What's Stopping You From Leaving the Law?

What's all the stuff that's getting in the way of you getting out of the practice of law?

Richard Bolles (author of "What Color Is Your Parachute?") calls these the “Yes Buts.” “Yes but I can’t leave the law because I have too much debt.” I want you to write down every “Yes But” you can think of.

This is usually an easy question for unhappy lawyers to answer. They’ve got lots of reasons why they can’t leave the practice of law and they’re happy to tell you about them.

Why do I think it’s a good idea to talk about the “Yes Buts?” It may seem counterintuitive to list all of the reasons why you can’t change careers. But as I told an audience a few weeks ago, since all of that garbage is in your head, you might as well get it out! Otherwise, it’s going to paralyze you.

Once you get it on paper, you can see what’s real about it, what’s not real.

What are some of the common reasons people say they can’t leave the practice of law?

-Lack of money
-Lack of time
-Family responsibility
-Fear of failure, what others will say, making the wrong career choice, loss of status

See yours here? If not, add it to the list! It’s important to get them all down. Carrying all of those doubts around can be a pretty heavy load. The first step in lightening the load is to get them out of your system.

In my next post, I'll talk about what to do with them.