Excitement That Builds
“His position is completely indefensible!” I heard him state with conviction through the cracked door of the office next to mine. It was something you would hear from a Hollywood movie or a Law and Order episode. The righteous, certain, unbridled and – above all – lawyerly proclamation you’re supposed to find in and around a courtroom.
As transactional lawyers, moments such as these are few and far between here at Campbell Law Group. In fact, this is the only time I’ve ever heard anything so confrontational since I began to work here and it didn’t have to anything to do with our clients. Rather, what drew me here and what excites me each day is the opportunity to be a part not of courtroom confrontation but of mindful collaboration.
There is a certain energy that pervades our work here and seems to be ever present in Boulder’s social impact community. It’s a willingness to approach each moment, each deal and each face with excitement as an opportunity to learn and include. That approach is naturally infectious. It grows, building upon itself, both as our work crosses new borders and as we work closer to home. One can feel it in the momentum driving the Boulder community to clear out an empty space in the basement of the Randolph Building and turn it into HUB Boulder – a thriving streetside café and coworking space dedicated to this collaborative energy.
Often momentum that builds on itself lacks direction and dissipates. As people scramble from one opportunity to the next they tend to spread themselves, and their ability to attend meaningfully to their work, thin. As they follow strands of ideas and strings of thoughts, they’re left with little but loose ends. Mired in thought, they fail to act effectively. One needs to look no further than a recent study finding that over-thinking, over-analyzing Yale undergraduates are less effective at solving certain problems than rats!
But the excitement and energy is well-directed here. As a group, we recognize that these opportunities are only truly present if we are present – that is, if we slow down enough to consider them in their totality. As I’ve settled in here, I’ve learned the real value of doing less work more mindfully. We’ve tried to take put systems in place that further allow will allow us to remain focused and thoughtful in our work – and ultimately more done. In this way, I believe we can continue to find the most interesting and fruitful opportunities to work together and get shit done. I suppose that’s why I’m excited (mindfully) each day to be the CGSDO – the Chief Get Shit Done Officer – at Campbell Law Group.
