Pass the Bar Exam
I was interviewed in an episode of the Bar Study Motivation Podcast.
Give it a listen as you wind down for the day. I think you’ll find at least one good nugget you can use for your bar preparation. Some convenient timestamps:
Continue reading “Bar Study Motivation Podcast”Happy new year! It’s that time again when everyone suddenly forgets the correct year.
By the way, I don’t believe your “resolutions.” Look at your friends saying, “Hey, I’m SERIOUS about my New Year’s resolutions. THIS time it’s for real.”
Sure buddy. If they really wanted to do something, they would have started or done it already.
I won’t let you simply declare your resolve and call it a day. Anyone can have good intentions. Anyone can be interested. Prove that resolve by actually showing me results.
Let your results speak for themselves.
Before you start shouting at the wrong person (aka me), let me ask you this: How are those resolutions from 12 months ago going?
Thought so. Vague wishes are unsustainable for most people, myself included. Estimates put the “failure” rate of resolutions around 75-92%. But I don’t want you to be just another ordinary citizen.
No, I want your next year to be AMAZING. I want you to get everything you want, whether it’s to…
Let’s do it. How can we mark the new year (and every year after that) with extraordinary results? My two cents:
Continue reading “The Year of Extraordinary Results: 4 Ways to Pass the Bar This Year”
Man… I see this question more often than I want to. And if you look closely, it’s basically people just complaining that they don’t want to study.
How did they graduate law school? If finally becoming an attorney doesn’t entice them, I don’t know what to say. More like I hold back on giving a huge answer every time I see the question!
HOW do you get motivated? How DO you get motivated? How do you get MOTIVATED?
You don’t. Asking about it is just going to get you into a pity party with other people who also “don’t have motivation.” The blind leading the blind.
To be fair, it’s a gray area. Who wants to study for the bar exam?
You might as well moisturize your outlines with sandpaper because this exam is one of the driest, most boring things in existence. It’s natural to be uninterested if you’re looking at this huge, seemingly insurmountable goal—even if it is a high-stakes exam.
If you’re asking about motivation, though, don’t count on it to come to you first. “Motivation” and “inspiration” are fleeting. It comes and goes based on the situation, difficult to summon at will.
Keep reading to find out:
Bar exam results. Tens of thousands across the country face them time and time again. Hope and despair, rinse and repeat.
You endure the onslaught of “aww… you got this” and “I’m sure you passed!” for weeks and months. Like can we just agonize in PEACE?
Waiting is the hardest part. Anxiety, excitement, and uncertainty squirt into your heart every time they think of the moment of truth. Uncertainty is being locked in a padded room alone with your hopes and worries.
Then… the ruthless truth. This is the result of all your work, condensed into one phrase: “You were not successful on the exam.” Someone out there deemed that your efforts weren’t enough.
How do you face your family and friends? How do you face yourself?
You want to “trust the process.” But does something need to be changed?
Are you panicking? Feeling crazy like a possessed head of lettuce (which doesn’t even make sense because it’s just that crazy)? Feeling stuck and overwhelmed?
If so, these are perfectly valid reactions to the daunting task before you. You’re not alone in feeling this way!
It’s OK if you don’t feel confident about your bar prep. As a guy, I can understand being pressured to “be confident” and “be yourself.” That kind of advice is so vague and misleading I don’t even know where to begin.
But if you want to rant to me or ask me for “any advice?” so you can somehow receive a magical response with the one weird trick that will solve all your problems and make you feel a little happy for more than three minutes… If you’re hoping for that feeling of confidence to be infused in the form of a green-juice smoothie…
Cease.
That’s not happening today. This is a letter to the you who is willing to develop confidence in your bar prep.
If you’re not ready or willing to generate that feeling from within yourself, you can come back to this later. Or never—who says you need to feel confident with your bar prep anyway?
We both know the inconvenient truth:
Or what do I know? Maybe you’re already collected and know what you’re doing. Great!
“Easy for you to say! I’m like this because I’m not confident about this in the first place!” you say as you sob grossly. Ah yes, the classic catch-22. Can’t get job without experience, can’t get experience without job.
Being coddled isn’t going to make you confident either. It’ll just make you complacent. I don’t want to make you complacent like when your friends hit “like” on your generic selfies for no reason.
I want you to pass the bar and continue to succeed after that too.
Continue reading “How Do You Become Confident in Your Bar Prep?”