“I believe every human has a finite number of heartbeats.
I don’t intend to waste any of mine.”
Neil Armstrong
Most lawyers love the law. For many, their careers overtake their lives to the point where they carefully eke out “vacations”, while still plugged in. They may have the money to buy nice things, but they do not get to use them or live in them.
It should always be a goal to have additional areas of your life or diversions that take less of your time when you have a young family and more of your time when you retire. If you have not added extracurriculars into your schedule, and you find yourself starting to think about the “end”, you had better get at it. I certainly did.
My Big Diversion from Work
When I started thinking about the dusk phase of my career, I found writing. Writing was and continues to be my prime diversion. It allows me to be creative and keeps my brain working in various directions. It is cathartic. I have written novels about politics, science fiction, humor, and crime; I wrote a memoir about the first forty years of my career, which won a prestigious award for best wit and humor; and I am obsessed with developing book ideas, so that they often come to me in the middle of the night. My books may not be on the New York Times Bestseller List, but they are rewarding to write.
It is hard to write a novel. Try it sometime if you do not believe me. But it is fun to create characters and occasionally kill them off. I suspect some of those reading this are among the names I used for the good and bad guys in my books. I used to raffle off having your name included in a book at Reed Smith’s annual holiday party. We donated the proceeds from the raffle to charity. All three times, when I offered to name a character after someone, they chose to be a villain. When I explained to them that being a villain probably meant they would die in the book, they became more committed to coming to an unceremonious end.
On other occasions, I used the names of people I knew just to have fun. I named a lowly clerk after Reed Smith’s Global Managing Partner. I blew up a few of my colleagues into smithereens in some of the more violent parts of the stories. The list goes on. The business of lawyers deals with reality. A fiction writer deals with fantasy. It is a beautiful way to balance my life and relieve pressure.
Find Your “Second Act”
Now that the plan to move my clients is mostly over, I write blogs associated with the subjects of my books. They are all posted on my personal website and on social media. While I do not have many followers (a few thousand), they are loyal and give me great feedback.
And now I’m blogging on From Dawn to Dusk, hoping my thoughts will help others. It allows my lawyer’s ego to express itself. Whether I am imparting valuable information is for others to decide, but it is a way I pay it forward.
Regardless, I am not sure I would have pulled off the transitions from partner to what I do now so quickly if I had not had my writing and mentoring. They are diversions beyond a few distractions like golf, pickleball, or cigars. As my colleague and client needs fade, my writing and mentoring fill a creative void I sorely need. To successfully navigate the changes, you must find diversions and start working on them. Today would be a good ti