Work hard, play hard

Finding balance between work and play is important to both my mind and body, but balance does not have to mean sacrificing one for the other.  I’ve found over the years that the harder I go at one, the harder I can go at the other.  And of course, the driving force that allows me to do it all – and to do it harder – is fitness.

Work hard

As a young associate in a big law firm, work was my life.  Working hard is a key to success, but in addition to the long hours, my mind never disconnected.  I didn’t take a real vacation for my first six years out of law school, and I rarely made time for the fun stuff I liked to do such as concerts or sporting events.  I failed to feed my mind, and as a result, these were the years my body suffered the most.

I should have known better.  I saw plenty of successful colleagues set better examples of living healthy lifestyles mixing work with fun, but my instinct was that I couldn’t handle that load given the burnout I was already feeling.  Sure, I took time off, but it was always somewhere that I could stay connected and monitor my emails.

Then, one day about ten years ago, I was chatting with a trial lawyer who always seemed to do the most adventurous excursions amidst a busy trial calendar.  I asked how she does it all, and the answer was, “Work hard, play hard.”  It wasn’t the first time I’ve heard successful people explain the need for letting loose and disconnecting, but that talk changed my life.  It hit me what I was missing.

Play hard

Similar to my fitness journey – and along much of the same timeline – my passion for playing hard evolved.  At first, I tried to fill the obvious voids – take vacations; go to Yankees games; and most definitely go to concerts.

Besides having fun, filling the voids made me a better lawyer.  First, I made sure never to be the one who was out having fun and then end up late to work the next day.  That’s not to say that some days weren’t harder than others, but if I was going to make the time for fun, it could not be at the expense of my career.  Second, I found that it gave me energy – both in the short term and the long term.  Music feeds my soul, and that feeds my ability to work.  Lastly, when it came to playing hard, I wanted more.  And wanting more made me feel I had to earn it even more at work.  The harder I wanted to play, the harder I would work.

Filling the voids also made me fitter.  It started my transition from a sedentary lifestyle to an active one.  It all fits with, “move.”  Leading an active lifestyle is a form of fitness. Moving more made me want to move even more. 

Of course, the first rule to playing hard is that work comes first, and that means there are times when fun get cancelled.  Over the years, I’ve missed dozens of concerts because of trials or depositions.  Last year alone, I missed six concerts while at trial, three of which were my favorite band, Pearl Jam.

You see, over the years, my return to live music made me seek it out more and that included following my favorite band on the road.  I’ve travelled as far as Rome to see them.  Before you wonder how I can see so many shows on the same tour . . . this band plays entirely different setlists each show.  Part of the obsession is catching songs I’ve never heard, and the other part is capturing that perfect setlist with the perfect crowd.  I also found that seeing Pearl Jam in another city is even better for disconnecting – even if I am still working while away for the shows.

So, having missed all three of my Pearl Jam shows last year, this year I signed up for ten shows through the fan club lottery – thinking I might get six or eight of those and actually make it one or two.  It turns out that I landed tickets for all ten, and in what turned out to be, “the summer of Aaron,” I just finished making it to all ten!

But why am I telling this story here?  It’s not because I want you to hear about Pearl Jam instead of what this blog is all about – fitness, well-being, and life.  It’s because this story is about fitness, well-being, and life.

At times, it was a struggle making it through the demanding schedule of ten shows across five cities between May and September.  Four shows on the West Coast in late May, had me traveling back and forth from New York to Los Angeles and Seattle twice over two weeks and putting in 20+ hour days to get in the work, travel, and the concert.  Jumping up and down at the shows certainly is a work-out, but often, it was my second workout of the day because I also fit that in when I could.

Another run of four concerts in one week came with Labor Day – a day I took to go rock climbing – squeezed in between shows in Chicago and New York.  That was my most exhausting stretch.  I started this part of the tour leaving for Chicago the morning after I returned to New York from a deposition in San Diego.  Thankfully, the Chicago shows fell over a long weekend.  But only a few days later, at my home shows in New York, I worked them into my normal routine – with about three hours less sleep per night. 

I went into the last of those four shows almost wondering if it was too much.  That is until that second night at Madison Square Garden felt like one of those perfect setlists with the perfect crowd.  The sheer euphoria from that experience got me through the next morning – and through that next week – with ease.  My cup was pretty full.

The final two of my ten shows came last week in Boston, and I had the rare privilege of general admission pit tickets for both.  I’ve been in the pit a few times before, always either in the middle or back.  It takes commitment and time to get close to the front, but that was perhaps the only item left on my Pearl Jam bucket list.  So, for my 10th and last show of the tour, and my 30th Pearl Jam concert ever, I decided to try to check it off the list.

Once again, I promise, I am writing this with a message about wellness and life.  First, in order to get on the rail, I showed up at Fenway Park at 5 AM the day of the concert.  Most of the 25 people in front of me had been there since the night before, and 23 of them were sleeping when I arrived.  After a couple hours talking to the two fans who were awake and then to those who gradually woke up, I ran to Starbucks for my first double espresso of the day.  Everyone in line makes friends and will hold your spot for even an hour or so to go eat, shower, or do whatever you need.  We all earned our spots there and respected them.  This was key because the only way I could make this work was to bring my laptop and iPad to do work from the street outside of Fenway during the day and then take it all back to my hotel before the show.

When I came back to my spot from Starbucks, I got to work – early enough that I could get done what I needed to and even take the Zooms that I had scheduled (from a quiet spot on the sidewalk across from the stadium).  It was the epitome of work hard, play hard, and it all culminated in the greatest experience I’ve had at Pearl Jam in my life.  I earned that spot on the rail, and it was more than I could have expected.

Pictures from the rail at Fenway Park 9.17.24

Ok, that last part may have seemed like a little departure to indulge in my love of Pearl Jam a bit, but here’s where it is totally in line with what this blog is all about.  This all happened – the ten shows, 20+ hour days, eight airplane flights, 11 nights in a hotel, and the 18 hours at Fenway Park for the final show – because I got fit.  It happened both because I work hard and workout hard.  The work gave me the financial means to do it, including getting me all my travel on points because of the miles I get while being away at trial.  But my fitness gave me the physical strength to do it.  Getting to experience my favorite band with seven different friends over the course of ten shows was more than enough to fill my cup for all the shows that get cancelled due to work – especially with an ending like this . . .

Workout hard 

Fitness is what makes this all possible.  Going back to my WHOOP data, I spent 13 hours dancing during the ten shows.  I worked out for over three additional hours on those ten days.  My dedication to fitness over the course of my journey built my body up to play even harder.  Ten years ago, I would not have had the energy for all of this.  Not for the travel, not for the dancing, not for the early mornings or late nights, and not for the work schedule surrounding it all.

The result of working out harder is that I work and play as hard as ever too.  Even during years like last year, where I missed all the concerts I had scheduled, I felt as if I missed nothing at all.  Making the most out of my time when I can, leaves little room for regret.  And you never know when you get rewarded with a rare summer like I just had.  It doesn’t happen often, but when you land on it, it’s magical. 

Life-changing results . . .  

In my work life, the hardest work comes during a trial, and we all need to recharge our batteries when it is done.  For me, playing hard comes in many forms beyond Pearl Jam.  This past year alone, I’ve gone skydiving, went to two Formula 1 grand prix races, took a golf trip to Nova Scotia, and have pushed my body in many different aspects of fitness.  After a successful trial last March, I decided it was time to explore rock climbing.  It was my second time ever going, but really, it was the first time where I truly wanted to understand it and see whether I would consider making it a somewhat regular thing.  My inexperience and lack of knowledge the first time I tried climbing made it hard to trust it, so all I really got out of it was the photo op – and a lingering curiosity for more. 

My first day climbing was all about the photo op on a short, easy rock and then getting down!  But the experience stayed with me and left me curious as to whether I could do more.

Then this past March, I discovered the passion of climbing on my “play hard day” after trial.  Climbing is now a huge part of my life, and I’ll be writing much more about this later.  I simply note it here because “work hard, play hard, workout hard” changed my life again!

Climbing has become a passion since I got back from trial in March 2024.

Lastly, I want to give a well-deserved shout out to a close bunch of colleagues – and friends of the blog – that just nailed the “work hard” part with huge trial win in Philadelphia two weeks ago.  I’m so proud of you all, and I really hope that you are taking some time not only to rest, but also to play!  You earned it!

Aaron