How to mindfully navigate a career transition

• Author: Jeena Cho
• Pages: 26-27

“I think about walk ing out of my job all the

time, but I have no idea what I’d do. All I know

how to be is a lawyer.”

This is something I hear fr equently from the

lawyers I work with. Ma ny lawyers excelled in

academics, so they ju st followed the list: Do

well on the SAT, get into a good college, do well

on the LSAT, go to law school, pass the bar, get

a good law fi rm job and eventua lly make part-

ner. They believed this path was the ticket t o a

comfortable, secure a nd happy life.

Yet, for some, checking all the boxes and being suc-

cessful only lea ds to discontent and a feeling that there

must be something more to life. Navigati ng a career

transition is often a mes sy and complicated journey.

Lawyers tend to str ongly identify who they are w ith

what they do. A frequent question I see lawyer s strug-

gle with is, “If I am no longer a lawyer, who am I?” They

fear what others would thin k of them if they left the law.

It’s scary to think ab out abandoning the incredibly dif-

fi cult and long journey. They take pride in how hard it

was to get to where they a re.

I often see that these fe elings of discontent were there

for a long time. There was an inner voice that told her

she didn’t really want the law fi r m job, but she took it

anyway becaus e she should. She struggles to fi nd mean-

ing and fulfi l lment in her work, but she can’t. The crush-

ing billable hours and the grind of t he work le aves very

little time for anyt hing more. Then one day, she looks up

and realizes she’s been at this job for 11 yea rs.

If this sounds fami liar to you, here are some mindful

practices that may help to g uide you and make a more

easeful tra nsition.

LET GO OF ‘ALL-OR-NOTHING’ THIN KING

Often, law yers will get stuck in binary t hinking. “I

have to quit my BigLaw job immediately or stay forever.”

Having to choose betwe en two monumental

decisions generally tends to c ause anxiety. The

thought loop might look something like this. I

hate my job, but I can’t quit becaus e I still owe

$150,000 on my student loan. I h ave to pay the

mortgage and my ki d’s nursery school. Besides,

I have no other skill s, so I can’t do anything else.

Consider the possibility that t here may be

many alternatives t hat you just can’t see yet.

Change the inner dialog ue to: I’ve been a law-

yer for a long time, s o it’s going to take some

time to fi gure o ut what I want to do next. I don’t have to

make a decisi on right now. I have time to explo re. In the

meantime, I am g rateful that I have the means an d the

resources to be abl e to fi gure things out.

Start to identif y “all-or-nothing” thinking. Every t ime

you catch yourself stuck in t hat thought loop, practice

replacing it with a more helpful thought.

FOLLOW YOUR CURIOSITY

When I was going through my own c areer transition,

the coach I was working w ith asked, “What do you love

to do?” Confused, I aske d for clarifi cation. She asked,

“Do you have hobbies? Things you do simply because

they give you joy?” The answer was t hat I didn’t. I just

didn’t have time for anything more tha n work and fam-

ily. The idea that I could take time for myself and do

something for the sheer joy of it was so foreign to me.

Also, it felt self-indulgent and selfi sh.

Over the course of a year, with a lot of gentle nudges

from her, I eventually did star t to explore my curiosity.

I signed up for a fi ction writi ng class, a public speak-

ing class, and I tried b eer making. I bought a sewing

machine and star ted sewing again. I learne d how to

make bread from scrat ch. I reached out and met people

who had interesting jobs. I st arted taking long walks on

Sunday mornings, intentionally le aving the iPhone in

On

Well-

Being

PHOTO COURTESY OF JC LAW GROUP; SHUTTERSTOCK

HOW TO MINDFULLY

NAVIGATE A CAREER

TRANSITION

Practice

26 || ABA JOURNAL JULY-AUGUST 2019