“Why do you want to be a partner?”

That’s what one of my former colleagues asked me years ago when I thought I wanted to be a law firm partner.

I didn’t sense any judgment, just curiosity.

And his curiosity triggered my curiosity.

Why did I want to be a partner? I wondered.

This question was the catalyst for a several-month journey to discover what was motivating me and what I truly wanted for my career and life.

I hired my first coach.

Through Internal Family Systems (IFS), which I now use with my clients, I began getting to know the parts of my personality that were influencing my career choices.

I committed to the meditation and journaling practices that had served me earlier in life but had fallen by the wayside in my 30s in the midst of having kids, moving across the country, taking a second bar exam, and working as a litigator.

Through months of inner exploration, I discovered that while there were some perks to becoming a law firm partner that I valued, it was not conducive to the slower, more spacious, simpler life that I was longing for.

I asked friends who were equity partners how they spent their nights, weekends, holidays, and vacations.

While they earned a lot of money, and some of them enjoyed their work, I realized I was longing for a different quality of work and life.

I wanted to do work where I could be completely present to a client without watching a clock or worrying about blowing a budget.

I wanted to do creative work without worrying about efficiency.

I wanted slow mornings sitting outside with a good book, not checking email.

Like all choices, my choice to prioritize the quality of work and life I wanted for my second half of life came with trade-offs. Mostly financial.

Also, I miss having an IT department.

But 2+ years into my coaching and retreat business and I can say that – for me – these were the right trade-offs at the right time in my life.

They might not have been 5, 10, or 15 years ago.

If you’re considering a promotion, job change, or simply continuing on your current path, my invitation is to get curious.

• What’s driving you?
• What do you truly want?
• What matters most to you at this current phase of life?
• What do you long for?
• What quality of work and life are most conducive to your health, happiness, and well-being?

The answers will be different for each of us and may change throughout our lives.

There are no right or wrong answers. There are only choices that are more or less aligned with who we are and what we value.

If you’d like to explore this a bit more, I invite you to join me and many other speakers at the Rest to Rise Summit, May 19-22. It’s free and you can attend as many or as few sessions as you’d like.

When you register, you’ll receive the free Rest to Rise guide, which outlines the six types of rest Chandani Patel Thompson, lawyer and summit host, identified to help lawyers and other professionals thrive.

I’ll be speaking on “identity rest,” or what’s possible when we disentangle our sense of who we are from our performance, productivity, and professional role.

You can sign up here.

I hope you’ll join us!

And if you’d like more guidance, download my free Career Alignment Map, designed to help lawyers like you align your career with your authentic self and thrive.