I love this time of year and listening to commencement speeches.

I was thinking about how the word commencement means to begin, yet commencement is celebrated at the end.

It reminds me of the quote from the late organizational psychologist William Bridges, “Something must end, before something new can begin.“

There is grief in the endings, even when something good is beginning.

There’s grief in wanting to leave (big) law or the profession when you’ve invested so much time, energy, money in it.

The past two years have been a tremendous collective grief experience as well.

Grief is an interesting one, and if you’ve experienced a profound loss, you may know that it comes in waves.

I’m going through some big life transitions now, and have found the best thing to do as grief approaches, is to dive under.

Not fight it, or swim against it, but surrender.

It passes more quickly without a fight.

Not that it’s easy. It’s not.

But what if we look at it like a commencement?

An ending. And also the beginning.

Whatever you may be ending this season, graduating from, I wish that you allow the feelings. All of them.

Try not to make yourself wrong when you hold both grief and excitement for what’s ahead.

If you want to commence leaving big law.

If you want to intentionally discover what’s next for you…

Create this next phase of your career and life with greater presence and joy…

Schedule your 1:1 consultation with me here.

Let’s explore what you want to commence.