Let’s make 2023 a great year!

2022 has been a difficult year for lots of dirt lawyers and their staff members. Everyone has been way too busy! 2023 promises to be a little slower. I remember my first slow-down in private practice many years ago. I was panicking a little, and my senior partner advised me to take a breath, clean up my desk and old files, and by the time I was through, the economy would have improved. He was right! And I have given that same advice to many people, including my now adult children, many times through the years.

Abraham Lincoln said, “Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.”  My guess is that he used the qualifier “most” because he recognized that outside forces might lead to unhappiness for some people, but I couldn’t agree more with our 16^th president that happiness is usually a matter of choice.

Here in the Bible belt of the South, some may believe that faith leads to happiness, but experience suggests that people of faith don’t always choose happiness. Experience also suggests that affluence does not create happiness. In fact, it seems that the opposite may be true in many instances.

I write this blog* for South Carolina real estate lawyers and their staff members, and my goal is to keep us all up to date on real estate issues that may affect our practices.

Early in my career, I decided to focus on real estate law because I chose happiness. I found real estate law to be a happier choice than litigation, especially the domestic litigation I tried for about five minutes. If the economy is good, then everyone should be satisfied at the end of the closing process. The seller should walk away with funds. The buyer should have a new piece of real estate to inhabit, rent or develop. The lender should have a nice income stream. And the players in the marketplace should be paid fairly for their services in connection with the closing.

Those of us who weathered the recent real estate peak are well aware that practicing real estate law does not lead to similar happiness when things are moving too quickly and fraud is so prevalent that it is hard to catch our collective breath. Kudos to all who have survived this challenging season.

Another realization I made early in my career is that to make money, lawyers must work very hard, often at a speed and pressure that do not benefit their health and happiness. And if lawyers have to work under those circumstances, then their staff members do as well.

So how do we choose happiness in a pressure-filled real estate practice that is dependent on the economy?

I offer Jon Gordon’s “20 Tips for a Positive New Year” as a suggestion. Jon Gordon is a motivational business speaker I enjoy following. Many of his tips for a positive 2023 focus on choosing to be happy. (But I particularly like his tip #8, “Get More Sleep”) You can download this excellent advice in poster format to keep at your desk or post in your workroom.

I am going to try to follow Abraham Lincoln’s and Jon Gordon’s advice in 2023. And I invite you to join me!

* Thanks to the readers of this blog! I began writing weekly very late in 2014. Readership has increased from just under 2,000 in 2014 to just over 40,000 in 2022. I’d like to take the opportunity of a new year to thank Martha McConnell and Jennifer Rubin, excellent lawyers, who help me with ideas, redirect my thinking, keep me out of trouble and proofread my work. And I’d like to thank Cris Hudson, IT guru extraordinaire, who handles technical issues. It is a team effort, and I am blessed with a great team!