Maintaining interest and a high level of performance in a demanding job is one of the key challenges faced by lawyers when they reach the normal developmental life stage commonly referred to as “midlife” — a period that all healthy adults must experience but which few wish to discuss.
This period of our lives is sometimes referred to in terms of “crisis” because it may involve a major shift in our perspective, values, and purpose — a shift that we are unable to fully understand or explain on a rational level and that is sometimes inconsistent with the assumptions and expectations that we lived by during the first half of our adult lives. This sudden and seemingly inexplicable shift can exert a powerful influence on our lives in the form of loss of interest in a career that we once found exciting and compelling, complicated reactions to events and decisions, new and illogical interests, shifts in our relationships with others and the like.
Because the practice of law operates on the assumption that people behave in calm, logical and predictable ways, lawyers often find this period of their lives particularly difficult to navigate. They may feel split, finding themselves suddenly concerned with matters of meaning, purpose, and relationship on the one hand, and matters of everyday, practical importance on the other. The goal, during this period, is to continue to function at a high level in their demanding jobs, while at the same time finding the time and space to tend to the normal development changes that are occurring in their lives.
Working with a coach is one way that lawyers use to understand the midlife process and how it impacts their lives and their careers. A coach can offer clients numerous strategies to help them maintain their performance levels while at the same time successfully navigating their way through this period — not as a crisis, but rather as a rich and rewarding opportunity leading them on a path toward a full and highly productive second half of their lives and their careers.