If you’re like me, December arrived like a partner who wants to “circle back” at 4:58 p.m. on a Friday. You are trying to enjoy peppermint bark and twinkle lights, but the new year keeps clearing its throat in the corner. You want to relax, but you also want to grow. And although I generally avoid talking in absolutes, the truth is that the firms that pretend nothing is changing are about to be outrun by the ones who are learning, experimenting, and stepping into the strange new world. It is an unavoidable and imminent future, where ignoring or underleveraging AI is foolhardy, and old systems are starting to show their age.
Fortunately, you do not have to overhaul your entire firm before the ball drops, but you can walk into January with a clearer sense of what matters. December is actually a great month for this because the pace softens just enough for you to think without someone emailing you five times in one hour. Here is a list to help you balance growth with actual enjoyment, because you deserve both.
Notice your attention levels before you sign yourself up for big plans. If your brain feels like a browser with eighty tabs open, you do not need a new habit. You need to close some tabs. When you understand what drains you, you can stop calling it “busy season” and start calling it what it is: energy mismanagement with a festive soundtrack.
Celebrate the skills you picked up this year, even the ones you learned by accident. If you finally stopped fighting the calendar app or tried a piece of AI technology without breaking into a cold sweat, that counts. Attorneys tend to underestimate how much they are learning while telling themselves they are behind. You are not behind. You are simply a person in a profession that upgrades every quarter.
Pay attention to the patterns that keep repeating. If the same bottleneck keeps happening, it is a clue. Attorneys often treat frustration as an inconvenience instead of data. December is a great month to get curious about what keeps stealing your time and why you tolerate it.
Use the tools that make things easier instead of insisting you must do everything the hard way. You can be an exceptional attorney without manually formatting every document or managing workflow on a legal pad. The firms that embrace better systems will move faster next year. The firms that refuse will spend January wondering why their competitors look mysteriously relaxed.
Give yourself credit for every small step toward modernization. You are practicing in a time when the ground is shifting. Nothing about this moment is minor. Every hour you invest in learning something new will pay dividends in the coming year. You are essentially future-proofing your practice each time you decide not to cling to the familiar.
Let yourself imagine the attorney you want to be next year without turning it into a performance review. You are allowed to picture a version of yourself who is less stressed, more strategic, and maybe even enjoying the job a bit more. A clear vision helps you walk into January with momentum instead of dread.
Take intentional breaks. Real ones. The kind where you step away from your work without trying to remember which deadline is closest to breathing down your neck. Breaks are not an indulgence. They are a neurological requirement. When your nervous system resets, your growth becomes possible again.
Expand your definition of growth. It is not only about increasing your revenues or building your book of business. Growth is also about updating the way you think, the way you communicate, and the way you use the tools available to you. The attorneys who understand this will outperform everyone else next year.
Choose one thing you will upgrade in January. Not five. Not fifteen. One. Your brain likes clarity, and your schedule can more easily digest realism. The moment you choose one specific area to improve, you stop feeling overwhelmed and start feeling capable again.
Remember that you are practicing in a time of massive transformation. Some attorneys will keep doing what they have always done and hope for the best. Others will step into new strategies, new technologies, and new ways of thinking. The gap between those groups will widen. You get to decide where you land.
Enjoy the holiday season without pretending the world is not shifting. You can have both presence and ambition. You can bake cookies with your kids or enjoy a quiet evening alone and still know that January holds an opportunity to rise. You are not choosing between rest and growth. You are choosing the balance that makes you sharp enough to navigate what is coming.
As you move through December, give yourself permission to laugh at the absurdity of this season and to appreciate how far you have come. You can (and should) lean into the season while staying aware of how quickly the profession is evolving. If you navigate this month well, you can step into the new year as someone who is prepared, aware, curious, and willing to grow.
You can enjoy the lights while keeping your eyes on the horizon. And honestly, that might be the best kind of attorney you can be right now.
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