Episode 5: “Do You Believe There Is More Than One Version of Success?”

Transcript

Tara Edwards 0:00

Hello, my name is Tara, and welcome to Sister-in-Law, the Paralegal Journey, a podcast about the careers behind the case files. Whether you work in law, work alongside the legal profession, are thinking about a career in this space, or simply want an honest look at the paralegal journey, you're in the right place. Welcome back to Sister-in-Law, the paralegal journey. In the last episode, I had Daniel Foster, a licensed paralegal turned paralegal program coordinator in Ontario. On the podcast, we talked about his journey as a paralegal and what the paralegal profession looked like before and after licensing, and his transitioned from full-time paralegal to teaching to program coordinator. At the end of my conversation with Dan, I asked him, do you believe that there is more than one version of success in the paralegal profession? If you haven't listened to that episode yet, I would honestly pause this one, go listen, and then come back. It's worth it. In this episode, I wanna just lean in a little bit more about the question I asked Dan, because when I interviewed him, he didn't talk about his title, the status, the professional mountain he climbed, he talked about how his professional life aligned with the things that he loves in his life. And that's what I wanna talk about today. While you're listening to this episode, ask yourself, what does success mean to you, and what do you need to do to experience it in your paralegal journey? What we tend to measure In this profession, we often measure success by progression. Are you running files independently? Are you drafting documents independently? Are you meeting clients? Did you add additional credentials? And I'll be honest, I know I'm guilty with measuring my professional success by these things. And it's not necessarily a bad thing because growth matters. Competence matters, but they are not the whole story and you have to ask yourself, what does success mean to you? You can advance quickly and still feel disconnected. You can earn more and still feel depleted. You can gain responsibility and still quietly, lose balance, and that's the part no one sees. While career fulfillment can absolutely be part of your success, it cannot be the only definition of it, or can it be. When your career feels like the only measure. There was a season in my life when I felt my career was stalling, or that I was unable to move into a paralegal role in the way I envisioned it. I won't pretend that it didn't affect me because it did. I was depressed and it impacted my home life, my work life, and it impacted whether I believed I was successful because let's be honest, whether you tie your worth to your career movement, any pause feels like a failure, and that's a heavy place to live. But it's not the full story. Is it? Career alignment and life success. What I've come to understand is that success isn't about movement. It's about alignment. When I was a single mother, my career was my survival for my daughter and I. It kept food on the table. It kept my daughter clothed. It allowed us small joys like travel, days to the zoo and other experiences that we lived together. There wasn't a space for me to really look at and analyze my success because if I was providing for my daughter, I was being successful. I was just using my career to meet that goal. Now, let's ask yourselves, how much do we think about how our career alignment is an aspect to our life success and is my career supporting the life I want it to or competing with it? When I chose to go back to school in Ontario to become a paralegal, it was because I genuinely love law. I wanted my work to align with something I care deeply about while still being able to raise my daughter well. Then life shifted for me. I met my husband. I left Ontario before finishing my practicum and moved to Alberta. Yes. I didn't realize at the time that I would be starting over again professionally, but you know what? I did get to do this: sit around the dinner table with my husband and kids, drive them to practices, see them perform, run around while one kid was at one event and my other two kids were at another event. I got to build my family life and that was what mattered. That filled my heart. Years later, I've been able to circle back and continue aligning my career with the bigger picture of my life. Earlier this month, I interviewed another licensed Ontario paralegal, she ultimately said that her career alignment has allowed her to enjoy life while she does what she loves and looks at achieving more goals. We assume the person furthest along the traditional path is the most successful. But what if success is actually about whether your career supports the life you want to live? Because success isn't always linear. Sometimes it's layered. The quiet comparison trap Comparison in this profession is subtle. You see someone open a practice or moving into a rule that you have secretly hoped for. You see someone teaching, expanding or becoming recognized, and if you're in a quieter season, like building competence, supporting your family, protecting your health, you might feel behind, but behind according to who. Success doesn't have one timeline and it doesn't have one structure. For some success is growth and expansion. For others, it's stability and mastery. For some, it's autonomy. For others, it's balance. And those can all be valid at the same time. Remember, you cannot compare your life to someone else's because we all have different trajectories that we're on. So instead of asking yourself, why am I not successful? Maybe ask yourself, what does success look like to me and what do I need from my career to support it? Is my legal career contributing to my life success or is it competing with it? Because success doesn't always mean how far you've gone. Sometimes it just means how happy you are and whether your career is a part of that happiness, not the cost of it. So let's look back at the original question I asked at the beginning of this episode. What does success mean to you and what do you need to experience that in your paralegal journey? As you go through this week, ask yourself this question and really think about what that answer is. There is more than one version of success in the paralegal profession, and your version doesn't need to impress anyone else. It needs to be for you. Sustainable, intentional, aligned. If you can say you love your work, care about what you do, and are living your life in a way that feels whole for you, then isn't that a version of success and doesn't that count? In the next episode, we're gonna talk about mentorship in the paralegal profession, what it means to be a mentor, how to find one, and why mentorship may be the most overlooked parts of building a paralegal career. It's a conversation about how mentorship has shaped this profession, how to approach someone you admire, what makes a healthy mentor relationship and how to step into mentorship without feeling ready. If you have ever wondered whether you need a mentor or if you're considering being a mentor, you won't wanna miss it. If this episode resonated with you, I invite you to follow the podcast on Apple or Spotify and connect with me on LinkedIn. Let me know where you're at in your journey. This is Sister-in-law, the paralegal journey. Welcome to the conversation.