A career reinvention involves imagining and trying on many possible future selves. See Working Identity by Herminia Ibarra.

When I moved to Arizona in 2014, I wasn’t licensed to practice law here and I couldn’t waive in. I also had a newborn and a three-year-old. Since I had gotten burned out in Big Law in DC, I decided to explore other potential career paths.

My process followed what Herminia Ibarra describes:

1. We have an idea based on what we know about ourselves

2. We test out our idea in the real world through action
We learn based on how the action made us feel

3. We continue testing out ideas in the real world with relatively low-risk actions until we find what works. To explore this further, download my free Career Alignment Map.

Here’s a brief overview of how I tried on possible future selves:

2014-2016:

Idea: Maybe I should be a birth doula. I loved having doulas at my kids’ births and I find birth sacred. I would love to support women in this way. Also, I supported my friend as an unofficial doula during her son’s birth and it was a good experience.

Action: Talk to birth doulas and find out what it entails.

Learning: I need to be available at all hours, including the middle of the night, and may be gone from home for long periods of time. It would be nearly impossible with my husband working long hours at his (then) new in-house job at an office 45 minutes away while our kids are so young. Next.

Idea: Maybe I should be a hairdresser. My friends always asked me to cut and style their hair in high school and college. And I love talking to people and helping them feel good.

Action: I spoke to hairdressers and learned that much of the job involves listening to stories you’re not interested in and dealing with unhappy clients with unreasonable expectations.

Learning: No thanks. Next.

Idea: Maybe I should be a spin instructor/bike fitter/cycling coach.

Action: I got certified as a spin instructor and bike fitter. I worked in a bike shop. I started a cycling club and grew it to over 100 people.

Learning: It was fun but more of a hobby. Next.

2017: I couldn’t think of anything else, so I took the Arizona bar exam and went back to practicing law.

Our ideas about what’s possible are limited by our experience. To expand our ideas, we need to expand our experience, including the people we know, the ideas we expose ourselves to, the books we read, the podcasts we listen to. But it would take me a few more years to learn that.

Fast forward to 2020. After a few years back in litigation, it still wasn’t a fit.

Idea: Maybe I should try estate planning. I found it interesting in law school and I love helping people navigate personal challenges.

Action: I spoke to lots of estate planning attorneys. I “interviewed” with estate planning partners at my firm. I transitioned into estate planning.

Learning: It was 95% preparing, revising, and finalizing documents and 5% interpersonal interaction. Of that 5%, most of the conversations were not related to the “deep issues” I wanted to explore – legacy, mortality, meaning.

Idea: I heard former lawyer turned death doula Alua Arthur interviewed on NPR. I was amazed. THIS is what I thought estate planning would be like! I’ll try this.

Action: I researched death doulas and listened to every interview of Alua Arthur I could find (and her phenomenal TED talk). I signed up for her four-month death doula training program. I began volunteering with hospice patients, visiting them each week. I learned how to play what I call Dementia Scrabble.

Learning: The urgency I felt to make the most of my life when my parents died when I was in college strengthened through being with people at the end of life. I discovered I wanted to help people make the most of their life while they still had time. I also loved mentoring attorneys at my firm and helping them navigate their careers.

Idea: Maybe I should become a coach.

Action: I went part-time at my law firm to create the time and space needed to enroll in a year-long coach training program. During this time, I began coaching attorneys who wanted more balance in their career.

Learning: I loved coaching. I loved the professional development related to coaching. I began thinking of coaching as my “real work” and my law work as something I needed to get done so I could get back to coaching.

Eventually, the tension between maintaining two separate careers became so great, and my desire to do more coaching became so strong, that I made the choice to go all-in on coaching.

This time last year, I told the partners and clients I worked with that I would be leaving the firm. I spent the next five months gradually reducing and transitioning my work while building up my coaching practice.

In December 2024, I left the firm.

This week’s newsletter is a preview into what a career transition can look like. It’s often messy. It often takes longer than we would like.

It often involves trying on various versions of the “old” career to see if it can work before we are willing to try something new.

As Herminia Ibarra writes in Working Identity:

“Making important career moves, and ultimately, life changes, requires us to live through long periods of uncertainty and doubt.”

“Change always takes much longer than we expect because to make room for the new, we have to get rid of some of the old selves we are still dragging around and, unconsciously, still invested in becoming.”

“Our working identity is not just who we are. It is also who we are not. Being able to discard possibilities means we are making progress.”

“Only through interaction and active engagement in the real world do we discover ourselves.”

I’d love to hear from you! Are you considering a career pivot out of law? What do you think the most exciting and challenging part of a career transition might be?