| Have You Gone for Your Annual Career Checkup? |
| By Stephen E. Seckler |
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If you practice law in a corporate environment, you know that finding the right balance between your professional and personal lives is no easy task. Getting the right balance requires a good understanding of your own preferences and values. Granted, along the way you will need to pay your dues; but even when you get to a place in your career where things seem to be going well, you owe it to yourself to periodically evaluate whether there is anything you can improve upon. If you take the time for self-reflection on a regular basis, you will be less likely to hit a career crisis, and you will have time to initiate change gradually when the early signs of dissatisfaction begin to show. Achieving career satisfaction takes ongoing work. For one, your needs and interests will evolve as you move through different phases in life. In your late 20s, your focus may be proving yourself at work, while in your late 30s, you may be trying to balance work with the needs of a young family. There are many ways to be reflective. To get you started, I have devised a simple list of questions that you can get through with minimal effort; however, getting out of your office and speaking with more seasoned attorneys is an important next step. Thinking you would like to pursue a new practice area may be a well-reasoned conclusion. But it is a good idea to do a reality check and find out more from those who practice in this area (i.e., to see if your perceptions about the new practice area are correct and to gauge whether or not the new area holds some promise). 16 Questions to Help Evaluate Your Potential Need for Change
Just don't expect miraculous epiphanies or instant results, though. Real career happiness takes a lot of work to achieve and continuous work to maintain. But the payoff with respect to your emotional health is large. |
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