Earlier this year I wrote about Young Lawyers and the “Fog of War”. I was privileged enough to be asked as a mentor in the TLF Connect program spearheaded by my good friend and trailblazer Crista. At the time, my mentee and I were considering the purpose of schooling, to better understand the context around “What I can study to be better prepared for a future of law”. There was lot of positive response from that entry and having recently ended the inaugural intake of TLF Connect, I thought to share another important concept as young lawyers navigate this journey.
Let’s paint a picture
On this journey, you will seek a lot of advice and information from those who have gone through their own paths and arrived at their realities where your paths now intersect. For example, you’ll approach your tutors, lecturers, family or family friends who work in the law, thought leaders, people you find on social media who hold a particular title, position or role to which you aspire.
You may be very broad or very pointed in your questions, themes or ideas you want to discuss. You are surveying the landscape, perhaps with a vivid vision in mind about what you are looking for, or perhaps a little inkling and gut feeling about what you would like to do. You’re highly perceptive, you are curious, you are seeking a more complete understanding of the legal profession, whether in the context of working as a lawyer or within other disciplines.
If these attributes and approaches are your sword…
Let this be your shield
All of this is information. In the absence of experience, we often times fail to give appropriate weight to what information we receive and naturally are always susceptible to influence. Influence that has direct impact on our perception.
In a conversation with any of these individuals mentioned above, there are two dynamics at play:
What picture they are painting about their narrative subjectively, and;
What it is you perceive from that narrative.
With that in mind, there are three important realities you need to consider:
The advice and narrative you gain from seniors in your field are by their very nature marred with their experience of the industry at that point in time. So temper the answers you receive with what you expect of yourself and your environment moving forward.
Everyone has to walk through the “mud” (I used a comparative word at the time) - you need to make sure the “mud” you walk through aligns with what you want to achieve. Different paths have different experience of “mud”, but none are exempt.
Your ideal reality is emergent. Just because it doesn’t exist now, doesn’t mean the spirit of what you want to see isn’t sprouting in yourself and others around the world. If you pursue that inspiration, you will find your people, build your relationships and germinate the idea to the point it becomes the viable norm.
Perception(s) Influence
What I have found from my own experience and those who I have mentored is that often times there is a tension between the narrative being given as advice and your own perception about that narrative. There are also tensions between one person’s set of advice and another. The value is in being able to distill what information is useful to you at the time, and acknowledge the rest in context of what it is - their own experience.
People often don’t preface or filter their experience with the understanding that the person listening will never walk that exact same path. They fail to acknowledge that their own unique reality is not repeatable. These may be unspoken realities we all assume, but at such a critical time when a young individual is seeking guidance, the best thing to share with them is often the acknowledgment of unknowns (and therefore acknowledgment of infinite possibility), being content with the adventure, being inspirational about the goals and being supportive of the ability to reach them.
For those who are curious, questioning and feeling like there’s more to it: if your ideas are tugging away at you hard enough, there probably is more. If your environment is suggesting a route that doesn’t sit well with you, be audacious and find another way.
Have courage, the path you create is the road you walk.
“Wanderer, your footsteps are the road, and nothing more; wanderer, there is no road, the road is made by walking. By walking one makes the road, and upon glancing behind one sees the path that never will be trod again. Wanderer, there is no road — Only wakes upon the sea.”
Antonio Machado, Campos de Castilla.
As always, the future of law is in our hands 🔥
Q.
Photo by Katie Moum on Unsplash