By Rose Avarino | January 9, 2025
In my last article, Mental Health in Law Firms, I focused on mental health in the workplace.
In this article, I will be zoning in on a strategy I suggested for achieving mental wellness: “Be true to yourself in knowing your capabilities”. Although presented as a general mental health tip in the workplace, I believe its impact is broader than that: it’s also a topic to contemplate when choosing or changing careers, accepting job opportunities or deciding whether to take on a challenging legal matter.
All too often, we fall into the trap of what society or others perceive as a successful career path and not what we feel is the right path based on our own circumstances and capabilities. Sometimes it’s the idea of a prestigious job with sizable earnings that entice us to choose a path or job that doesn’t suit us.
Take, for example, the career path of a lawyer or any professional in private practice. Not everyone is geared to go into private practice and earn a lot of money. Most will start there but, ultimately, it may not be right for them. Private practice requires hard work both in the initial and later stages of a career. This includes working long hours and most weekends to learn the ropes and prove yourself as an associate, and then later to make partner or open and run your own practice and acquire and foster clients.
Not everyone has the energy, social skills, and good business sense to succeed, and even if they do, success has a cost. For example, opportunities to be as engaged in your children’s upbringing as you’d like or take an active role caring for elderly parents may be limited.
It all comes down to a simple equation: more money for a job equals more responsibility, and more responsibility means surrendering some things in your life. Before you go down that road or take that big title job, be honest with yourself to determine whether you’re physically and mentally capable of taking on that burden and if you are, whether you’re okay with the consequences.
If you’re not okay with the consequences or if you’re not physically or mentally capable, then perhaps taking a job with less responsibility is a better option for you. Chasing money, after all does not always equal success – especially if you’re not being true to yourself.
This concept is not merely a mental health quick fix or small tip: it’s a big-ticket holistic approach to maintaining mental and physical wellness. It delves deep into the core of who you are and not what your parents or society expect you to be. It’s what you want out of life to be your authentic self.
When you’re in a role where you can be that authentic self, you will thrive and achieve success – success that’s right for you as a whole and not just embedded in what you earn.
Rose Avarino is a senior law clerk at Walker Law.
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