Legal Grounds | Matt Cianflone On the Origins of the Doom-Loop, How Miscommunication is Mistaken for Malice, and the Benefits of Self-Talk

Legal Grounds | Conversations on Life, Leadership & Law

Of the many many books I used to read to my sons, there are only a few that I could confidently recall, but a family favorite was (and remains) “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.”

No matter what age, it’s good to be reminded that some days are just going to suck, and in a lot of cases - just like Alexander - these reasons are completely out of control.

At the end of the book, Alexander is able to go to bed, reassured by his mother that everyone is allowed to have bad days.

But whereas Alexander isn’t going to have to face the same problems the next day, as attorneys we’re often faced with the same set of problems day after day, case after case. To be fair, it’s our job to solve problems, but when we’re unable to separate our self-worth from work-product we’re setting ourselves for a ride on the Doom-Loop.

Matt Cianflone returns to the show this week to discuss his latest article, “Shattering the Doom Loop”, which explores the causes, symptoms, warning signs, and solutions for pulling out of a professional and personal nose-dives alike.

We talk about how quickly the line from adversary to enemy can become blurred by miscommunication, why the ways we think about ‘winning’ a case have become distorted, and how distanced-self-talk can help ground us in our lowest moments.