Hey guys it’s your girl Eda and welcome to the Let’s Talk Paralegal podcast. In today’s episode, I going to talk about transitions in your legal career. How to handle the unexpected ones and how to take on the new challenges that lie ahead.
Listen we have all been fired, laid off, and/or left a position. These changes can be hard and really leave a strain on you emotionally and economically. So today I am going to provide you with some tips on how to ease the shift. How to change your mindset to better prepare yourself for your next chapter.
Tip one: Put yourself first: This may be the simplest way to shift your mindset yet it is the hardest thing to actually implement. I have read many self-help books and they all include self-care in some way shape or form. This is about allocating a certain period of time; daily to yourself. Whether it’s drinking your cup of coffee in silence alone to picking up the phone and speaking with someone that you really want to hear from. It doesn’t have to be a spa day or a lavish vacation. It can be a 10-minute activity or a moment to an hour or more. Filling your cup whether it's literally or figuratively on a daily basis is crucial to assisting you to focus on the next decision and steps you are wanting to take to shift your current narrative.
Tip Two: Evaluate your wants: Knowing what you want in those next steps is also important. If you haven’t listened to episode 9 of this season listen to it after this one. Because it really breaks down how to separate what you think you want from what you actually want. Our mind plays tricks on us. It creates narratives that do not exist and in turn, those create our realities. So for instance, if you are in a bad place financially it’s probably because you do not know your worth and you are not truly evaluating your return on investment. Next time you for a job position and it comes time to speak money… think of everything before, during, and after hours that you need to invest time and money in order to live a comfortable lifestyle. So this may look like the number of hours or miles you need to invest to get to and from work after dropping off the kids to school or maybe your monthly expenses went up to the inflation, rent increase, or usage. You see these are things you need to look at. I talk about the book syndrome more often now because it is relevant to everything that happens around us. If you do not read a book from start to finish or you read the last chapter first or the middle you do not understand the entire book or your story then becomes out of context or out of chronicle order. So really breaking it down in writing, saying it out loud, or even digital like a vision board or list…. It has to be in a way that makes sense to you. This way you can truly break down the truths versus the obstacles you are saying in your head about your current reality.
Tip Three: Discuss Expectations: Knowing your wants and needs before working towards the next step will give you a better understanding and confidence in making those moves. Setting expectations is much like setting boundaries. You must evaluate all the parties involved and see how it directly will impact not only them but you. You see when you are caught up in the people-pleasing and perfectionism that sometimes comes with being a legal professional you tend to lose yourself and our wants in the process. So if you want a certain position or promotion or whatever that next step looks like for you, you must seize the moment and take the opportunity. The reality is we have opportunities all around us we are just so fogged up by our own excuses and obstacles that we don’t see what's right in front of us.
Life is all about choices. What we choose to do will influence and continue throughout the rest of the decisions we make until we see ourselves in a spiral. Whether the spiral is going up or down again that’s our choice.
I’m going to leave you with this last thought. Make yourself a priority because if you don’t no one will. That’s it for now. Until justice is served, I’ll be here bye!