Sarah Cottrell: Hi and welcome to the Former Lawyer Podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Cottrell. I've practiced law for 10 years and now I help unhappy lawyers ditch their soul-sucking jobs. On this show, I share advice and strategies for aspiring former lawyers and interviews with former lawyers who have left the law behind to find careers and lives that they love.

Have you ever told someone that you're not artistic? Is that something you say about yourself? Because that is something that I find that a lot of lawyers who I work with say or have used to describe themselves. And the really interesting thing is that I don't actually think it's true. So that's what I want to talk about today. Here's the deal. I think a lot of us who went to law school have some interest, at least some interest, in artistic things, whether we're talking about writing or music or visual arts or all of the many other potential options.

I also think what happened for many of us is that we were going along in school and at some point someone told us that being an artist was not a very realistic career path. Generally speaking, they were talking about like sort of the traditional idea of like an artist that you have in your brain in, I don't know, elementary school when someone talks about being an artist, right? Like standing at an easel with like a paint palette. And of course that is one kind of artist, but there are many others.

And the thing is that I find that a lot of people who I work with either would tell you they're not artistic and then come to realize through our work that they actually do have an interest in art that they either like ignored or buried or thought that wasn't serious enough or one of many other reasons to sort of like dismiss it as a possible career path. And it's not necessarily that all of these people are like Sarah, I am artistic and now I'm going to go become a working artist because that isn't necessarily what's happening. However, a lot of people are finding that they are drawn to careers that use more creativity.

Something that people will often tell me when they're talking to me about why it is that they don't like being a lawyer is that even though like to the extent that you can use creativity as a lawyer, it is very constrained, right? It's constrained by precedent. It's constrained by the reality that like you're not really encouraged to like reinvent the wheel because what if there's something that you're doing that you don't realize is like a huge potential problem. People who enjoy creativity often feel stifled in doing the kind of work that lawyers typically do.

And so even if you are someone who is artistic, it often is the case that you sort of like set that aside and think of that as like a separate thing or like a hobby or not serious or whatever, or something that you used to do, but you don't do anymore because you don't have time for hobbies or really anything else other than working. And to be clear, this is not me criticizing because this is an experience that so many of us have had. But the reality is that there are a lot of people who are working as lawyers who ultimately discover like, oh, I actually am artistic or I am creative.

And that is important to me. And part of it is that in moving into lawyering, they have told themselves over and over, I'm not artistic, I'm not creative. That's for other people.

That's not for me. And eventually you believe it. But what happens as people start to explore like, what do I really like? What is really interesting to me? Like, what do I actually want to spend my time on? Creativity often bubbles up.

And again, it's not necessarily, although sometimes it is, but it's not necessarily that people are like, oh, I am artistic, and now I'm going to go become an artist. But often people have mentally shut themselves off from like whole group of jobs that they think of as like, well, those are jobs for artistic people, or those are jobs for creative people. And I'm not one of those people.

So therefore, blah, blah, blah. This is part of why I talk about the importance of like, hobbies or interests, or just like doing things with your time to the extent you're able that are not things you have to do, or like work lawyering things. Because for many people, the way that they reconnect to this interest in creativity or being artistic is through picking back up a hobby that they used to do, you know, sometimes a couple of years ago, sometimes literally decades ago.

And realizing like, oh, this is this really is something that that is uniquely interesting to me, and that like, is uniquely energizing to me. And there are ways to harness the creativity and the artisticness that you have in various kinds of jobs. Because this is the other thing, I think sometimes lawyers are afraid to realize that they are in fact creative, or they are in fact artistic, or they care about being creative, and they care about being artistic.

Because there's a sense of like, well, if I figure that out, what am I going to do? Because like, it's not realistic to do XYZ job as an artist. So there's almost this sense of like, if I let myself see that I care about creativity, or if I let myself see that I am artistic, then like, I'm going to be even more dissatisfied. Because like, there's no way that this job can fulfill that interest or that need.

To be clear, I understand, there are so many ways that we as lawyers try to protect ourselves when we're in a position, and listen, this is what humans do, it's not just lawyers. There are so many ways that we try to protect ourselves from seeing things that might make us feel unhappy or dissatisfied more so than we already do. But I think the problem is that for many lawyers, what happens is they're cutting themselves off from an avenue for joy, and pleasure and fulfillment.

And even if ultimately, you stay in your job as a lawyer, or you go to another job that isn't particularly creative, if creativity is important to you, if you are an artist, then like, you will be more satisfied and find your job more fulfilling, if you are able to do things to satisfy that artistic side of you, to fulfill your need to be creative. So it's not just that I think you should examine whether you have like abandoned some artistic dreams or idea of being creative. Because of like, it's not just that I'm saying, figure that out, because maybe it is a job you could do.

I mean, certainly, yes, there are jobs that you could potentially move to that are creative jobs, artistic jobs, etc. But also, even if ultimately, the job that you move to is not particularly artistic and creative, being able to access that part of yourself, if that is something that is important to you, if it's something that you sort of turned away from when you went on to the law school path, ultimately is going to make it so that you are able to be satisfied with your job and life in general more, if you're able to actually see, oh, this is important to me. And what are some ways that I can can feed this piece of myself.

So one, if you're someone who says, I'm not artistic, or I'm not creative, I would push back against that, in part, because I used to say, I'm not artistic, and I'm not creative. And what I meant was like, I'm not a very good visual artist. And that is true. Like you do not want me sketching or painting or whatever. That's just not my gift. But I like to write. I created this podcast. And for a long time, I did not think about this podcast as like, something that was creative. I mean, it's certainly not as creative as creative in like, a particular sense of some things, right, as some artistic things.

But it is still something that requires creative energy. And so I've really been working for myself on not saying things like, I'm not creative, and I'm not artistic, because ultimately, like those things aren't actually true. And I think for a lot of us that it just became something that we identify with, because of this sense that, you know, you had to choose like, you could be brainy and academic, or you could be artistic. And like, there were people who could bridge the gap, but that was like, a special case or like unique. So if you're someone who says things like, I'm not artistic, I would really recommend that you reexamine that. And if you ultimately determined that like, you are in fact creative, you are artistic, you do care about those things.

Not only is that something helpful to know when you're thinking about specifically, like, what type of job should I do that will be fulfilling, but it's also helpful, regardless of the job. Because ultimately, knowing yourself better means that you're going to be able to build a life that is more fulfilling. And that allows you to be a whole person, right? With all of the different facets of your personality and interests. And ultimately, that's good. That's good for you. And that's good for the world.

Thanks so much for listening. I'll talk to you next week. Thanks so much for listening. I absolutely love getting to share this podcast with you. If you haven't yet, I invite you to download my free guide First Steps to Leaving the Law at formerlawyer.com/first. Until next time, have a great week.