If you are a lawyer who keeps wishing that someone would hand you a new job or tell you what to pivot to that will make you happier, you are not alone.  Thousands of attorneys dream of a better fit in other jobs within, adjacent to, or completely different than the law. 

Yet why throw away a reputation and a knowledge base, probably even some expertise within a particular legal practice area, dreaming of greener grass?  Instead of scrapping everything you have built thus far, focus building on where you are at your best.    

I like to have such lawyers do an exercise I call Success Patterns.  Your success patterns contain evidence of the kinds of contexts in which you shine.  Because they reveal talents and contexts you enjoy most, they give you a direction in which to head to achieve more satisfaction and fulfillment in your career.     

This post covers the first of three parts of the Success Patterns exercise.

Identify 3 – 5 times you felt you were firing on all cylinders relative to your experience level as an attorney

Look for times when you rocked an assignment, owned a project, felt you were really shining.  Identify these experiences independent of the actual results. Perhaps you were at your best, most nimble self for an appeal you briefed and argued but ultimately lost.  Or you advised a client exactly as you planned and they deserved, but they still did not follow your legal advice.  The point is, in this exercise it does not matter whether you won or lost, so to speak.  What matters is where you shine. 

If you have not yet experienced this feeling as an attorney, identify at least three times in the last 5 or however many years when you felt you were firing on all cylinders in anything you did.  For example, consider experiences related to law school or college, another type of job, a volunteer position or other extracurricular activity. 

Don’t despair if you struggle to think of examples. I have had lots of clients say “Elizabeth, this is hard, this is the problem, I can’t think of when I’ve felt like this at work.” It’s ok, I understand, it can be hard. And yet the lawyers always come up with something, something more than non-work examples, especially when I talk with them. Sometimes all it takes for them to see it is someone else holding the light and shining it on them.

The next post will cover the second step in the Success Patterns exercise.

I would love to help you shine your light. If you would like to see if there is a fit for us to work together on your career, please contact me.