When In Doubt ...

Perhaps it's appropriate that I pick this evening to write this post. I feel like I'm in a bit of a funk, you see. I guess you might call it a blogging funk.

I want to post. In the abstract, like.
I even have a topic I really want to write about. Again, in the abstract.

But when the opportunity presents itself to start typing ... I'm just not in the mood. And since it's a serious topic, one I really care about, I want to write it when I am really motivated to. Or so I tell myself, anyway.

But hey, I might just have found the perfect solution.

From The Attorney Marketing Center:

I heard about an article today in the Wall Street Journal citing a growing number of attorneys who are disillusioned with the practice of law. That's not news, really, but I was told the article also noted a number of new lawyers who are suing their law schools for misrepresentation about their prospects in the legal job market. Isn't that special?

Can you imagine that? For real?
Only in America, you say??

Well, maybe ... but America-bashing ammo aside, Mr. Ward does make some valid points:

Some people truly love practicing law. God bless you if that's you. But I think many lawyers have convinced themselves that they love practicing when in reality, they would rather be doing something else. The worst place to be, however, is knowing you hate what you do but not seeing a way out.

One of my favourite lines is that 'If you have to work for a living, you might as well do something you enjoy'. I really believe that. And I really believe that I am very lucky. Because I really do enjoy the law.

Now I'm not quite sure that I'm one of those "people [who] truly love practicing law". Seeing as it's been a very long time since I have practiced. But I do love the law, itself. The discipline, the research, crafting and writing an argument. And, lest we forget, strategy sessions. Yeah.

Funny thing is, just the other day, I received an email from a former acquaintance/colleague who no longer practices law. In one of those strange quirks of blogging fate I discovered that Joyce, who has an autistic daughter, is in the process of authoring a special needs picture cookbook, No-Cook Recipes for Special Chefs. Anyway, in the course of our correspondence in which I passed on some of my recent employment woes and asked for more information about the cookbook, Joyce suggested that I consider buying and reselling the cookbook. I chuckled to myself at the notion, simply because it made me realize that the only way I will ever willingly leave the field of law is either after being dragged out, kicking and screaming or carried out on a stretcher.

So, funk or no, I guess I do have that going for me. At least I know I am in the right profession. Even if it's not to be practicing it at the moment.

And, beyond that, I do have the blawg and I always did say that what would make me the happiest would be to able to combine my two passions, the law and children with special needs, together in one paying job. I'm still hopeful that day might eventually come. So I don't think I will consider suing my alma mater just yet.

Instead, for those perhaps not so happy in their chosen employment, I think I will just end this post with some more words of wisdom from Mr. Ward.

There is always a way out. It might be painful–economically and emotionally–but the pain will pass. Five years from now at the outset, you could be happily engulfed in a new career, a new life. The sooner you take steps towards changing, the sooner your new life will appear.

I didn't know where I was headed when I began this post, and I certainly don't want to start the year with a downer. But I know this is a time when goals are set, resolution's are resolved, and it's not long before we are all caught up in the day to day of our careers, and before you know it, another year has come and gone. So I wanted to mention it once more and now I'm done with this topic (for now), so let's get back to the business of bringing in clients and increasing incomes. After all, it's better to be miserable with money than miserable and broke.

To each their own, I suppose. And here's wishing you the best of luck in finding yours.