Stress Strikes Again
January 25, 2011I’ve been very stressed lately; not from working too much — I’m in a position to delegate a lot of work to more junior associates, but from something else. I think it’s the expectation that’s been placed on me. I’m no longer the associate who goes from one discrete task to another, doing each one well, but rather the lawyer who’s responsible for significant aspects of cases.
Honestly, I’ve never been more tempted to take my 2010 bonus and run. The added stress makes me feel like I am wasting the prime of my life doing something I’m not naturally suited to do. I’ve adapted myself to perform well as a lawyer, but it doesn’t fit my personality. I need to figure out what I was born to do. What’s my passion? What’s YOUR passion?
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Hi!
I came to your blog from Jacob’s site where you wrote a guest post. I would like that you read the comment I made to your post on ERE:
http://earlyretirementextreme.com/a-way-out-for-a-young-lawyer.html/comment-page-2#comment-20958
Maybe you would like to try what I suggest there.
Thanks for your comment bigato. I did go through an exercise similar to what you suggested. I cut my rent from $2400 a month to under $1000 a month. I live in an area where the median sales price for real estate is over $1M, so I was quite proud of this feat. That meant my total expenses would be less than what I used to pay in rent alone! I finished 2010 with a pretty steady expense burn rate that I discuss elsewhere in the blog. I’m trying to cut in other ways as well, but I could not go as far as Jacob. I cook all my meals and try to walk to work, but still have a car. I also like to take random weekend trips to visit friends or just unwind. I’m happy with this rate because I don’t feel squeezed at all and still save low six figures a year.
[...] Anonymous posted about this interesting story. Here is a small section of the postThe added stress makes me feel like I am wasting the prime of my life doing something I’m not naturally suited to do. Of course, I’ve adapted myself to perform well as a lawyer, but I need to know what I was put here to do (not … [...]