Leaving the Law - Part 1/6

I was bemoaning the fact that not everybody was able to attend my free teleclass, Career Discovery for Disillusioned Lawyers. And then it occurred to me, hey, I can share the strategies from the teleclass right here!

There’s too much for one blog entry. So I’m going to roll them out in a 6-part series. Here goes.

So you’re thinking about leaving the law. The problem is you have no idea what you want to do instead. Now what?

Here’s the first of six powerful strategies you can use to find and explore alternative careers:

Strategy #1
The Power of the Mind

What’s your perspective on changing careers? Here are some of the things I hear: “It’s hard” or “No one’s going to approve” or “I can’t afford to take a pay cut.” You’ve got to find some way to get around all of the scary stuff you’re thinking, or it’s going to stop you in your tracks. How do you do that?

Here’s a simple process that I’ve found to be incredibly powerful at rooting out and getting rid of those nasty thoughts that get in the way. It was developed by Byron Katie. She’s got a terrific book, Loving What Is, that goes into detail about this process, or you can read more about it at her site at www.TheWork.com.

First, write down all of the negative, disempowering thoughts that you have about making a career change. Then, ask yourself 4 questions about the first thought you wrote down and write down your responses.

First question: Is the thought true?
Second question: Can you absolutely know it’s true?
Third question: How do you react when you think that thought?
Fourth question: Who would you be if you couldn’t have that thought?

Once you answer the 4 questions, take that negative thought and turn it around to its opposite. This is called the “turnaround.” See if you can think of at least 2 -3 turnarounds.

And then go a step deeper. Before you just accept any of your turnarounds out of hand, ask yourself, is this thought as true as or truer than the original thought? If so, great. If not, what would be a more empowering belief to have about changing careers?

Go through this process with each of the negative thoughts you wrote down.

It’s that simple. Sometimes this process alone can banish the negative thoughts. If it doesn’t, when they show up again, go through the process again.

Getting rid of all that garbage in your head is the first step to making a career change. You’ll be amazed at how quickly you can transform your perspective about changing careers. You’ll realize your thoughts are just thoughts, not reality. And in fact it may be your thoughts that are keeping you from leaving the law, rather than the reality of your situation.

Strategy #2 coming up in the next post!