This is a delicate question for legal rezoomers who are on a quest to begin or begin again in the legal field to ask themselves.  It is not Have We Been Missed but Would We Be Missed?  If you don’t rezoom, would those looking or waiting for your unique brand of help miss you?  Often when we think about rezooming our careers we forget about our special sauce, what others see us bringing to the practice of law and which would be missed if we were gone.

In our journey back into the law, we focus on what it is we bring to the table and how people perceive us as we reenter the legal work force. What I’d like you to do now is, try to think about what people would miss most about you if you didn’t venture back in.  What is your value as others see it?  What would they miss if you had never entered their lives?

How do you find the answer to this question?  Ask your friends and colleagues where ever you are right now.  The ones who know you well; those who have worked with you, played with you and had experiences with you that changed both your lives.   Ask people who can tell you the uniqueness you bring to their lives. Explore how the world that knows you, sees you.  What would they miss most of all had they not met, worked with or experienced you as a colleague, friend or even as a neighbor?  Let them tell you why they keep you around.  It is often an incredibly enlightening discussion.  If you cannot find anyone willing to speak about how they would miss you, maybe you need to do some serious reflective work on what it is you are doing and how you may need to re-evaluate your passion and become a person people would miss!

What you hear from colleagues, friends and neighbors is a snap shot of your life as they see it impacting their lives.  The facts of the stories may differ, given the stage of life when befriended or worked with, but the take away is always similar.  Your passion will be described accurately and on point.  Some recounts of what would be missed will surprise you.  You will often be incredulous at what you would be missed for!  What ever ‘that’ surprising quality is, you’ve usually forgotten about it or given it short shrift.  Hearing these things from people you’ve worked with warms your heart and keeps your rezooming train on its tracks.

Explore these insights with a view toward finding out what your clients and colleagues expect from you and receive regularly.  List things that are polar opposites of these expectations.  Ask yourself what would your clients do if they worked for you?  Find the most important thing they would want and add it to your ‘would be missed ’ definition.

While you explore this ‘would be missed’ characteristic, follow the ideas you hear that identify who you are. Sift and sort these ideas, keeping hold of all of them while you decide which is different and which speaks to you as being different in a way that provides authentic insight and excitement.  Asking this question, and receiving the answers, gives you renewed faith in rezooming.  You can now redouble your efforts to start your new career.  Now you know why, because you are that person they WOULD MISS.