Get better: Use the pain

By Lcid Crescent Fernandez

The 2022 Bar Exam results were released this past week, and I was very happy and proud to see a few of my friends and fraternity brods on the list of passers. The Bar Exam is the arbiter – the gatekeeper – to the practice of law, and the majority will not be able to pass it.

And it’s gonna hurt like a bitch to go through the grueling review process for more than a year, and then not find your name on that list of passers. To have spent all that time, and find yourself coming up empty at the end. Your mind must have been in hell once you found out about that failure, and I’m sure the pain hasn’t subsided.

Lean into it.
Feel that pain.
Sure, it sucks, but bathe in that suffering.

You know what just happened? You went through what is probably the worst pain you have ever felt in your life. And yet, you get to try again.

Personally, I’ve felt something similar in my pursuit of the Atty. For those that don’t know me, I’ve already gone to 3 law schools in the past 8 years. I’ve taken a leave of absence after I couldn’t control the thoughts in my mind anymore as I was going to school every day. I became too focused on the result and what other people would think. I saw a bunch of my peers pass me by, and I felt stuck.

But you know what?

Life goes on, buddy.

I don’t mean that in the “it’s ok, move on” kind of way. I mean it in the “today’s a new day to get to work” kind of way.

Feeling that pain lets you know that you’re still breathing, and that you get the chance to try again. So now what happens? You remember this day. You remember this feeling that you have inside your mind, the suffering that’s consuming you.

Then you get up and go right back to work.

You know what the Bar passers are going to do after their celebration with their family and friends? They’ll get up and get to work too.

See, that’s the constant that you can always go back to. That’s what you can focus on. Focus on the work that you’ll be doing. Focus on the work that you can do right now. Remember that suffering you just went through, and think about how much it sucked to go through that, and yet still come out the other side with another opportunity. You get another go at it, my friend.

Now, use your pain to propel you forward. Every time you feel tired or unmotivated, remember that pain. Every time you’re feeling lazy, remember that pain. Every time you find yourself making excuses to not study for longer, let that pain keep your eyes open. Every time you don’t get up to your alarm clock banging at your mind for you to work, let that pain wake your ass up.

You get another shot at that Atty, but it’s also another risk you’re taking to feel that pain all over again.

Love and strength to all our Bar flunkers out there.

It’s all about mindset; How you talk to and view yourself in your journey to be a better you. Every monday, we’re going to talk about getting better.