwined focused attention is with happiness. The book discusses the idea that humans find meaning in the places we direct our attention. Though the book primarily addresses focus at work, it points to something deeper about human happiness and well-being. If you struggle with feeling distracted at work, Deep Work may offer some validation and thoughts for a way to find clarity.
2. Deep Work Correctly Identifies Technology as a Major Source of Distraction
It’s hard to argue that technology is both a blessing and a curse for most lawyers and professionals. The evidence continues to pile up which shows that technology has had massive negative effects on mental health and work performance. In this regard, Deep Work correctly zeroes in on technology, specifically email and social media, as the likely problem areas.
As discussed below, not everyone has the freedom to implement limits on email or social media use. Even so, I have had to find ways to manage this myself. Many law firms and companies are now working to implement policies to help employees find a better balance when it comes to work-life balance. Books like Deep Work may have influenced this positive trend by encouraging limits for better focus at work.
3. It Offers Analysis and Solutions that Lawyers and Others Can Easily Implement
Perhaps the best thing about Deep Work is the practical solutions it offers for finding more focus. The book does not claim that focused attention is one-size-fits-all. Instead, it explains the varying approaches that professionals may take with respect to deep work. These include:
The monastic approach where you cloister yourself away for periods of intense concentrated work;
The bimodal approach which schedules focused work and shallow work on separate days each week;
The rhythmic approach which incorporates blocks of focused work into a routine and often follows a pattern; and
Identifying your personal philosophy when it comes to focused work can be helpful in itself. Hearing these varied strategies also helped me understand that focused work can manifest differently depending on context.
Of course, even if you have an established philosophy of deep work that suits you, impediments to concentration are bound to arise. For this reason, I appreciated that the book shared some strategies for making email more efficient, limiting social media, or even just getting away from your phone.
In short, there are many great points about Deep Work. It addresses and correctly diagnoses a common problem for many lawyers and professionals and it offers practical solutions that can help.
Criticisms of Deep Work
As discussed above, Deep Work is a worthy read but it has a few drawbacks. Here they are.
1. The Book Assumes Technology Is the Culprit for Distraction
When I read Deep Work, I kept thinking “but what if it is not email or social that’s distracting you?” As I said above, Newport is correct that our phones have a distracting and in many cases negative influence on our lives and work. But what Newport fails to address is the fact that not all of us can achieve focus just by managing our phones.
Newport references his family at times in the book, but it’s telling when he says he wanted to “be present for them.” As a mom, I never had the option not to be present for my family. My source of distraction was not always my phone, but instead a child who may be hungry, sick, or need a ride to an activity. Deep Work did not address this issue at all and it assumes that you have a certain level of control in life and work that many lawyers or working parents don’t have.
Clearly, not all books can be everything for everyone. If you want more on the art and science of managing time which integrates both work and family caregiving responsibilities, I suggest Laura Vanderkam’s work.
2. It Was Odd that the Author Appeared to Ignore Mindfulness
To be fair, it is possible that the author wanted to avoid delving into a territory in which he’s not an expert. He may have wished to avoid offering what he perceived to be another meditation or mindfulness book. Newport had a right to focus his work in the way he wished.
The other thing I kept wondering about as I read the book is “how much do lawyers really need deep work?” Don’t get me wrong, I think most lawyers need some deep work. Some lawyers probably rely on periods of deep work for most of their days.
For me, though, I have to admit that a lot of my work is shallow. Much of my work consists of client emails with simple questions and addressing banal problems. Deep Work addresses this to a certain degree by sharing an example that some C-suite executives thrive in mostly shallow work.
But the book does not offer much in terms of evaluating the relevance and importance of deep work in most professional lives. Instead, the book seems to assume it is valuable and essential for most professionals. Thus, if you are curious about how much deep work matters to your own life, the book may not help to self-assess on that issue.
In short, though Deep Work is a good book to read it is not a perfect book. This is not an argument against reading it, but instead a suggestion that further reading on the topic may be needed.
Key Takeaways from Deep Work
Deep Work is a good read for lawyers and professionals who are interested in creating a work life that facilitates focused attention. It offers a compelling argument for the importance of deep work for most professionals that holds true to this day. It also correctly identifies technology as a common impediment for focused attention and suggests a variety of practical strategies that may help.
Despite its downsides, Deep Work is worth the few hours of your time. It will help you consider where your attention goes and whether it is serving you well. It is a good book to read, consider, and discuss.
The link to the book mentioned in this review is an affiliate link. The review is unsponsored and sincere but the link to Amazon is paid.
Want to learn more about mindfulness and compassion? Check out my new book, How to Be a Badass Lawyer, for a simple guide to creating a meditation practice of your own in 30 days. And to share mindfulness with your little one, check out my new children’s book, Mommy Needs a Minute.
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This was not always true, but I am now one of those people who cannot stand to go a day without exercise. A few years ago, I would have found this comment annoying. Over the course of time, though, I found a way to prioritize movement each day. Now, I don’t just enjoy exercise. I need it to feel physically good and to support my mental health.
The Joy of Movement Is Not Just Another Fitness Book
If you think this sounds like an artless humble brag, then you might want to read The Joy of Movement by Kelly McGonigal (paid link). This book explains why movement is so essential to our well-being. It’s not a self-help book that tries to identify the “best” way to get fit or maximize calories burned.
Instead, The Joy of Movement is truly about the joy that moving can inspire in us as humans. The short book is composed of 7 chapters that each explain a different concept relating to movement. Most of the book discusses various exercise modalities, but other activities are covered as well.
About the Author, Kelly McGonigal
As I have written before, Kelly McGonigal is one of my favorite wellness authors. She’s a psychologist at Stanford and the author of other great books, including The Science of Compassion, and The Upside of Stress. As she explains in The Joy of Movement, McGonigal is also a fitness fanatic. She wrote the book in part to explain where her love of exercise originated.
This quest inexorably leads to a scientific analysis of the impact of movement on the body. McGonigal provides scholarly analysis on that subject in The Joy of Movement. But she also goes one step further. The book doesn’t just talk about cardiovascular and bodily benefits that arise from movement. It explains how movement offers us mental health, emotional, social, and even spiritual benefits.
The Joy of Movement Is Not Just a Science Book Either
In truth, though, McGonigal does not merely explain these benefits at all. Rather, she illustrates them with well-told stories. This is one of the reasons why I like McGonigal’s work so much. Her books do not merely cite studies or discuss concepts. She demonstrates the truth of the studies with stories.
For example, in The Joy of Movement, McGonigal explains the connection between the mythic “runner’s high” and our evolution from a hunter gatherer society. She examines popular fitness programs, including Orange Theory, Soul Cycle, and Peloton to explain how movement encourages social connection. And she shares stories of how real life people use exercise to build self-confidence, move past grief, or become more engaged in their communities.
A Health Book That Inspires Enthusiasm Rather Than Guilt or Shame
Most of us understand that exercise is good for us. Unfortunately, though, that message often inspires guilt, apathy, or even shame because it often comes with hidden pressure. Many discussions of exercise are linked, whether intentionally or not, to diet and fitness.
Those are certainly important, but I have learned that joy is a much better motivator than a “should.” In The Joy of Movement, McGonigal does not nag or scold. She does not emphasize health in the strict sense or longevity. And she does not waste time arguing about what form of movement is best for burning fat or calories or building muscle.
How Movement and Joy Are Connected
Instead, as the title suggests, McGonigal’s goal is to help us see how movement cultivates joy in individuals and supports communities. If you read The Joy of Movement, you might think that you should start exercising again but only because it will remind you how awesome it feels.
In truth, The Joy of Movement is a book that feels good to read. It shares essential information about the human body and mind from an author with sufficient training to explain the concepts well. The book also shares stories that exemplify how good, generous, resilient, and kind the human race can be when it at its best.
The Joy of Movement Is a Great Read
If you read the book, though, it will be hard to forget that movement in its many forms is an important part of being at our best as humans. Whether you are a fitness fanatic or a reluctant runner, rower, or whatever, The Joy of Movement by Kelly McGonigal is a great read. It may motivate you to start or keep exercising or help you understand why you never want to stop. Even more importantly, it will help you explore how to live a joyful life.
Founder’s Note: The link to the book mentioned in this review is an affiliate link. The review is unsponsored and sincere but the link to Amazon is paid.
Want to learn more about mindfulness and compassion? Check out my new book, How to Be a Badass Lawyer, for a simple guide to creating a meditation practice of your own in 30 days. And to share mindfulness with your little one, check out my new children’s book, Mommy Needs a Minute.
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When I was very new to meditation, Ten Percent Happier by Dan Harris had just been released. (paid link) Since I had already started meditating, I didn’t need more convincing that the practice worked. At that time, I knew nobody else who meditated, so it was validating to see someone who then worked for ABC News talk about the topic so publicly.
This month, I had occasion to revisit Ten Percent Happier to lead a virtual book club for the Ohio State Bar Association. It was interesting to see that the book still held up, even though some of my reactions to it had changed over the years. In this review, I will share what the book offers to both new and experienced meditators.
A Super Brief Summary of Ten Percent Happier
So how did someone who used to be a journalist and anchor for ABC News get into mindfulness and meditation? That is exactly what Ten Percent Happier explains. Harris begins his short and accessible book by sharing his story of mental health challenges, including a panic attack on live television and drug use. As the book explains, though, it took Harris a while before he realized meditation could help with these things.
He was assigned by ABC to cover the religion and spirituality beat. This led him to meet various gurus with whom he was unimpressed. Eventually, though, he encountered meditation and that’s when things changed. The last half of the book shares Harris’s story of trying meditation, making it a part of his life, and how it radically changed his life for the better.
Why Those New to Meditation May Like Ten Percent Happier
It’s pretty obvious why people new to meditation may like Ten Percent Happier. It offers a lot of validation for people new to the practice who may, like me when I first started, not have a community to support them. Harris writes the book from the perspective of a skeptical but curious explorer.
Very much like a news documentary, it tells the story of mindfulness by identifying and explaining key concepts for the audience. It also shows what the experience of meditation, in retreat or in daily practice, is like. In this way, Ten Percent Happier can help those new to meditation vicariously experience the practice over time and envision where continued practice might lead.
Why People Experienced in Meditation May Enjoy the Book
Harris’s skepticism in the early days of practice reminded me of my own uncertainty when I first start sitting. (I hadn’t started meditating because I thought it would work; I had started because nothing else had and I was desperate to try anything.) His struggles early in practice very much reminded me of my own and helped me see how far I had come.
This was useful because, as I have written before, meditation is something that doesn’t get easy. You don’t always see benefits in practice, but instead are more likely to see them in life. Reading Ten Percent Happier again helped me reflect on those early days again and see that, in fact, an evolution had occurred.
Why Lawyers and Professionals May Enjoy Ten Percent Happier
Regardless of practice experience with meditation, lawyers and professionals may like Ten Percent Happier because it discusses professional life in-depth. The book begins with Harris striving mightily to climb the ranks at ABC News and make a name for himself, a situation with which most lawyers and professionals can easily identify.
When Harris starts meditating, though, he has to convince himself that being happier and kinder won’t hurt his career. I didn’t feel quite this level of pressure when I started meditating, perhaps because as a woman I was subject to different expectations. Even so, I recall hiding my meditation practice for years until the results for me were too profound not to share.
Ten Percent Happier Does Not Include Meditation Instruction
Though the book contains explanation and illustration of some key concepts, it is not a meditation practice guidebook. Harris was not a trained teacher when he wrote Ten Percent Happier and does not present himself that way in the book.
In this way, the book does not offer instruction for practice or true teachings of Buddhist thought. It also does not offer ethical guidance for living a good life, though some of these principles are conveyed through Harris’s own story.
If you are looking for this kind of instruction, you will not find it in Ten Percent Happier. The good news, though, is that Harris has another book, Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics, which offers more in terms of technical instruction. (paid link) He also has a repository of teachings and insights from world-class guests on the Ten Percent Happier podcast.
Where Some People May Struggle with Ten Percent Happier
There are many good things about Ten Percent Happier, but some people might struggle in a few areas. First, if you are a follower of certain spiritual gurus, including Deepak Chopra, Eckhart Tolle, or Tara Brach, the book may annoy you. Ever the skeptic, Harris did not hold back in his expression of doubt with respect to Chopra and Tolle.
Though he was more complimentary of Brach, his commentary on her demeanor and teaching style was hard to ignore. As I have written before, I thought Harris’s treatment of Brach was unfair, though he has since apologized. Regardless, the point here is that Ten Percent Happier will challenge you if you consider yourself the follower of a guru.
Similarly, the book may challenge you if you consider yourself a religious or spiritual person. Harris’s subsequent work suggests that his feelings on this have drastically changed. Regardless, Ten Percent Happier is written from the perspective of a skeptic.
In this way, it gives short shrift to anything spiritual or woo-woo even as it attempts to delve into ideas that emanated from Buddhism. Anyone who has a strong religious or spiritual practice may question whether Harris takes his skepticism too far, though I believe his feelings on these ideas have softened in his subsequent works.
The Bottom Line: Ten Percent Happier Is a Good Read
Ten Percent Happier by Dan Harris is a good read for those new to meditation and those with years of experience meditating. It offers unique insights about meditation and the benefits of mindfulness. It also illustrates for lawyers and professionals the challenges and benefits of incorporating mindfulness into professional life. Though Ten Percent Happier may present challenges for some, it is a good and very easy read. As I experienced, it is even good enough to revisit a second time after many years.
The links to the books mentioned in this review are affiliate links. The review is unsponsored and sincere but the links to Amazon are paid.
Though I am a mindfulness teacher, I am still a lawyer so that means I love competition. I like to win. I want to be number one in all things. And after a decade of meditation my ego is still going strong.
The drive to compete and win is necessary for most lawyers. I am not here to tell you it’s entirely bad. I’m sharing this post, though, because competition and naked self-interest have some down sides.
The book, Enlightened Self-Interest, analyzes something that most lawyers know all too well: competitive individualism. Most of us who live in the western world, especially the United States, probably don’t need more explanation on this. In case you do, though, this is referring to the societal and professional emphasis on attaining money, power, and fame.
Despite common assumptions that these things lead to health, happiness, and safety, the book explains that they often do the opposite. They foster worldwide inequality, rampant loneliness, incentivize unethical conduct, and often contribute to mental health challenges.
Enlightened self-interest, then, is the recognition that the cultural messages many of us get about what we are supposed to want and pursue in life may not truly be in our self-interest. This recognition then opens up possibilities for cultivating a more balanced, sustainable, and collaborative practices that support individual and collective well-being.
Why Do Lawyers Need Enlightened Self-Interest?
Enlightened self-interest matters for lawyers and others in the business world for some obvious reasons. Law practice itself is highly competitive and confrontational. Not only are lawyers often competing with other lawyers in representing clients, they also may face business competition in their own firms and externally.
What are the most common incentives for a job well done in this system? You got it: money, power, and reputation enhancement. In this way, whether intended or not, law practice sets many lawyers up in a system where success and happiness may be at odds. As a result, it behooves lawyers, especially law firm leaders, to incorporate approaches that mitigate the impact of individualistic competition.
What Can Enlightened Self-Interest Do for Lawyers and Professionals?
What I liked most about the book, Enlightened Self-Interest, is that it was balanced. It didn’t claim that competition was entirely bad. It didn’t argue that the hyper-individualistic Western world should wholesale adopt the collectivism more prevalent in Asia. Instead, it acknowledged that there are pros and cons with every social system, including collectivism, and agreed that competition has its place in a healthy life and culture.
I’ve told you why the focus of the book is relevant to lawyers, but you may also be interested to know that the author of the book, Tom Bussen, was a lawyer. Bussen is now an academic and organizational psychologist who has taught and trained companies and businesses around the world about ways to create healthier workplaces.
As Tom shares in the book, though, he used to practice law and left in part because the competitive and individualistic environment was not for him. I got a chance to interview Tom for the FDCC FedSpeaks Podcast and he graciously shared the challenges he experienced with law practice. Because Bussen’s first-hand knowledge of many of the challenges that lawyers, professionals, and their firms ensure that he remains practical in his focus and recommendations.
Why Should I Read the Book?
Enlightened Self-Interest is a needed examination of the role of individualist competition in our society and the impact it has on the lives of most lawyers and professionals. It offers balanced analysis of research, case studies and true stories, and practical strategies to help lawyers and professionals craft happier and more fulfilling lives. If you want to learn how you can remain competitive as a lawyer without sacrificing your own well-being, Enlightened Self-Interest is one to read.
Where Can I Buy the Book?
You can find Enlightened Self-Interest on most online booksellers, including Amazon (paid link). However, for those of you who wish to support smaller booksellers, Bussen was gracious enough to provide a 30% code (“TGUF”) to purchase the book from Georgetown University Press.
The link to the book mentioned in this review is an affiliate link. The review is unsponsored and sincere but the link to Amazon is paid.
Want to learn more about mindfulness and compassion? Check out my new book, How to Be a Badass Lawyer, for a simple guide to creating a meditation practice of your own in 30 days. And to share mindfulness with your little one, check out my new children’s book, Mommy Needs a Minute.
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Neurodivergence, including ADHD, has been an area of exploration for me recently as a lawyer, a parent, and a mindfulness teacher. ADHD prevalence in the legal profession is twice the national average. I have also had several contacts share with me recently about their experience being diagnosed as an adult.
Part of my searching led me to discover a great resource on the topic from someone who had researched it in-depth. Lidia Zylowska, M.D. is a psychologist who created a mindfulness program for people with ADHD and studied its effects in a clinical setting. She combines her research and insights in The Mindfulness Prescription for Adult ADHD, which I found to be a worthwhile and enjoyable read. Here are five reasons why I liked it.
1. Not Anti-medication
In case the title makes you nervous that the author “prescribes” mindfulness for ADHD to the exclusion of other things, like medication, don’t be. Mindfulness Prescription doesn’t do that. Dr. Zylowska says nothing in the book to dissuade anyone from supporting themselves with medication, therapy, or any other beneficial modality.
To the contrary, Zylowska offers useful guidance for people who may need to decide whether ADHD medication is right for them. She also explains that medication and meditation can work well together.
This is good news since, just like meditation, the decision to use medication to treat ADHD symptoms is a personal choice that may require consideration of a variety of factors. Rather than a directive, the discussion of medication in Mindfulness Prescription is aimed at empowering readers with information and ideas so they could make informed decision for themselves.
2. Offers a Clear Path for Learning Mindfulness
The book also offers a nice entry point and a clear path for exploration of mindfulness practices. The first section provides context and research regarding ADHD and explains why mindfulness can be an effective treatment option. Even if you know about ADHD, I encourage you to read the overview because it may increase understanding and motivate practice by clearly identifying potential benefits of mindfulness practice.
The second part of the book sets out Zylowska’s 8-week mindfulness program for ADHD. This portion of the book is ideal for readers new to mindfulness, since it offers clear guidance on practices that can target specific symptoms, such as a racing mind or hyperfocus. It may also be a good refresher even for experienced meditators because it offers so many suggestions for incorporating informal practices into life.
3. Doesn’t Exaggerate the Deficit in ADHD
My favorite thing about Mindfulness Prescription is that it didn’t let the “deficit” in ADHD take over. As a special education lawyer and someone who has loved ones with ADHD, I know it is common for people with ADHD to think of the condition as entirely a bad thing. This may be the result of problems in school, a series of negative comments over the course of one’s life, or a history of feeling obligated to work harder than others just to keep pace.
Despite research showing its potential benefits, this could make some people with ADHD feel like meditation, a practice in training attention, is not for them. Zylowska addresses this head on when she offers the idea that ADHD, just like many other conditions, isn’t all deficits. She reminds readers that all of us have relative strengths and weaknesses, and she explains that mindfulness is not just about focus but also non-judgment or open curiosity. Though people with ADHD may find focused attention a bit more challenging, Zylowska notes, curiosity may be a relative strength.
Overall, the book is clear that meditation is not about “fixing” oneself but relating to one’s life and oneself with greater kindness. It doesn’t merely offer practices to improve focus, but also aims to help readers cultivate self-compassion and self-acceptance.
4. Provides Formal and Informal Practices
The 8-week practice guide is built around targeting specific aspects of life that may especially benefit people with ADHD. These include focus, slowing down, body awareness, communication, and emotional regulation. In each chapter, formal guided meditation practices are offered to help the reader build skills in each area.
Though the formal practices are relevant and well-presented, the informal practices in the book may be the most useful. As an example, one practice “STOP” was an acronym to help you learn how to build regular pauses into your day. The acronym stands for
Most of us can easily fall into the habit of unconscious rushing, but people with ADHD may have the extra challenge of hyperfocus that can make this even harder. Small practices like STOP built into your day can help make mindfulness a part of your life even without formal meditation practice.
5. Explains Mindfulness with Science and Stories
While of course the perspective of science in the Mindfulness Prescription is beneficial, I was also glad that the book wasn’t just science. Each chapter and each practice was embedded in a story from life to exemplify its significance and utility.
Though the first section of the book is heavy on science, the second section used stories and examples that showcase how mindfulness can work in real life. This made the book a lot more enjoyable and engaging to read and helps readers envision how they might begin using the practices to support their own lives.
Conclusion
The Mindfulness Prescription for Adult ADHD is an accessible, yet thorough offering for anyone looking to understand how mindfulness can serve as a tool for people with ADHD or for those supporting people with ADHD. Lawyers, professionals, and others who want to learn more about ADHD or mindfulness or both can benefit from reading it and trying the practices it offers.
Founder’s Note: The links to the book mentioned in this review are affiliate links. The review is unsponsored and sincere but the links to Amazon are paid.
Want to learn more about mindfulness and compassion? Check out my new book, How to Be a Badass Lawyer, for a simple guide to creating a meditation practice of your own in 30 days. And to share mindfulness with your little one, check out my new children’s book, Mommy Needs a Minute.
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It’s been a while since I have been on a podcast, but I have come to recognize that sometimes there are seasons in life. For much of the year, I have been working on other big projects, including editing a legal treatise and developing new courses for mindfulness and attorney well-being. In the last few weeks, though, the season started to shift. I’m finishing up the treatise and the courses are now out in the world.
As if on cue, I got lined up to do several podcasts and I may be launching one myself soon for FDCC, a legal association for which I now serve as the chair of the wellness committee. Today, I am pleased to share two that I recently did with the Tattooed Buddha podcast.
Podcast 1: My interview
In the first podcast episode, I am the guest. As I have shared, I recently started contributing posts to the Tattooed Buddha blog under the fun name , The Boddhisattva of Power Suits. The blog’s founder, Dana Gornall, invited me on the podcast to talk about all of my favorite things: meditation and my path to it, writing, and how we both manage life.
Dana made the interview easy and enjoyable. It’s always fun to chat process with other writers and I love talking about meditation with people who really understand it. Dana does both.
I was also pleasantly surprised to find that Dana and I had another thing in common too: special education. Dana is an ASL interpreter and sometimes works in education meetings and settings. As a school lawyer, part of my practice relates to special education.
When I started writing on the Tattooed Buddha, I joked about whether I fit there since I not a tattooed lawyer. The conversation with Dana is proof that sometimes, when you look below the surface, you can find many ways in which you fit.
I had done a review of the book Confidence by Ethan Nichtern for The Tattooed Buddha. In the course of planning that review, I reached out to Ethan to request permission to use the book cover in the post. He replied and granted consent.
Then Dana had the brilliant idea to invite him on the podcast. Dana couldn’t make the time when Ethan was available so Kellie Schorr, another Tattooed Buddha writer, author, and someone well-trained in Tibetan Buddhism, served as the host.
As I wrote in the review, I found Nichtern’s take on confidence to be refreshing and useful. It was gratifying to see that he avoided the hackneyed tropes that characterize confidence as rising above the muck and anxiety of life. Instead, his book offers strategies for living fully engaged in life but learning to handle it better.
All of these things came through well in the interview and the questions from two different perspectives offered a thorough discussion. I encourage you to listen and then check out Ethan’s book.
Where Can You Listen to the Podcasts?
You can find all the podcasts in the links to the Tattooed Buddha page above. You can also find them on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Stay tuned for more episodes because I am recording 3 more in the next few weeks and hope to get the one with FDCC that is specifically for lawyers launched soon.
Want to learn more about mindfulness and compassion? Check out my new book, How to Be a Badass Lawyer, for a simple guide to creating a meditation practice of your own in 30 days. And to share mindfulness with your little one, check out my new children’s book, Mommy Needs a Minute.
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When I teach mindfulness, I try to remind people that it is more than coping strategies. For one thing, mindfulness is not a practice or a strategy at all. Mindfulness is a faculty of mind that most human beings have. In addition, mindfulness is not merely about coping. A big part of it is, instead, being with an experience as it is.
As a lawyer who deals with stress myself and represents officials who themselves face many stressful situations, I have seen firsthand how much better coping can mean. It can mean less fighting. It can mean less fear and angst. It also mean more creativity, better communication, and better results.
To that end, I created the Coping Strategies for Difficult Times Ebook. It is an approximately twenty-page guide with practices offered to help you cope in difficult situations. It is divided into 5 chapters:
I offer this book as a simple resource that may offer some support in difficult times. This is not to say that one can or should be expected to cope with all life situations on one’s own. In case you are like me and struggle to ask for help, let this serve as a reminder. Social support is the very best coping strategy available. If you need or might benefit from the support of loved one or trained medical professionals, please give that gift to yourself.
Want to learn more about mindfulness and compassion? Check out my new book, How to Be a Badass Lawyer, for a simple guide to creating a meditation practice of your own in 30 days. And to share mindfulness with your little one, check out my new children’s book, Mommy Needs a Minute.
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