Changing Careers and How to Deal with the Fears

I just interviewed Katy Piotrowski, author of The Career Coward's Guide to Changing Careers and career counselor extraordinaire. She shared specific tips and strategies just for unhappy lawyers looking to make a career transition.

Specifically I asked her:

1) What are 3 steps unhappy lawyers can take to get started making a career transition?

2) What are some of the top fears your clients experience and what strategies do you counsel them to use to get past them?

3) What makes the difference between a successful career changer and someone who stays stuck?

If you'd like to hear the interview, send me an email at Monica@LeavingTheLaw.com. I'll have a downloadable audio ready by this Thursday.

Do Lawyers Live in Fear?

Fellow blogger, Stephanie West Allen, sent me the following article from Lawjobs.com CareerCenter. Would love to get your opinion.

Lawyers Live in Fear
James Dolan


"Our firm is ruled by fear," said Steve. "Hell, the whole profession is about fear. Fear of not billing hours, fear of not bringing in business, fear of losing business. Fear of not making partner. Fear of being in trouble with my wife for working too much, and, of course, fear of being in trouble with the partnership for not working enough." He stopped for a moment, letting his own words sink in.

"And it started in law school. The whole thing runs on fear. I'm sick of being afraid all the time."

Steve was talking about one of the unspoken realities of life in law.

Law practice is the military, and lawyers are the combatants. Some are pure strategists, poring in hushed offices over the contested terrain. They press their buttons at high altitudes and drop bombs on people they may never, personally, encounter.

Others are negotiators who bring differing factions together.

And others are plainly, clearly and undoubtedly foot soldiers whose job it is to do hand-to-hand combat.

Whatever level of engagement a lawyer has with The Other Side, he knows that this is win or lose, sink or swim, live or die. A lawyer's slightest misjudgment may be the beginning of the end.

Quite naturally, lawyers live in fear.


[To see the rest of this article, copy and paste the link below.]

James Dolan, M.A., is a professional coach and psychotherapist with 30 years of experience in private practice in the Dallas area. He works with lawyers and physicians in improving their business development communications, internal relations, and leadership and client-patient retention. His e-mail address isdolan.james@sbcglobal.net.



http://www.law.com/jsp/law/careercebter/lawArticleCareerCenter.jsp?id=1208861012756

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.

You Can Pre-Order My Book at Amazon.com!

Just wanted to share my excitement with you.

One of my brothers alerted me that my book is now listed at Amazon.com. To take a look, go to www.amazon.com. In the "Search" bar, select "Books" and type in "Unhappy Lawyer." Or you can just copy and paste this link:

http://www.amazon.com/Unhappy-Lawyer-Roadmap-Finding-Meaningful/dp/1572486708/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208664596&sr=1-1

You'll get a sneak peek of the cover, which makes me laugh. You can also pre-order the book (and save 5%). How exciting is that?!

There's something about seeing it at Amazon that makes it real. I can't wait to hold a copy in my hand.

Update about My Soon-to-be-Published Book Unhappy Lawyer

I'm excited that my book Unhappy Lawyer: A Roadmap to Finding Meaningful Work Outside of the Law is coming out in July and thought you might like to hear a few details about it.

One of the things I love about the book is that it contains interviews with real lawyers who have left the practice of law and transitioned into fulfilling alternative careers. There's a lawyer-turned pastry chef who has her own delectable candy store. Lots of you are curious about what it would be like to work for a law school career services office--you'll meet a former practicing lawyer who's now an Assistant Director for J.D. Advising. How about a lawyer who's pursuing an acting career in Hollywood? And there are many more!

Inspirational and informative, the interviews show you how these lawyers made their career transitions out of the law and offer you words of wisdom as to how you can make your own.

I'll let you know as soon as I have the actual publication date in July. For now, I'm scrambling to get all of the elements taken care of, reviewing the copyedited manuscript, and dreaming up ways of promoting what I hope will be the definitive step-by-step guide to compel you to ditch your unsatisfying legal career for what the interviewees have--work with meaning, purpose, and passion!

5 Reasons Unhappy Lawyers Get Stuck in the Practice of Law

I recently conducted a survey with folks who purchased my e-book, Great Escape from the Law: How to Find the Alternative Career That's Just Right For You. I asked them if they haven't made the transition, what's keeping them stuck? The results were pretty disturbing.

Turns out there are 5 major reasons unhappy lawyers feel trapped in the practice of law:

1. Maybe I need to give this law thing one more chance
2. I wish I had a trust fund but I don't
3. I can't put my finger on exactly what I want to do next
4. It's easy to get stuck in a rut
5. I know I need to do something but I just don't have the time

Want to learn more about these reasons and some strategies to get unstuck? Send me an email at Monica@LeavingTheLaw.com and I'll send you my latest free report, "Why Unhappy Lawyers Get Stuck in the Practice of Law and 5 Strategies to Get Unstuck."

Monica Gets Interviewed by The Blog Squad!

While attending Adam Urbanski’s InfoProfit Intensive boot camp in Costa Mesa, CA I met two awesome women who make their living with blogs, The Blog Squad. After attending so many boring CLEs who knew training could be so much fun? Here’s the interview.

Got a Mastermind?

I recently attended a conference in Costa Mesa, CA to build my business. It was wonderful. Not only learning about how to build my business but also being surrounded by enthusiastic, like-minded enterpreneurs. That's when I realized how isolated I was here in Atlanta, GA. And that I needed to do something about it--like starting a mastermind.

If you're feeling isolated in making your career transition, maybe you should consider one too.

A mastermind group is often made up of at least 6 – 8 members but you can create a mini-mastermind by buddying up with at least one other person or 2. Find someone else who wants to accomplish something (change careers, lose weight, go sledding in the Iditarod, whatever). Schedule a 2-hour call or meeting once a week. Set up at least a month’s worth of calls or just pick a day you’re going to meet each week and put it on your calendar indefinitely.

Here’ s a description of a typical meeting for a mastermind group from "Meet and Grow Rich: How to Easily Create and Operate Your Own Mastermind Group for Health, Wealth and More" by Joe Vitale and Bill Hibbler:

“Open the meeting, share success stories, mastermind time, share resources, close the meeting. The largest portion of the time should be for the mastermind time, when members take turns sharing their goals and challenges and everyone asks questions and gives advice to that member. This keeps the meeting from deteriorating into a chatty social session. Should the discussion become social, steer the meeting back to its structure. Each person gets about 10 – 15 minutes. Use a timer.”

At the end of each meeting, each of you comes up with your own homework assignments. You each have to report back at the next meeting about what you did or didn’t do and that creates accountability and a sense of urgency.

Best chance for success? Pick members who are positive, creative, and supportive!

What’s powerful about a mastermind group is that somehow when you get 2 or more people together, you get exponential results—both in terms of brainstorming and accelerating your progress. Working with others gets you out of your box and into action.

Is a 4-Hour Workweek Possible for a Recovering Lawyer?

I realize I'm a little late at jumping on this bandwagon but I just bought a copy of "The 4-Hour Workweek" by Timothy Ferriss. Why am I so late about this? I picked up the book in the bookstore after I heard about it and read a paragraph or two in the Intro and thought, "Nah, not for me. Guy sounds arrogant."

For some reason I picked it up again and read the total Intro and was hooked. On a long flight from Orange County, CA back to Atlanta, GA, I read the whole book.

Now I'm just at the beginning of this entrepreneurial journey (it's my 3rd year as a lawyer-turned-entrepreneur) but I can see how creating a life like Ferriss has is possible.

Would I have believed that when I was feeling stuck at my law firm? Probably not. In fact, I'd love to hear from some of you who are trying to incorporate some of these principles at your firm.

I believe it now though because I very much believe that creating your own business is a highly individual act. It's easy to get sucked into thinking that there's one way to do this and it's working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If you've got a good coach (or mentor or whoever) though, they'll tell you your business can be whatever you want it to to be. The question to ask is what kind of business do you want to create?

As I start putting into action some of what Ferriss suggests, I'll keep you posted. I'll be delighted to give you proof that the 4-Hour Workweek is possible for lawyers-turned-entrepreneurs.

And again, if you're a lawyer who's putting some of Ferriss' stuff into practice at your firm, let me know.