The Young Lawyer’s Path to Achieving a Better State of Well-Being, 0217 COBJ, Vol. 46 No. 2 Pg. 77

• Author: Jake C. Eisenstein, J.

46 Colo.Law. 77

The Young Lawyer’s Path to Achieving a Better State of Well-Being

Vol. 46, No. 2 [Page 77]

The Colorado Lawyer

February, 2017

Wellness: Your Job, Your Career, Your Life

Jake C. Eisenstein, J.

Barbara Ezyk, executive director of the Colorado Lawyer Assistance Program, is the coordinating editor of this series of Wellness articles. Readers are encouraged to send authors and Ezyk their feedback to the articles-bezyk@coloradolap.org.

As current chair of the CBA Young Lawyers Division (YLD), I was asked to write this article on wellness from a young lawyer's perspective. I'll admit that my first reaction was that I'm not the best choice for this topic. First of all, my "young lawyer" status is circling the drain.^[1] Second, although I do my best to stay healthy and maintain a work-life balance, I certainly haven't achieved enlightenment. I still often feel stressed, frustrated, tired, and over committed. However, after some reflection-and the realization that I committed to the article and have a deadline-I concluded that while I haven't eradicated stress from my life, nine years of practice has given me some degree of enhanced perspective. So, while I don't have all the answers, I do have a few things worth sharing with YLD-ers.

Develop Your Wellness Barometer

There is so much to do and learn at the beginning of your career that it is easy to let your health and wellness take a backseat. Then before you know it, you're in trouble. That's why one of the most important things young lawyers can do is develop an internal wellness barometer early on This is as simple as taking the time to periodically, and honestly, assess your physical and mental state. With practice, you'll start to develop a better understanding of your own wellness and how external factors influence it. This in turn will provide advance warning when your wellness is at risk, or alternatively, signal when it's okay to let your guard down a little.

It will also help you define what wellness means to you and quantify whether you are within an acceptable wellness range. Regardless of how you define wellness, it is not a static target; you will never achieve a state of permanent stress-free bliss that precludes any further attention or work. Instead, what is achievable in terms of wellness changes from moment to moment depending on your circumstances. In other words, you will not feel as "well"...