The practice of law — and the living of life — is met from time to time with experiences that can generate fear based on present-moment threats to our wellbeing, and can set in motion a sense of anxiety and dread over troubling matters that potentially lay on the horizon. Both offer important signals to pay attention to, though we can overreact to them, leading to a heightened and prolonged sense of alarm and foreboding.

There are many useful ways of working with fear and anxiety, and it is especially important to do so when they interfere with our performance and compromise our overall wellbeing. Today, health and economic concerns, and the uncertainties associated with the pandemic, can further induce feelings of fear and anxiety.  The practice of law is challenging enough as it is, and life — as wonderful as it can be — continues to play out in ways that can leave us waiting for the “other shoe to drop.”

Mark Twain noted that he had a great many problems in his life, most of which never happened.  Oh, the angst we experience, time and time again, over matters we see looming larger than they are.  At the same time, some problems are quite real—clear and present dangers—to which we will want to be cognitively, emotional, and physically sharp.