I don't like January. All that money spent over Christmas comes back to haunt you. The tax man cometh. The weather is horrible. It goes on for ever. No holidays. There is no hope!
It's like that feeling when as a lawyer in private practice a client emails you just as you are packing up on a Friday evening with a complex contract to be reviewed or drafted very urgently. Or worse still, and as has happened to me, someone calls you in and says your long established legal practice is breaking up and you are going to join a long time competitor.
However I find that the best reaction in these dire situations, as with January, is to look at what in practice you can do. Forget the inevitable emotionally sinking feeling. Rise above it and think about how to respond to the challenge. January can be a time to take stock and set goals for the year - or to go skiing. Contact your client and find out what they really need done before Monday and why. The partnership change maybe an opportunity in the longer run for career change and development.
I do not pretend that reacting positively and constructively is easy. But there is a choice. We can either sink in a mire of self pitying despair locking ourselves metaphorically in our homes and offices for January or the duration of the work crisis.
Or we can look for a way forward, recognising that disruptive work and change like Januaries are inevitable facts of life and challenges that approached in the right way we can all rise to, conquer in the broadest sense and also learn from. After all the shortest day has passed and the days are getting longer.
It's like that feeling when as a lawyer in private practice a client emails you just as you are packing up on a Friday evening with a complex contract to be reviewed or drafted very urgently. Or worse still, and as has happened to me, someone calls you in and says your long established legal practice is breaking up and you are going to join a long time competitor.
However I find that the best reaction in these dire situations, as with January, is to look at what in practice you can do. Forget the inevitable emotionally sinking feeling. Rise above it and think about how to respond to the challenge. January can be a time to take stock and set goals for the year - or to go skiing. Contact your client and find out what they really need done before Monday and why. The partnership change maybe an opportunity in the longer run for career change and development.
I do not pretend that reacting positively and constructively is easy. But there is a choice. We can either sink in a mire of self pitying despair locking ourselves metaphorically in our homes and offices for January or the duration of the work crisis.
Or we can look for a way forward, recognising that disruptive work and change like Januaries are inevitable facts of life and challenges that approached in the right way we can all rise to, conquer in the broadest sense and also learn from. After all the shortest day has passed and the days are getting longer.
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