Why your financial situation often isn’t the insurmountable barrier to change you think it is

In my experience coaching unhappy lawyers, money is one of the main reasons they feel stuck in their careers and unable to make a change.

Even when they are confronted with clear evidence that a change is necessary – health issues, symptoms of stress, terrible work/life balance, or terminal boredom – money can be a weighty anchor keeping them where they are.

For lots of us, money has become linked to happiness in our work and personal lives.

Yet there’s lots of research that shows that once your income rises above a relatively low level, increased earnings don’t lead to increased career happiness.

Factors such as work/life balance, independence, and working with inspiring people are much stronger drivers for career satisfaction than money.

Put up and shut up?

The reality for many disillusioned lawyers is that your firm is paying you compensation for your ‘unhappiness’.

And you’re probably trying to avoid acknowledging that fact by spending your generous salary and justifying the pain. Perhaps by buying a bigger house, a fancier car, a more exotic holiday, all the latest gadgets?

The trouble is, you’re then caught in a vicious cycle.

You need to continue earning this good money to pay for the lifestyle you’ve created.

A lifestyle that’s distracting you from the fact that your work is making you feel unfulfilled and unhappy.

Why do we do this to ourselves?

For many, it’s tied to how well we can provide for our families.

If you’re the primary income-earner (or one of them) you’ve also got responsibility for your family’s comfort and happiness, not just your own.

Many lawyers can be quite prone to catastrophising.

We tend to imagine that without being able to bring in the same money as we currently enjoy our family will suffer somehow and we won’t be able to afford the things that make us feel good.

Life is Short

Here’s a question I ask my career coaching clients:

“If money was no object would you leave what you are doing now to do something else?”

If, as with many of my clients, your answer is “yes” then it’s time to lean into this and stop ignoring it.

Every week I speak with lawyers who wish they had made a change sooner and not stayed where they were “just because of the money”.

It’s a difficult reality for some of us to come to terms with, but life is short – you know this.

And your working years take up a big part of that short life.

Why should you settle for what you currently have when you could be fulfilled and happy in your work and personal life?

After all, many former lawyers have successfully made a change, myself included, so why can’t you?

Could it be that, like lots of unhappy lawyers, you assume that an alternative career would never pay enough and so you’ve never truly explored all the options available to you?

How to escape the Money Trap

You must properly understand your finances before you can hope to free yourself from them.

As dull as it may be, having a thorough understanding of all of your income and outgoings is vital.

Doing this is the only way you can begin to analyse where savings can be made.

For many people, seeing how much of their unhappily-earned money is spent on things that are, frankly, frivolous luxuries and distractions can be a breakthrough in realising that perhaps they aren’t as stuck as they thought.

The next step is to create a “test” budget.

What can you cut back on that, while nice to have, isn’t essential?

As someone who’s been through this process myself, it pays to be brutally honest with yourself about what you (and your family) truly ‘needs’ in your lives to be happy.

You should then have an idea of what is a sensible minimum amount of income you need, and therefore how much salary you could really afford to lose in order to change your career.

To one that will make you look forward to Monday mornings, not dread them.

Then it’s time to experiment – live to that budget for 3 months.

Put your excess salary into savings (it may come in useful as a safety net if you do take the plunge later).

If relevant to you, make sure your partner is part of this process.

If they are an earner too don’t let pride get in the way of accepting their support towards the family finances while you explore your career transition.

Don’t assume more happiness always equals less money

There’s a bit of an urban myth among unhappy lawyers that all personally fulfilling careers must pay less than the law.

My experience with clients tells me that’s not always the case at all.

Making a change comes with its own energy that propels you forward and away from your previous career, rather than always looking back at it over your shoulder.

For entrepreneurial-minded clients, this has often meant they very quickly start earning money that approaches (and sometimes exceeds) what they were earning in a legal job they hated.

For others, the value of their unique skillsets and experience is recognised and compensated for accordingly.

Remember, the changes you are thinking about making should move you towards your longer-term goals.

For many, the “personal capital” that a change brings – better health, better relationships, less stress, more family time – more than offsets any reduced income that might accompany it.

NOW is ALWAYS the best time to make a change

There’s a cliche for us to end on, but it’s so true.

Life really is too short to mortgage your personal happiness until some hypothetical future date or event.

I’ve worked with many people in the past who made the mistake of saying “I’ll get out of this when I hit 30”.

Then, “I’ll get out of this when I make legal director”.

Then, “I’ll get out of this when I make partner” and on it goes.

By the time I worked with them, they were full of regret that they hadn’t escaped from the money trap so much sooner.