Walking Your Own Tightrope: What Leaving Law Taught Me About Fear, Freedom, and Career Change
When my parents were nervous about me leaving law, I realised that, to them, I was on a tightrope.
I watched The Walk a few months ago (the film about Philippe Petit’s tightrope walk between the Twin Towers).
Everyone told him it was impossible, dangerous, insane. Watching it makes your palms sweat. But he knew exactly what he was doing.
Here’s what struck me: I noticed a feeling within me that I hate to see in others.
I sat there thinking, “why risk that? what a dangerous thing to do?”
I hate it when people limit others. There’s not a career idea a client could share with me that I wouldn’t take seriously and explore with them. I welcome big ideas, because I’ve learnt and seen that most things can be achieved if truly desired. My mission as a career coach is to help free people from their own assumptions and self-limitations. So when others complicate things further, it saddens me.
My fear, and the fear of those around Petit, wasn’t about his ability; it was about our inability to understand it.
And despite my free-thinking nature, even I had a limit (at least until I caught my thoughts). It turns out, that limit was tightrope walking between two skyscrapers.
This happens in careers too.
Well-meaning friends and family project their fears onto our dreams.
It reminded me of how confident and determined I felt when I started my own business. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t delusional, but I knew I would figure it out.
When my parents worried about me leaving law, they weren’t questioning my capability, not really; they were expressing their own need for security and their own lack of understanding about how it could be done.
But those comments from others can get to you.
Sometimes the people who care about us most become the biggest obstacles to our growth.
And that’s OK. We need to learn to know when to trust ourselves, whilst appreciating those people who care about us, without letting them dictate our path.
As a career change coach, I see this often. The tension between what feels safe and what feels true is something so many people face when they’re standing on the edge of something new.
Have you ever felt someone else's fear or need for security projected onto you?
The question isn't whether your dreams make others comfortable.
The question is whether they make you come alive.
And here’s the thing: a skilled and ethical coach will never push you down any particular path. We’re here to help you explore lots of options (scary and safe). You can always find something that feels comfortable, but having a clear sense of your absolute dream makes that journey even easier.