Note: This article is the second in a series about how lawyers can achieve greater satisfaction in their personal and professional lives. Author Betsy Black is a former member of the NH Bar and now a "life coach."

If you are not satisfied with your life as a lawyer, changing your practice may help you be happier, more effective and more successful. In the first article of this series (See February 18, 2005 Bar News), the variety of professional opportunities for lawyers was discussed. The profession offers a wide array of choices, including private practice in firms (large and small), working in government, in administration, in a judicial setting, as in-house counsel, to name some. Matching life circumstances and goals to one's legal practice are key to long-term success and satisfaction.

What does it mean to change your practice? A first step is to honestly identify how you currently spend your time. Each person has the same amount of time - 24 hours a day, seven days a week. To honestly assess your situation, it's essential to examine how you spend your time and assess whether it reflects your values and priorities. For example, if you believe spending time with family is very important, how much time do you spend with your family and are you focused and attentive while there? If you want to achieve certain professional goals, are you spending your time in appropriate ways?

Here's a method to be objective about how you spend your time. Look at the accompanying box and record how you spend your time. If your activities add up to more (or less) than 24 hours a day, look again.

Ask yourself what gaps exist between your current priorities and your true values and priorities? What's missing from your list that you want to accomplish during your lifetime? In your personal life, do you want to spend more time with your children or grandchildren, run a marathon, garden, be healthier, travel, volunteer, reach a certain level of golf expertise, deepen your spiritual practice, or have time to cook dinner every night? Professionally, do you want to be a published author in your area of legal expertise, become a partner in your firm, or increase your income?

Once you identify your priorities, examine how your current situation supports them or detracts from them. Does your current type of practice, including the hours, the location and the time required, support your priorities? Whatever gaps you find are the places to focus on to move toward your priorities.

Do you work for a large firm and want to increase your income? What are the pluses and minuses of staying where you are? Can you achieve your goal and how?

Do you work for a firm and want greater flexibility to attend or coach your children's sports teams, play a sport yourself, or pursue a passion? Can you negotiate greater flexibility with your employer? Are there opportunities to work part-time or to change your areas of practice? Do you have the entrepreneurial drive to open your own practice?

While using your analytical skills to make this assessment, be sure to involve your heart, too. It may be helpful to call upon your creative side by going for a meandering walk, playing with a child or pet, going for a car ride to nowhere, or poking aimlessly around the library.

Note the example of others. After years in a private NH firm, John left to open his own practice because he didn't want to ask for permission to manage his own schedule and wanted to attend and coach whatever of his children's sports events he chose without question or consequence. Look around and you can see the choices and changes possible within the law, moving from the private firm setting to in-house counsel, moving from prosecution to defense work, moving from the private sector to government work in the court system or municipal setting (state or federal).

Reach outside yourself for assistance. New Hampshire's Bar is small and friendly. Find people in and outside the law to talk to who have achieved goals such as you have or similar ones. Talking and writing about what's dear to you can help you develop your thoughts and expand your options.

You can also pursue written resources, such as Deborah Arron's What Can You Do With A Law Degree? (Decision Books, 2004), which includes strategies for evaluating your preferences, skills and interests with reference to legal and non-legal jobs.

If you want to achieve attunement between your personal and professional identities, a resource is Transforming Practices by Steven Keeva (ABA Journal Book, 1999). He asks, "When you are most yourself - that is, when you feel most authentic and alive - how does that affect the way you experience practicing law?" He continues with a second question, "What kind of lawyer are you when you are most yourself, most awake, most whole?"

In Women At Law (ABA Publishing, 2004), author and attorney Phyllis Horn Epstein, sums up the situation for women (which arguably may apply to men as well): "Though career opportunities abound for women, many have made sacrifices unwittingly that they now question. Women must do, and be, what is right for them. If you want to work for others in a large firm, work twelve hours a day, and curtail family involvement or outside interests, do it. If you prefer to work for yourself or part-time, and curtail financial rewards, do it. Be involved in your choices and, once made, do not look back or second-guess yourself because of what someone else thinks or says." While parenting, caring for parents and other issues often fall more heavily on women, the overall issues of time and priorities are similar for men and women.

Perhaps what is most important in this process is to honestly evaluate where you are in your practice and your life. If you are spending your time on what matters to you, this process is an affirmation of the confluence of your values and actions. If there are gaps between what you are doing, and what you'd like to be doing, examine those gaps, and see where the opportunities lie. Then, break the goals down into small steps and get moving. To quote Steven Keeva, "Actio sequitur esse. Action follows being."

Betsy Black, J.D., is a life/business coach who helps lawyers find greater career satisfaction and life balance. Direct your comments to betsy@betsyblackconsulting.com.