Having a “narrow mind”, avoiding a plan B, and having faith might be the secret to making things happen – here, one firm owner reflects on how her experiences have shaped the way she uses tunnel vision to achieve success as a lawyer.
In a recent episode of The Boutique Lawyer Show, Irene Chrisopoulidis (pictured), Chrisopoulidis & Associates principal, talked about her experience discovering and harnessing tunnel vision.
“Tunnel vision is not just a mindset that I apply to my professional career, but it’s also the mindset I apply to my everyday personal life and who I am as a human being,” she said.
Chrisopoulidis recalled that, in her previous role as head of family violence in prosecutions at Victoria Police, she learnt how to apply tunnel vision.
She said: “Coming into the profession, advocating one of the highest risk, busiest areas of law, family violence and … you need to mature with the profession real quick … It’s resilience that grows you.”
It was this resilience that she harnessed during a turbulent time in her personal life, she said.
She said: “I had no choice but to pick myself up and do something for me, and that was: walking every day, starting boxing, got a boxing bag, put it in the garage … I had two young children at home [as a] single mum … at night I would go in the garage and just sweat it out.”
She recounted: “I think back 15 years when I started out; I was 16, doing work experience in a law firm, loving it, saying, ‘Can I come back on the school holidays and open the envelopes and do all those things?’ I loved it. Just being able to help people who walked through reception who were … miserable.”
“Before you do anything, make sure you love it, before you commit to a tunnel vision, make sure you love what you’re doing to get there,” she advised.
Speaking about the role of religion in her life, she said it allowed her to separate herself from undesirable occurrences like unsuccessful triaging: ”It’s [not] a reflection on me as a lawyer.”
She added: “I have faith that whatever it is, whatever’s meant for me will be … if a client’s meant to work with us, it will happen. If we’re not meant to meet, work with the client, it won’t happen.”
“It’s the ability to say, you know what, there’s no option A, we’re going for this. And that takes strength.”
