Almost universally, optimists tend to be more successful than pessimists. Education, military, athletics, the list goes on and on. There is one striking exception. Lawyers. Research reveals a surprising correlation between pessimism and success in law school. Students at the University of Virginia School of Law, Class of 1987, were tested for optimism-pessimism with the Attributional Style Questionnaire ("ASQ"). In sharp contrast to results in other areas of life, the students with a pessimistic explanatory style performed better than those with an optimistic one.

Right about now, you might be trying on your optimism coat thinking to yourself, good thing I am a pessimist! I would encourage you to keep the optimism coat on AND at the same time recognize that it's not a good thing to have a pessimistic explanatory style. Unfortunately, whether we are by nature more pessimistic or cultivate this pessimism through countless hours of issue spotting practice, most lawyers do not leave their pessimism at the office. If you have a pessimistic explanatory style, it likely pervades other parts of your life — and studies almost universally show optimists have greater wellbeing, success, and relationships. So what is a lawyer to do? How do we retain our ability to issue spot and develop a more optimistic style?

We develop an IRAC mindset. IRAC mindset isn't IRAC writing. In mindset, IRAC stands for Identify, Realistic Views, Apply Thinking Tools, and Create Your World.

I — Identify

To develop a more optimistic explanatory style, we need to be aware of ourselves and the many thinking traps humans are prone to fall into and challenge ourselves to identify and overcome them. Thinking traps are cognitive distortions — inaccurate thoughts usually reinforcing negative thinking patterns — that influence our view of reality. All humans are susceptible to thinking traps, but lawyers who are trained to spot problems may be especially susceptible to seeing problems where there aren't any.

One common thinking trap is catastrophizing. As a young lawyer, every mistake I made immediately led my mind down the path of tanking the deal, losing my job, becoming homeless, and being abandoned by my dog. We need to recognize what thinking traps we're prone to fall into and how we can begin to slowly shift our way of thinking.

Common Thinking Traps

  • Mind Reading — Expecting others to know what you want; believing you know what others are thinking
  • Me, Me, Me — Believing you are the sole cause of the problem; it's all my fault
  • Them, Them, Them — Believing others or circumstances are the sole cause; I didn't do anything wrong
  • Catastrophizing — Believing the worst case scenario will happen
  • Helplessness — Believing you have no control and negative events affect everything

R — Realistic Views

Once we are aware of our thinking traps, we can examine the situation through a lens of realism. "My dog doesn't actually care about my typo and likely won't abandon me." "Actually, I have been on deals where I have seen mistakes and the deal didn't crater." If a mistake meant losing your job, there probably wouldn't be any lawyers in the world.

While issue spotting is an important part of a lawyer's job, our clients pay us for solutions, not problems.

A — Apply Thinking Tools

Identifying our thinking traps and seeing the world through a realistic lens are two of the thinking tools we can use. Another powerful tool is reframing. We often believe that an activating event (A) creates a consequence (C). In fact, there is a vital piece missing: B — Belief. The same event does not lead to the same consequence for each person. Depending on an individual's belief, the consequences can be vastly different.

Consider a litigation associate who realized late one evening that the brief he filed had line numbers alongside the pages — not meeting filing requirements. He panicked throughout the evening, didn't sleep, and was emotionally drained the next day. The activating event did not cause these outcomes — his belief did. An optimistic "SuperLawyer" facing the same situation would ask colleagues for advice over dinner, get a good night's sleep, and face the morning refreshed. (For those who need to know: the court accepted a clean version of the brief the next day.)

C — Creating Our World

The final pillar of the IRAC mindset is Creating Our World. The universe will do what it will do. Much of life is outside our control. Events will happen that will make us uncomfortable, angry, sad, insecure. These feelings are natural, and we should not try to resist feeling. The question is: after we have allowed for our feeling, then what?

When you face an unpleasant situation, do you focus on the unpleasant situation or finding a solution? If there isn't a solution, do you shift to something else? We are not in control of events, but we are in control of what we pay attention to, how we respond, and whether we continue forward or stop. We can create a world of excitement, curiosity, learning, and hope — or one of fear, hardships, and despair. This is our choice, our power.

Victor Frankl famously noted: "When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves." I hope that you join me and rise to the challenge, cultivate an IRAC mindset through continual practice, and create that better world for yourself.

Originally published in CT Lawyer Magazine, Nov/Dec 2022. Tanyee Cheung was at the time a debt finance partner at Finn Dixon & Herling LLP and co-chair of the Connecticut Bar Association's Wellbeing Committee.