Esq.ToBe

How to stop screwing yourself over | Mel Robbins | TEDxSF

Probably something we have all thought about at one point or another. I know how to change my life - but why don’t I just do it?

Mel explains it better than many, perhaps even better than most. You don’t do it because you don’t feel like it. Well, guess what: you don’t need to. 

We are all hard wired to do our best to be comfortable. But, as trivial as it may sound at first, any serious achievement is all about being UNCOMFORTABLE. Starting with the moment you get up in the morning, and the discomfort only continues when you go and eat a clean breakfast instead of whatever junk you find in your pantry, pull up your work instead of just “hanging out” for a while, go for a walk / run / you name it, instead of just “chilling”. Your comfort zone is so attractive because - you guessed it - it’s comfortable. You feel cozy, warm, and, best of all, you feel FINE. Screw “fine”. We don’t want to feel “fine”. We want to be the ones who push themselves, suffer through, persevere - and get all the prizes (be that getting your law license, losing weight, overcoming a harmful habit). It’s OK not to be OK when you know WHY you are doing what you are doing. So let’s make it a pledge: right NOW we throw off our comfy sheets, step barefoot on the cold floor and conquer the world. 

I’m new to Tumblr so I guess I’ll need some catching up to do. 

The reason I’m here: I’m a fresh law school grad (U.S.) and this summer I’m sitting for THE BAR EXAM. I’m terrified. If you are in the same boat - I’d imagine that so are you. I’m doing a Barbri bar review course BUT disclaimer: I’m not their representative so I’ll be candid should I at any point be unhappy with them. I think the bar prep time can be very alienating, boring and scary at the same time and we can all benefit from sharing useful tips and tricks, our daily routines and just generally supporting each other!! 

Another (more specific) reason I’m here, I wanted to share with you an experiment I’ll be running: in order to increase the efficiency of the time I spend studying, I’m going to be using one simple technique (which based on my limited experience so far may be useful in the legal career in general): putting myself, quite literally, on the clock. That is, I will use the “stopwatch” function on my phone - I’ll start the stopwatch and fully immerse in the reading / listening to lectures / writing, and whenever I get distracted, I’ll press “pause” and then resume only when I’m back at it (for real). This way I want to find out how much time I ACTUALLY spend studying, minus all the coffee breaks, insta breaks, fb breaks, chat with bae breaks etc... I’m aiming for 10 net hours per day, but I’m curious to see how much it actually is and how much the “stopwatch” method can motivate me to minimize distractions and push myself harder to concentrate better.