Determined to Look/Act Younger Than You Are? Don't Become a Lawyer

 A Reddit posting asks what ages people most quickly. That was 16 hours ago and already 4.3K responses have come in. Obviously this issue is of interest. Recall the Cat Stevens' 1977 song "Forever Young." Stevens nailed one of the traits most important in America and increasingly in white-collar survival.

Well, responses to that Reddit post frequently finger as a factor in accelerated aging this: stress. 

That's embedded in being a lawyer, reaching all the back to jumping through the hoops of good grades, scoring high on the LSAT, landing that first job and surviving in that job. Climbing the ladeder and achieving stardom, of course, put in-place myriad additional hoops. 

Research - here and here - confims that on the average lawyers age faster than those in lines of work such as academia, science, creative fields, the helping professions and spiritual outreach. An early sign of that early aging is what is known as the "associate 20." That is the weight gain.  It dings the former youthful look.

In a 2022 BusinessInsider interview chair of large law firm Paul, Weiss Brad Karp alluded to, well we can put it this way, "feeling his age." But, at the time he was "only about 62." Relatively young in this phase in civilization of extreme longevity and how never-retiring has become commonplace.

In contrast to the premature agers, those in the creative and performing arts rarely seem to age right out of the box. The joke could be this: Become an actor like William Shatner who played defense lawyer Denny Crane on "Boston Legal" instead of becoming an actual lawyer. 

In addition to the physical aging, there's the psychological toll. And there are many ways that could take over a career in practicing law. 

For example, in coaching some lawyers who didn't make partner, often there was a significant drop-off in optimism, resilience and energy. A number of them seemed to fold into themselves. Driving the decision to get coaching was their search for an exit route out of themselves. A tragedy of aging is that turning inward. It's out here that opportunities happen. Not only for careers. Also for the social encounters that, as the cliche goes, keep us young. 

But aging, no matter how fast or how well-paced, can be unbundled from the actual process and impacts. Since that 2022 interview Karp has unleashed transformational change on the law firm. The disruptions range from expanding the global footprint, especially in London, to restructuring human capital for the AI era.

Reflection: The reality is that aging can be and often is the major obstacle for getting, holding and moving on to better work. To keep out of that force field, four years ago I shifted how I earn a living to a niche in which age is a plus.

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Thrown off your game, maybe the first time since you started working? You made all the right moves and then the world moved in another direction.

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