How To Avoid ‘Career Atrophy’

Always look for opportunities for professional and personal development no matter what career you are in.

Professionals know that if you’re coasting, you’re losing momentum or going downhill. It’s essential to keep growing professionally and personally to be successful and balanced.

Discovering growth and development opportunities can be as simple as broadening your viewpoint and doing the uncomfortable thing. “Do something every week that makes you uncomfortable. It’s only in the discomfort that growth happens,” says Samantha Wallack, partner and co-chair of the real estate practice group at Blank Rome.

Developing your self-awareness can be key to personal and business growth. Assessing your abilities and understanding how others perceive you will show you ways to improve.

Another way to grow professionally is to dig deeper and learn more. As Franca Harris Gutierrez of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr suggests, “If you don’t understand your field inside and out, you won’t be able to take the next step in your career to become a leader.”

In addition to leaving your comfort zone and becoming more knowledgeable about your domain, look for ways to change your approach. “We always must figure out ways to reinvent ourselves,” says Nina Roket, leader of the commercial leasing real estate practice at Olshan Frome Wolosky. “Nothing is constant or forever. Do not ever get complacent.”

The best way to avoid ‘career atrophy’ is to find ways to challenge yourself. Remaining unchallenged leads to boredom, reduced productivity, and decreased personal well-being. “Find the opportunity in a challenge” is the advice of David Freda of Morris, Manning & Martin, “Associates will enjoy feeling more engaged and in control of their fate than those who might sit back and quietly (but unhappily) grind out the hours. Find the passion in the practice.”

Excerpts from Industry leaders: "How I Made It" Q&A series on law.com