Dear Student,
Welcome to The Law School Playbook! I’m Halle Hara, a professor of academic success and personal skills coach to law students and attorneys. I’m glad you’re here! In the last episode I highlighted the work of Angela Duckworth in her New York Times bestseller Grit: The Power and Passion of Perseverance. Today, I’m going to focus on a different book called Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges by Steven M. Southwick and Dennis S. Charney. That book, in my opinion, provides an answer to the following question:
What happens if you are a law student who has a growth mindset, a passion for the law, and are committed to deliberate practice to improve your weaknesses but you don’t get the results you are looking for?
As a law student, it is important that you have resilience—the ability to bounce back after encountering difficulty. Difficulty means different things to different students: for some it may mean giving an incorrect answer in class, for others it may be missing deadlines or important events because of time management, for others it may be failing an exam or even multiple exams, and for some it may be all of the above. So how, when you are so invested both emotionally and financially, do you overcome the disappointment when things don’t go your way?
Dr. Southwick and Dr. Charney’s research provides an answer that question. Although the book isn’t about law school, it is one I look to when I am coaching students through difficulty. The reason I like this book (as opposed to general self-help books on resilience) is that is backed by science. The book’s authors are experts in treating and studying trauma that leads to diagnoses like PTSD and depression. And while law school is a great departure from the traumatic events in this book (which include events like Captain Sullenberger’s crash landing on the Hudson River, surviving the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and enduring prisoner-of-war camps), the stress that law school induces is very real and very serious for the students I work with day after day.
So what advice do Dr. Southwick and Dr. Charney have that will help you overcome difficulty in law school? They discuss ten key resilience factors, which include problem-solving actions such as:
confronting your fears
maintaining an optimistic but realistic outlook
seeking and accepting social support
imitating sturdy role models
relying on an inner moral compass
turning to religious or spiritual practices
accepting the unchangeable and
attending to your health and well-being
Dr. Southwick and Dr. Charney explain that resilient people look for meaning and opportunity in adversity and may even find humor in the difficulty. Significantly, they report that “all of the resilient people [they] interviewed accepted, to an impressive degree, responsibility for their own emotional well-being, and many used their traumatic experiences as a platform for personal growth.”
As we discussed in the last episode, neuroplasticity means that you can change your brain—in this case, to be more resilient. Dr. Southwick and Dr. Charney recognize that people who struggle with mood regulation or have a lack of support and resources may have barriers to engaging the highlighted problem-solving behaviors. They also recognize that optimism, which plays a key role in resilience, is driven by genetic, developmental, neurobiological, cognitive, and social factors. But for the masses, Dr. Southwick and Dr. Charney give the following advice:
When something bad happens:
Remember that these difficulties won’t last forever. Take one day at a time. Where now there may only be pain, over time good things will return.
Keep the adverse event or situation within its limits; don’t let it pervade other areas of your life.
Think of strengths and resources you can use to help deal with the problem.
Notice what is good, for example, acts of kindness by those who recognize your struggle.
Conversely, when something good happens:
Give yourself credit for whatever part you played in making it happen.
Allow yourself to feel grateful for whatever part you didn’t play in it—the efforts or generosity of others, or just simple good luck.
Get the most out of it: think of ways to expand the scope and duration of the positive event or situation.
The need for resilience is important to law school and the practice of law. The journey has many ups and downs, and your ability to recover from setbacks is crucial to your overall well-being.
As always, if you’d like suggestions for further reading on the topic of resilience, please visit my website at www.lawschoolplaybook.com. There, you can also read this episode or request individual coaching with me.
As always, do your best, and I’ll be rooting for you!
References and Further Reading
Paula Davis-Laack, et al., Four Things Resilient Lawyers Do Differently, Law Practice Today (June 2016).
Maryt L. Fredrickson, Attorney Resilience: A Spiral Up or a Spiral Down, Wyoming Lawyer (Apr. 2019).
Steven Keeva, The Bounce-Back Factor, ABA J. (Apr. 2003).
Pamela Bucy Pierson, et al., Stress Hardiness and Lawyers, 42 J. Legal Prof. 1 (Fall 2017).
Martin E.P. Seligman, Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment (Reprint ed. 2004).
Martin E.P. Seligman, Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life (Reprint ed. 2006).
Martin E.P. Seligman, Flourish: A New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being (Reprint ed. 2012).
Mary Kate Sheridan, From Resist to Resilience, 37 No. 10 Legal Mgmt. 23 (Nov./Dec. 2018).
Steven M. Southwick & Dennis S. Charney, Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges 55 (2018).