I retired at age 47, at the top of my game as an equity partner at one of the best law firms in the country. I don’t regret a minute of the nearly 25 years I spent in “big law.” Law is an extraordinarily rich, stimulating and interesting profession, and I was lucky to get to practice at the highest level.

This blog shares what I learned over the course of my career about how thriving as a lawyer, or in any “tough” profession, can strengthen your physical, mental, and spiritual health — and vice versa.

Go to any seminar on “wellness for lawyers” and you will hear the same statistics: lawyers have among the highest rates of alcoholism, divorce, depression, burnout and suicide. We beat out every other profession on the most negative metrics.

But we also have something on our side. Almost every lawyer is a maximizer. Once we know what the rules are — what we are supposed to be maximizing, or solving for — we work harder than anyone else to be the best.

The solution: What if we choose to maximize physical fitness? Mental health and spiritual karma? Community and fulfillment? What if we try to be the healthiest person in the room, rather than the smartest or the richest or the one with the biggest book?

This blog is for the lawyer — or any “maximizer” — who has decided to solve for physical, mental and spiritual well-being while leading a busy life. And here’s the best part: When you start solving for fulfillment instead of success, professional success often follows. How’s that for maximizing?

But lawyers have something else going for us as well. Law offers something rare: the potential for financial freedom without living a particularly ascetic existence. Across history, only a tiny fraction of people have had the chance to build true financial freedom.

Heart and Health posts explore how to become a happier, healthier lawyer. Freedom posts show how to develop the financial independence to leave, stay or change things up on your own terms.

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