2022 Playlist for Florida Lawyer Well-Being | Florida Lawyers Mutual Insurance Company

By Aaron H. Wallace, Esq.

A Well-Being Week in Law 2022 Dance Party

My favorite songs are those that uplift, inspire, or impart some deeper meaning about life. That’s the power of music put to its most worthwhile purpose.

Last year, on the heels of Well-Being Week in Law 2021, we published a Music Playlist for Florida Lawyer Well-Being with 60 songs, each hand-picked because they resonate with the work-life struggles and emotional challenges that lawyers face every day.

Now, as we celebrate the After-Party for Well-Being Week in Law 2022, we’re adding another 40 songs to the mix… for a grand total of 100!

As before, the songs all relate to at least one of the key themes of Well-Being Week in Law: physical well-being, spiritual well-being, personal growth, social well-being, and emotional well-being.

In our Lawyer Well-Being Resource Center, we talk often about the value of exploring new music and incorporating familiar favorites into your workday. Music has the power to transform a workspace and energize our outlook. At the same time, expanding our musical horizons can keep us operating in an environment of growth. I hope these selections will help you accomplish each of those aims.

To hear the 40 new songs added for 2022, click here: Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube (coming soon).

Or stream all 100 songs (last year’s and this year’s combined) on Spotify.

Here are just a few of my favorites among the new selections:

Dream On by Ben Rector

It’s fitting that “Dream On” is the lead track on an album called The Joy of Music. This touching torch song finds joy in the face of discouragement.

Oh, What a Beautiful Morning by Billy Porter & Pentatonix

Rather than waking up each morning and waiting to see if it’ll be a good day or bad, we each have the power to decide that it’s already a great day from the outset — and then let that decision color our experiences. Every morning is a beautiful morning. No song celebrates that mindset quite like this old standard from Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! — brought to electric new life in this fresh a cappella cover.

The Breakup Song by Francesca Battistelli

Like a lot of professionals in high-pressure careers, lawyers routinely battle worry, self-doubt, and “Impostor Syndrome.” It’s a relationship Francesca Battistelli knows well, which is why she wrote one of the all-time great breakup songs: a breakup with fear itself.

If I Can Dream by Elvis Presley

The sheer emotional heft of the daily news is enough to weigh down anyone. And because lawyers are inherently part of society’s problem-solving system — blessed and (in some sense) cursed with analytical minds — we can feel especially taxed by the onslaught of it all. Many of us were drawn to the profession because of an inner drive toward justice, so it makes sense that the world’s injustices can hit us at our cores. This powerful ballad from The King of Rock & Roll helps to fix our gaze on better days ahead.

Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song) by Billy Joel

Has there ever been a catchier song about the perils of working too hard? (“You oughta know by now…”)

You Say by Lauren Daigle

We are more than just “the sum of every high and every low,” as Lauren Daigle reminds us in the skyward-looking ballad that crossed over to the mainstream pop charts in a big way back in 2019 and went on to win a Grammy. As a Well-Being Week in Law anthem, it underscores the importance of spiritual well-being in our daily lives and the need to honor our values in the work we do.

Surface Pressure by Lin-Manuel Miranda (performed by Jessica Darrow) from Disney’s Encanto

“We Don’t Talk About Bruno” may be all the rage on TikTok, but I suspect lawyers relate most to a different song in Encanto — the one that asks, “Just how much pressure can one person sustain?”

Threaten Me with Heaven by Vince Gill

In the daily grind, little things can seem so big. But really, Vince Gill asks in this Grammy-winning song co-written with his Grammy-winning wife (see Grant below), “What’s the worse that could happen?” The lyrics remind us that most of our problems are far from life-or-death.

Let It Go by Robert Lopez and Kristin Anderson-Lopez (performed by Caissie Levy) from Disney’s Frozen: The Musical

A little distance does make everything seem small, doesn’t it? Sometimes, the best thing we can do for ourselves and for others is simply to “let it go.” But I know you’ve heard this before… so for those who had their fill of Frozen long ago, I offer the reworked Broadway version of every family’s most-played song.

Eye to Eye by Amy Grant

Disagreement is a fact of life, but for lawyers it can feel like a way of life. But ultimately, even on opposite sides of a matter, we’re all in it together. As Nashville Songwriter Hall of Fame inductee Amy Grant sings in this self-penned ode to reconciliation, we have to try to see eye to eye. (Fun fact for pop fans: the background vocalist on this track is a not-yet-famous Katy Perry!)

Bein’ Green by Ray Charles

Being your authentic self in a profession that can too often feel homogenized, with a prescribed sense of personality and decorum, can leave any lawyer feeling like an outsider. But we spend too much of our time at work to be anyone other than ourselves. So much of professional unhappiness stems from a sense that work and life are out of alignment. So, to quote another song in this year’s lineup, “welcome yourself” to be exactly who you are — every day.

Thank you for coming along on this Well-Being Week in Law 2022 journey. It isn’t over yet! We have more Florida lawyer well-being content on the way this month, so stay tuned to our social media! For that matter, lawyer well-being is one of our perennial passions. Keep an eye on our Sunny Decisis®: The Lifestyle Blog for Florida Lawyers for more all year long.

Listen to This Year’s 40 New Songs on Apple Music

Listen to This Year’s 40 New Songs on Spotify

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