Lawyering

I'm so overwhelmed. 

I'm just back from court. It was so good! 

The case wasn't easy, it involved many parties and witnesses. The cross examination went great and everything was so well and worked out for my favor. 

The representative of the other party was a well known lawyer, one of those lawyers who I looked up to and wanted to work with. It was overwhelming to be together in court and opponents at the same case. 

I was a little bit afraid. But as always, as soon as I get in the courtroom I feel strong, powerful and confident.  

I love my job. This. Me. In the courtroom. 

To win, is always a great feeling. In court terms, as I see it, it's like getting an A+ on an exam. 

Getting ready for court is like getting ready for an exam. This means, a lot of studying and work if you want to succeed. 

Here is the thing:

At school, you have classes, subjects, you study, you learn, you do homework, researches, and in the end, you do a final exam. 

At Lawyering, you have a subject, you do work, you make researches, you study, and in the end, you go to court. 

At school, all you did was for yourself. What ever you get on that exam, has a direct affect on you. If you don't succeed, you get humiliated and sad, and maybe your family too that cares about you. But the one who gets the direct effect is you because it's for you. 

So as hard and stressful final exams may seem, final court sessions are far more stressful and hard. 

At Lawyering, what ever happens at court, has a direct effect not on you, but first of all, on the client and on the law firm you work at. 

What ever you do is mainly for many other people involved not only you. And the exam - at the courtroom - is like a public oral exam. You need to know how to deal with anything that may come up and answer everything, right and firm. Ask the right questions. Make a good summary. Impress the judge, and maybe all the others watching.

It's an Oral exam, where you have the judge in front of you, your client behind you, all the other parties, their lawyers, more lawyers and more irrelevant people, an audience, that are just present in the court room, watching everything.  

Such a great responsibility. 

With Lawyering, you learn to have a strong personality. You learn that whatever happens, with work, nothing is personal. You build a powerful figure. You learn to deal with mistakes, hard situations, unpredictable things, stress, public humiliations... 

The key to do all that, is, to always look confident, no matter what. Even when you are stressed, when you feel you didn't study enough or that you're not ready. Because when you show the opposite; when you look good and confident, you will win.

Look good, feel good and be confident. 

Of course, looks, has a powerful effect, on yourself and on others. So remember to dress good and look nice. It does help. 

And it also works with everything in life - all work types and every situation. When you show confidence you win.

What a wonderful feeling it is when you win, after all the hard work you did. The feeling is greater when it's work related because you don't only make yourself happy and proud but all those others involved. 

And like in that case, I showed such a good impression on the other lawyer and even his own client, which came to me after with admiration and asked for my number for future work. 
  
Also, another thing I learned about, when dealing with stress, and homework. 

We have due dates for all of the things we prepare. We have court orders and decisions that we need to do in time. Some of them are not easy and need a lot of work and thinking. It could be very stressful, especially when you have a lot of work and not very much time for all the things you need to do.

I learned that stress is for vain. When you are stressed you don't think right. It makes things only worse. 

I know it's something we can't control. But we need to, when we don't think about the time and about how are we going to make it and what will happen. We can focus on the thing we need to do. About it only. And do it.

If you can't, and you are still stressed, I found another good way that works for me in dealing with this. Go to sleep. Just for a little bit. Sleeping helps clear the head, and when you are relaxed your brain works better and you will see how when you wake up, the ideas and the solutions will pop up in your brain and everything will be fine. 

The most important thing is to not get stressed out. Learn that for everything there is a solution and that everything is going to be okay in the end. You will not die. What is the worst thing that could happen? don't worry. Get some sleep. You will see how you will solve it when you get up. It's like a refresh for the brain. 

Remember that when you are in stress you don't think right. And it will be just a waste of time. So as soon as you feel stressed you don't know what to do and you're losing time, stop. Be smart.