By John P. Moynihan
Lawyers have plenty of reasons to feel overwhelmed these days. Beyond taking on our clients’ problems as our own, technology is roiling the bar, and the courts and politics feels more contentious than ever, sowing anxiety and uncertainty in an already-stressed profession.
But in the face of these challenges, we still have responsibilities: to our clients, to our families and those who depend on us, and to ourselves. We have to make progress on professional and personal projects, even when things don’t go our way. But how exactly are you supposed to be resilient when it feels like everything is falling apart?
Fortunately, there is precedent to help answer this question, including the writings of Marcus Aurelius, who ruled the Roman Empire from A.D. 161 to A.D. 180. He was also a student of Stoic philosophy and wrote notes to himself on how to live a meaningful life, which are published under the title Meditations.
Though ancient, Aurelius’ advice has present-day application. Stoicism is at the root of cognitive behavioral therapy, and its principles overlap with mindfulness practice. Each of these frameworks provides tools for managing stress and resolving everyday difficulties in life, which should free up time and energy for you to address larger, more serious problems, and Meditations shows these tools in action.
One of the many topics Meditations addresses is resilience—how to respond to adversity. The following passages from Meditations illustrate four key Stoic concepts—control, presence, perception and recovery—that can help modern attorneys build resilience. (The quoted passages below are from a translation of Meditations by Gregory Hays, New York: Modern Library, 2003).
Control
“You don’t have to turn this into something. It doesn’t have to upset you. Things can’t shape our decisions by themselves.” —Meditations, Book 6.52
A key concept in Stoicism is recognizing what you can and cannot control. You can’t control external events or other people’s behavior. But you can control your actions, your attitude, how you spend your time and how you treat others. You can control how you respond to external events and how others treat you. When something knocks you off balance—say, a 4:59 p.m. Friday filing by an opposing counsel—you have the power to steady your mind. You could wail and gnash your teeth. Or you could do something that would improve your situation, like take a deep breath and start to analyze the problem and potential solutions. Recognizing that you have the power to do the latter is not easy, but it is critical to resilience and responding productively in the face of adversity.
Presence
“Don’t let your imagination be crushed by life as a whole. Don’t try to picture everything bad that could possibly happen. Stick with the situation at hand, and ask, ‘Why is this so unbearable? Why can’t I endure it?’” —Meditations, Book 8.36
When faced with a bad turn of events, it is natural to contemplate the consequences and the implications for your future self. This isn’t so far from the issue spotting skills that law school drilled into us. But the line between issue spotting and catastrophizing about the future can be blurry, and when you cross it, ruminating on potential problems interferes with resolving the current difficulties.
Focus on the present, Aurelius advises. Break down the challenge into its components, and examine them. Identify what you can do to improve your situation right now, and do it. Maybe that is buying time, by forwarding the motion to the client with a note that you’re working on a detailed update and proposed response. Maybe it is enlisting a colleague to help with the weekend work or quickly searching for responses to similar motions that your firm previously filed. The present is the only time in which we can act, so keep yourself there, concentrating on the task in front of you, and often, you’ll find the problem that appears overwhelming is in fact quite manageable.
Perception
“Our inward power, when it obeys nature, reacts to events by accommodating itself to what it faces—to what is possible. It needs no specific material. It pursues its own aims as circumstances allow; it turns obstacles into fuel. As a fire overwhelms what would have quenched a lamp. What’s thrown on top of the conflagration is absorbed, consumed by it—and makes it burn still higher.” —Meditations, Book 4.1
One of the most famous insights of Stoicism is “the obstacle is the way.” This lesson is first about attitude. A problem does not have to be only a problem. It can also offer an opportunity—if that is what you look for. Seizing that opportunity is how you move toward your goals even when things are going wrong.
That late Friday filing from the opposing counsel could be a miserable pain that ruins your night. Or it could be a chance to show that you’re attentive to the case and have the legal knowledge and skills to take care of your client, even when surprises pop up. By reframing how we view problems, we can reduce their emotional impact and maybe even find an advantage in adversity. This mental shift doesn’t negate the difficulty of the situation, but it allows us to approach it with a clearer, more resilient mindset.
Recovery
“When jarred, unavoidably, by circumstances, revert at once to yourself, and don’t lose the rhythm more than you can help. You’ll have a better grasp of the harmony if you keep on going back to it.” —Meditations, Book 6.11
Adversity is inevitable. Resilience to adversity is not about avoiding setbacks—it’s about how quickly and thoroughly you can recover from them. The goal is to regain your equilibrium. The Stoic insight is the importance of gently steadying yourself once you realize you are mentally off balance. If you realize you’ve lost control of your emotional reaction and then you get upset with yourself, you are moving in the wrong direction. That becomes an unproductive spiral. Practice gently guiding yourself back to balance when you realize you’ve been thrown. It gets easier the more you do it, and your capacity to keep a level head will grow.
Resilience is a practice, not a fixed trait. We can cultivate it every day through attention, reflection and intentional action. And like all practices, the more we develop it, the more natural it becomes. It won’t magically make your problems go away. But it can make you more capable of solving them.
Meditations provides a practical path to building resilience: Recognize your ability to control your reactions, focus on the present problem, search for the opportunity in adversity, and gently bring yourself back to balance. These practices helped Aurelius rule an empire. They can help you rule yourself and overcome the challenges that life throws at you.
John P. Moynihan has studied Classics since eighth grade and currently is an attorney in the Criminal Appeals Division of the Illinois attorney general’s office. The information and opinions expressed in this article are the personal view of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the office of the Illinois attorney general.
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