Stuck In Your Current Job With No Way Out?

I wonder what percentage of the American Bar Association feels stuck in their job.  There are thousand ways to get stuck in your current position.  I would submit that nearly all of them are psychological barriers. 

You could always come up with a list of reasons to stay at your current job.  If you’ve been there for any length of time, you probably have security.  Its nice not having to be the person who has to pay the bills the following month.  Perhaps something great is about to happen in your new job (although you’ve been waiting for that great thing for a decade).  You have a mortgage and your kids need to go to college.  Whether you admit it to yourself on a regular basis, you know you are stuck.  Sure you would like the creativity and flexibility of running your own show.  Answering to nobody except you and your clients would, you acknowledge, change the entire experience of practicing law.  Testing your wits and your business savvy against the marketplace would add passion and purpose to your work life.  Working from home in the morning while your kids get ready for school using VPN, digital dictation, extranet and cell phone technology without anyone looking over your shoulder would undoubtedly provide a much better sense of work life and family balance. 

But you are stuck in your job.  There’s no way you could just simply take your talents and whichever clients we choose to come with you, under your own shingle.  I mean, you can see how easy it would be to distinguish yourself in the market and develop a business model that would provide a higher degree of client service and satisfaction.  But you’ve got kids now and it wouldn’t be fair to them to risk your financial health at their age.  It is, after all, much more important that the bills get paid money gets saved in normal cp preserved.  It is just not that important that your children see you fulfill your potential, be your own boss, and try to change the world around you without anyone telling you how things should be.  Children respect a parent who they know hates their job.  Right?

So, really, my advice is that you just stay put.  You and your family will be better off staying the course.