They put in long hours of work, debating cases in court, and explaining legal issues to multiple clients on a daily basis. This persistence, although, amounts to success professionally leads to physical and mental exhaustion.
Following this, stress starts to build up which has negative consequences on their work and life in general. However, having activities to fall back on after work or during off days can improve both their well-being and professional life.
To solve the issue, here are 11 hobbies for lawyers to combat stress and strengthen core skills essential for effective lawyering.
Hobbies For Lawyers To Relieve Stress
Weight Lifting As A Hobby For Lawyers
Weight Lifting is a form of physical hobby that has numerous physical and mental benefits for a lawyer. When you start lifting weights your body burns lots of calories that have been deposited in the body. Moreover, lifting weights builds muscle and muscle tissue and tends to burn fat faster than fat tissue according to numerous research studies.
The mind also benefits from lifting weights. When you start doing any form of physical exertion, the brain releases endorphins which give the body the tools to combat stress.
Running As A Hobby For Lawyers
Running as a hobby is another physical hobby for lawyers which helps your body to combat the stress you face on a daily basis. When you engage in constant running routines, your body releases endorphins just like when lifting weights. Also, running consistently tones your body.
Walking As A Hobby For Lawyers
If running is a bit exhaustive for you, then walking is another hobby you can engage in and derive the benefit of stress relief the lawyering profession brings.
Walking 30 minutes a day for a prolonged period of time burns calories in your body which works as effectively as running two times a week.
This also you can slot into your busy schedule. A quick brisk walk between office hours can help you gain these benefits. In addition, if you have off days, you can make it a point to a far distance than you would during working periods.
Meditation As A Hobby For Lawyers
Meditation is another hobby that you can add to your list of hobbies to improve your well-being.
People who meditate including lawyers have been known to deal well with stressful situations. They relax, have improved awareness, and have better concentration than most who don’t.
Lawyering is a complex field and the better you can cope with wandering thoughts on irrelevant topics and ideas, the better you can deal with the issues at hand.
With just a mat and a few tutorials from YouTube, you can start investing in your life right now:
Volunteering As A Hobby For Lawyers
Being a lawyer may not afford you too much time to spend helping others with their issues or problems. However, studies show that people who employ their time in the service of others deal better with stress, and visit clinics less often because their bodies resist diseases better.
Because volunteering can help you battle the stress you face every day, we recommend you put this on your wish list and help out in your local community.
You can find volunteering opportunities through the websites listed below:
All these mediums are online but you can volunteer physically in your community by simply asking around.
Cooking As A Hobby For Lawyers
A healthy meal not only satisfies your hunger but provides the body with the necessary requirements to help you battle against stress.
Cooking also has the added benefit of improving your patience. The process involved in preparing the ingredients, steaming if necessary and finally going through the actual cooking helps you to develop the perseverance of going through anything.
This gives you the skills that will help you deal strategically with clients and possibly go all the way with any case. This mindset lowers the amount of friction you face with any case hence less stress.
Hobbies For Lawyers To Improve Skills
Board Games As A Hobby For Lawyers
Board games involve a lot of rules, strategic thinking, team playing, and competition which helps you build the essential thinking skills every lawyer goes through every day.
There are different types of board games. They include strategic, role-playing, competitive, etc. They improve your ability to battle with others and win by incorporating numerous strategies in your gameplay.
For example, a war board game like Battleship where your objective is to sink your opponent’s ship in order to win requires you to learn rules and carefully plan where to attack and also how to defend yourself.
This sort of thinking is relevant to your debates in court where you have to argue issues with evidence and prove your case against your opponent.
Writing As A Hobby For Lawyers
As a lawyer writing is a core skill to becoming successful. However, there are different kinds of writing. You can write fictional stories or non-fictional ones which can help improve how you communicate ideas to both your clients and even yourself.
You can do this by journaling, and pouring out your thoughts and feelings on a consistent basis. This process helps to practice more of your writing skills and therefore helps you improve your ability to express yourself in court.
Reading As A Hobby For Lawyers
In your field of work, you defend clients from different industries and walks of life. Because of this, reading fiction and nonfiction books will provide you with a wealth of information to battle issues with the relevant data your clients might not even be aware of.
As the saying goes “Content is King” in the sense that the more ideas you have the better you can argue cases at a far deeper level.
Puzzles As A Hobby For Lawyers
Puzzles as the name suggest are mind-boggling games that help you to think deeply about issues.
The more puzzles you play, the more you build your analytical thinking skills. This a skill that is fundamental to the success of any lawyer especially if you are a big-time attorney.
Your ability to break issues apart and get to what matters most will make you better at communicating ideas and arguing issues in court. As a bonus, it will flow into other areas of your life as well.
Learn A New Language
Opening yourself up to multiple languages as a hobby improves your professional work tenfold.
If you’re a lawyer who negotiates for clients from different countries having this skill will improve your win contracts and even reduces cost. This is because the company doesn’t need to bring in translators.
In addition, being bilingual in other foreign languages smoothens your career path. You get more access to clients from different backgrounds.
Start by learning simple phrases using Google Translate. Use other suitable resources like Duolingo or Memrise to ease the learning process.
Other free online tutorials on different include the following:
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References
- https://www.clio.com/blog/lawyer-stress/why-being-a-lawyer-is-stressful/
- https://www.practicepanther.com/blog/why-lawyers-are-stressed-and-4-stress-management-tips/
- https://patentlawyermagazine.com/92-of-lawyers-have-experienced-stress-or-burnout-because-of-their-job/
- https://www.timecamp.com/blog/2021/10/how-many-a-week-do-lawyers-work/
