No Excuses

No Excuses

August brings us to what is generally the Contra Costa Lawyer’s lowest readership of the year. Our readers, like much of America, are enjoying summer with kids, grandkids, travel and general vacation goodness. We have always used the August issue for more entertainment type topics rather than heavy legal issues. This August is no exception.

There is an old quote variously phrased as, “the immature poet imitates and the mature poet plagiarizes” attributed to T.S. Eliot and in other forms to Pablo Picasso, Igor Stravinsky and William Faulkner, among others. Our August issue is in imitation of an issue done by the Sacramento Bar Association where they wrote about the athletic endeavors of their members. Our editorial board thought this would make a great issue as Contra Costa has some phenomenal athletes.

Attorneys deal with stress in many ways. Lawyers are the fourth highest ranked profession for suicide, we suffer depression 3.6 times more than non-lawyers and recent studies show that one in three practicing lawyers are problem drinkers. Our August issue deals with the positive ways that local attorneys deal with the stress of the job. This includes everything from tennis to fly-fishing to ultra running. There are innumerable ways to get out of the office and burn off stress and tension. In addition to going to the gym at 4:30 am three times per week, I have run various trail races, including distances up to 50k, and participated in numerous GORUCK events where the participants show up late at night hauling 40lb rucks and are placed into highly stressful situations. Their events go anywhere from 5-6 hours for a Light to 12-14 hours for a Tough and 24+ hours for a Heavy. Success depends upon working as a team, adapting to people’s strengths and weaknesses and pushing through one’s mental barriers all under the watchful eyes and four letter words of active and retired special operations personnel.

If the attorneys featured in this issue show us anything, it is that there shouldn’t be any excuses to go out an enjoy the wonderful weather and scenery that we pay so much for in Northern California. It doesn’t matter how athletic you are, only that you get out and try.