This Thanksgiving season, consider how acts of service, large or small, can strengthen both your community and your own well-being.
Table of contents
- Gratitude in Action
- 1. Rediscover Purpose Through Pro Bono Work
- 2. Create Connection Through Mentorship
- 3. Increase Happiness by Volunteering in Your Local Community
- 4. Improve Your Mood with Small Acts of Kindness
- 5. Increase Motivation with a Gratitude Journal
- Giving Back Can Be Your Path to Gratitude
- More Health and Well-being Tips on Attorney at Work
As Thanksgiving approaches in the U.S., we often think about gratitude and being thankful for the good in our lives. Gratitude is a conscious awareness of what sustains and supports us, despite life’s challenges. Yet, gratitude isn’t just a feeling; it’s a mindset and a practice that can influence our personal and professional lives.
Gratitude in Action
One of the most meaningful ways to express gratitude is through service — sharing our time, knowledge, experience and compassion with others. Service can connect us to our communities, remind us of our values, and offer a sense of fulfillment that our work may not always provide. Giving back can also be a source of personal rejuvenation. Here are a few activities to try.
1. Rediscover Purpose Through Pro Bono Work
As lawyers, we possess unique skills that can make a transformative difference in people’s lives. Whether it’s assisting a family facing eviction, helping a veteran access benefits, or supporting a nonprofit that needs regulatory guidance, pro bono service reconnects us with the heart of why many of us entered the legal profession: to help others and make justice more accessible.
Pro bono work can also renew your sense of purpose, which can help reduce feelings of burnout. When we see our skills making a direct, positive impact, it is motivating and can restore meaning to our daily work. Volunteering for a cause you care about can remind you of the tangible impact of your efforts. Even dedicating a few hours a month to a local legal aid organization can help you and your community.
2. Create Connection Through Mentorship
One of the simplest and most rewarding ways to give back is by mentoring less-experienced professionals. Mentorship, whether formal or informal, can profoundly shape a young lawyer’s career and confidence. Offering guidance in any number of areas — such as case strategy, business development, work-life balance or professional ethics — helps the next generation navigate challenges with the benefit of the knowledge you’ve gained facing the same or similar obstacles.
And mentorship isn’t a one-way exchange. Many mentors find that teaching and supporting others deepens their own understanding of the profession and themselves, and rekindles enthusiasm. Conversations with newer professionals can provide fresh perspectives, energy and even reminders of how far you’ve come. Most importantly, mentorship is based on connection and a meaningful relationship, which are both essential to well-being.
3. Increase Happiness by Volunteering in Your Local Community
Not all service needs to be legal service. Sometimes, the most restorative acts of giving back happen in venues that don’t involve our legal skills. Serving meals at a food pantry, participating in a coat drive, organizing a charity walk, or helping with a neighborhood cleanup are all ways to make an immediate, visible difference.
Community-based volunteering offers a chance to step away from our computers and into a space that’s tactile and collaborative, engaging different parts of the brain and body. This physical activity and social engagement can lower stress and increase happiness, reminding us that our value extends far beyond our work.
4. Improve Your Mood with Small Acts of Kindness
You don’t need to schedule an entire volunteer day or take on a new project to serve others. Everyday generosity — small, intentional acts of kindness — can be just as meaningful. Studies show that even small acts of kindness release feel-good hormones like dopamine and oxytocin, improving mood and resilience. A moment of gratitude in action can improve an entire day — for both giver and receiver.
Write a thank-you note to a colleague, acknowledge someone’s hard work, offer to help a teammate meet a deadline, or bring in coffee for a paralegal who’s been working late. These are all simple ways to create a ripple effect of goodwill. When we model gratitude, we may inspire others to do the same.
5. Increase Motivation with a Gratitude Journal
Consider setting aside a few minutes each week this season to write about what you’re thankful for and how you’ve used your skills to make a difference. After serving others, whether through pro bono work, mentorship or small acts of kindness, take time to reflect by journaling. What did the experience teach you? How did it make you feel? Reflection can strengthen self-awareness, reinforce gratitude, and help transform moments of service into lasting motivation and a changed perspective.
Giving Back Can Be Your Path to Gratitude
This Thanksgiving, giving thanks can take the form of giving back — to clients, colleagues and communities. When we serve others, we nurture not just our communities but our own sense of purpose and connection. Service transforms gratitude from a feeling into an action, ideally a daily practice that can ground and balance us.
In giving to others, you may find that you receive something invaluable in return: renewed energy, deeper fulfillment, and a clearer sense of gratitude for the work you do and the life you lead.
More Health and Well-being Tips on Attorney at Work
“An Antidote to Ungrateful Clients: Rediscovering the Satisfaction and Joy of Helping Others“
“Why Are You at the Office Until 10 p.m.?”
“Top-Rated Mindfulness and Meditation Apps”
“How to Be Productive When You’re Depressed”
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