Many of your know that I’m a big fan of Nicole Abboud’s podcast, GenY Lawyer. It’s supposedly designed for millennials but you wouldn’t know it by me. Its really about life and coping with day to day problems, big and small, we all face in the legal profession (no matter what your role) and life itself.
In her May 6 episode, Abboud talks about her personal journey and her job burnout in a very personal way. She also talks about what she did about it and the power of meditation and mindfulness. Its a good example of what another inspiration of mine, Brené Brown, calls the power of vulnerability. If you want to quickly understand what Brown means, listen to her YouTube Daring Greatly speech. Brown says everything you need to know about vulnerability and its power can be summarized in the Teddy Roosevelt Daring Greatly speech she (and I) love:
It’s not the critic that counts; nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood,…who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.
Brown says in her book Daring Greatly that this is the essence of vulnerability: “vulnerability is not knowing victory or defeat, its understanding the necessity of both…its being all in.” As she puts, if you want to show up and be seen in your life, you’re going to get your ass kicked. Its as simple as that; its what life is all about.
If you want to show up