Description
Imposing Limits To Your Schedule And The Importance Of Health
[00:00:00] I started as a lateral hire to first year corporate associate at big law, in August, mostly due to following your advice. Thank you very much. I've been working 10 to 12 hour days on weekdays and coming in everyday to the office and the senior partner's request, and I also get emails during the weekend to fix things as well. I'm not sure what I need to do to be cut out for this type of working lifestyle. It is very difficult. I'm sleeping, maybe five to six hours a day. What makes it even more difficult as I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in college and I take medication for it. Do you have any advice on managing their working life in big law while still maintaining your mental health as someone who's bipolar? I've been getting panic attacks about work and I'm having issues managing my anxiety.
Okay. There's a lot going on here. The first thing is, I don't think it would have been able to get a job in a big corporate law firm, if you didn't have a lot of skills and were doing very well. I think that's the first thing. There's a reason that you were hired and that's that. The other thing is you wouldn't be getting work all the time. If you, weren't doing a good job, so, whatever you're doing right now, you're doing very good at your job because they [00:01:00] wouldn't be giving you all this work, if you weren't doing a good job. And then the five to six hours a day isn't good. Sleep is very important and you need to figure out how to fix that and sleep is something that will keep you staying.
Whatever your issues are, you do need to figure out how to at least manage your sleep to some extent. I don't know, five or six hours is enough for you. I actually wear a asleep watch, and I've always worn different types of sleep things. There's aura rings and stuff. And so sleep is very important. And you should do what you can to manage your sleep. And also stress is important. Stress needs to be managed. So that means doing things like, meditation, I don't know. Whatever you can do to manage, yoga, exercise, buy yourself bikes or treadmills, all that stuff needs to be managed. That's crucial. The other thing is you need to set limits. Setting limits will get your respect, and sanity. So you need to figure out how to set some sort of limits.
Now, the big thing is this bipolar disorder. First of all, lots of people are [00:02:00] diagnosed with things and they may not have it. You may not have a bipolar disorder. I've seen plenty of people diagnosed with things that they didn't actually have.
I dunno when you went to college, but there's always all of these, hip diagnosis is from different points in time. Bipolar, it would be popular now. I've seen what are the other ones? There's always different things that are considered popular things to diagnose people for.
So just because you are able to work lots of hours, I think from what I remember, I think I wrote a paper on this in law school. There's a lot of very famous extremely famous people, are bipolar. So I don't think there's anything wrong with the diagnosis, but the idea is you might not even have it. And whatever medication you're taking, maybe helping you deal with all this stress, but it's not the right way.
So at some point you probably aren't going to want to get off this medication. And I don't know, but I would say that, I wouldn't worry too much about whatever this diagnosis is, but the big thing is, do not tell anyone at work, ever, anyone about this stuff.
Not that it couldn't help you, it just, you want to be defined by your work and so forth. Just as if you [00:03:00] had an alcohol problem or a, some sort of sex, I don't know, just any type of addiction, you would never tell people about it. You just want to keep that private.
So, the first thing is, you need to set limits, so you need to cut off at a certain time. I'm thinking about people that I know that have become partners in big law firms. They all made sure that they exercise certain times and things and did set limits.
You need to figure out things that are enjoyable for you. That means you want to exercise at a certain time or take a walk every day or do something or meditate or do yoga. Stuff that's for you and for no one else is important. The next thing is, don't be a victim.
All I'm saying is, if you do have this diagnosis may not even true, be true, or may go away. Do not allow it to own you.
How do you maintain your mental health? If you're getting panic attacks and having difficulty managing your anxiety you need to figure out a way to do it. So obviously, whoever was prescribing your medication, I would definitely talk to the psychiatrist, but, I would also think about other ways to manage it.
I would be [00:04:00] careful about any other substances you're putting in your body, like substance abuse and so forth. Meaning, drinking too much or smoking too much pot and that sort of thing. And, I would really concentrate on your health and setting limits at work.
So I think one of the things we spoke about today is the person that was working reduced hours. How did they set limits, and how do they, how do you set limits? And I think a lot of times when people are having problems at work, like you are with all this stuff, it's because they're not able to necessarily affect to set limits. So, I would do my best to set limits and basically say, I stop, I work on Saturdays at five. I don't come into work until Sundays at 2, or, something along those lines and then work on your anxiety that way. The other thing is you do need to talk to someone. Whether or not you have parents you're talking to, you need someone to talk to, about the things that are bothering you, and someone that can listen and help you because, you are very talented.
If you're doing all this stuff, you're obviously very talented. And you have this thing that you think is a bipolar, which I know a [00:05:00] lot of very famous artists and athletes and other people have this. So it can be a very good thing.
I remember from this paper that I wrote, as I said, that, this has been around forever, and it's obviously something from a Darwinian standpoint lives on. And the reason it does is because it actually helps people. I think that could be very helpful.
Those are the things that I will concentrate on, but you need to find other ways to manage your anxiety. You need to find people to talk to, and, I think it's great that you were able to to get all of this done. You're just an amazing person. You shouldn't allow yourself to be held backed by any of this.
