What Doing Your Best Is Costing You as a Lawyer

For a lot of lawyers, hearing "just do your best" as a kid didn't feel reassuring. It felt like a requirement to give every ounce of everything they had until there was literally nothing left.That's not incidental. The kind of person who interprets "do your best" that way is often exactly the kind of person who ends up becoming a lawyer. And that standard follows them.In this episode of The Former Lawyer Podcast, Sarah Cottrell talks about what that standard is actually costing lawyers who want to make a change, and why doing B-minus work might be worth considering.1:00 - What "do your best" actually means if you're wired like a lawyer1:56 - Why caring about doing good work makes this harder3:56 - The B-minus work concept and why it matters4:37 - Why this is harder for lawyers from marginalized communities5:04 - How loosening that standard makes space for other things5:24 - Why therapy is worth considering if this resonatesMentioned in What Doing Your Best Is Costing You as a LawyerFirst Steps to Leaving the LawThe Former Lawyer CollaborativeI'm closing enrollment for my self-paced group program, the Former Lawyer Collaborative, permanently on August 31st, 2026. If you've been thinking about joining now is the time. Head to formerlawyer.com/collab to join before doors close on August 31st.