Episode 1 – The Inaugural Episode of Happy Lawyer Happy Life
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Welcome to the inaugural episode of Happy Lawyer Happy Life! My name is Clarissa Rayward. I’m a wife, mum, blogger, Gorman addict, lover of all things dancing, exercise and chocolate! Oh and in my day job I am a divorce lawyer and the Director of Brisbane Family Law Centre. I’m also known as the “Happy Family Lawyer” thanks to a blog I started about 3 years ago now when I was anything but a ‘happy’ lawyer. A few years later, and after some great learnings and some hard work, I have found a way to be a great lawyer and be happy and so now I am hoping to share some of my insights through this podcast.
In this podcast series, I’m going to be interviewing key people from “Law Land” about their experiences in their careers with a focus on how they have found happiness both in law but also in their lives outside of their careers. Lawyers world wide are suffering from higher than average incidences of mental health and unhappiness is rife. I am hopeful that by opening up the conversation around happiness in our profession we can all find better ways to be great lawyers and be happy in our lives.
For this first episode, I thought that I’d kick things off by sharing my own experience – my ups and downs, and how I’ve come to be happy in my career. Now, obviously I’m not going to interview myself so I’ve enlisted the help of my good friend, Ronsley Vaz from Amplify, a talented podcaster and interviewer who’s been instrumental in encouraging me to launch this podcast. So grab a cuppa or plug us into your car or perhaps head out for a walk and hopefully we can all share a few stories of ‘happiness’ in law together. Enjoy!
In this episode we talk about:
- How I got into law in the first place
- The negative stereotypes of lawyers… and why they’re not always right
- How the law industry is changing and why it’s ripe for disruption
- My focus on ‘client centric’ practice
- The impact of women coming into our profession over the past 30 years
- Finding new and innovative ways to be successful in law
- Why I believe it’s important to focus on the positives in life
- Making a decision to be happy
- Avoiding the question of being busy
- The importance in having confidantes
- Why you need to be comfortable being you
- The impact of gratitude and kindness on an individual’s happiness (apologies for the incorrect University reference! I was trying to refer to the Greater Good Centre at Berkley in the USA)
- Why you need to create a healthy work atmosphere
- My Happiness Challenge to YOU!
HAPPY LAWYER HAPPY LIFE
Learn more here about upcoming events and courses and connect with Clarissa at the ‘Happy Lawyer Happy Life’ knowledge centre. A community for lawyers who want to make the best out of their life in and outside of the law.
RESOURCES + LINKS
Your Happiness Challenge for the week!
Each week my guests will share a ‘Happiness Challenge’- something simple that you can do each day to bring a little bit of Happiness to your life!
So this week my challenge to you is to DANCE! Yes you read that right! Turn up your favourite song and dance away- at home, at work or wherever really! And if you are really brave send me a photo/ video or even a ‘snap’ of you dancing your way to Happiness and the best ‘dancers’ may even receive a ‘Happy’ token of appreciation in the mail!
