Most people with successful careers can point to a single moment when they realized their ambition and made a silent promise to achieve it.
If it weren’t for Anjani AmriitThere was no moment of coming to Jesus that led her to become a lawyer. She was not driven by a sense of justice or a belief in the legal system; in fact, he says, the law “didn’t mean anything to me.”
All I wanted to do was prove a point.
As a child, Anjani dreamed of being a journalist or an archaeologist (her “two passions”), but she pursued neither. Deciding which medicine or law were more sensible options for study, a condescending school career counselor swayed her toward the latter..
The teacher laughed in her face and told her: “You can’t be a lawyer, you’re a woman.” So from that day on he decided to prove that man (and the world) wrong.
It ended up being the biggest mistake of his life.
Her high-profile career in corporate law would last 16 years and robbed her of joy, sleep, a loving relationship, and the chance to be a mother.
He collapsed, sometimes working 23 hours a day, until he reached complete exhaustion. Today he regrets ‘every minute’ of his legal career.
Anjani Amriit sacrificed her entire life to become a corporate lawyer and now she regrets it
As a child, Anjani dreamed of being a journalist or an archaeologist (her “two passions”), but she pursued neither. Deciding which medicine or law were more sensible options for study, a condescending school career counselor swayed her toward the latter.
Anjani pictured after graduating from college at age 22
Anjani, now a TEDx speaker, mentor and entrepreneur, despairs at the completely lost young woman she used to be. He also regrets the children he never had.
As he remembers his days in corporate law, he realizes that he was in a glass prison.
‘Because I worked my whole life to get to the top, I didn’t realize I could be gone. For me, giving up was not an option,” he tells me.
‘In my opinion, I would have felt like a complete failure if I had quit or quit. I wanted to be successful and I truly believed there was no other option: I had to be a lawyer.
‘Society conditioned me a lot about what success looked like and I wanted to prove to my family of medical experts that I could achieve it. I was the first in my family to be a lawyer.’
From the moment she climbed the corporate ladder, the pressure to be perfect and resilient was instilled in her. This attitude became overwhelming.
‘You have to know the law inside out and the advice you give has to always be 100 percent. If you make a mistake, the consequences will be huge,” says Anjani.
“As a lawyer, you start to internalize that message of perfection, you start to identify with it and live up to that impossible expectation.”
Anjani, now a TEDx speaker, mentor and entrepreneur, despairs at the completely lost young woman she used to be. She also mourns the children she never had, but says a life-changing trip to India after leaving her corporate career helped her heal her inner child.
The long hours and pressure put her in a “very dark place”: she stopped eating, felt constantly anxious and her sleep was “non-existent.”
Panic attacks became a regular part of life. She was in a toxic, codependent relationship for years that produced no children and left her emotionally drained.
Watching his colleagues flourish made things worse.
“I never told anyone how I felt and I hid it well. I felt a lot of shame, I blamed myself and I felt like a failure. Everyone else was doing very well and here I was sinking, drowning. It was a very difficult time.”
There wasn’t the same level of understanding about PTSD back then, so Anjani thought something was wrong with her.
There came a point where I didn’t have friends because I worked a lot. She was “consumed” by her role at the expense of her social life and happiness.
Her unwavering dedication to her career also deprived Anjani of the opportunity to become a mother, something she now regrets.
‘As I put my legal career first, there was no time for children. I always thought, ‘Oh, it’ll happen at some point,'” he says.
‘I vividly remember when I hit forty and knew that time was basically up. I mourned the loss for almost two years.
Around this time she finally left the legal profession, broke up with her partner and, lacking having children of her own, decided to heal her own inner child.
Her unwavering dedication to her career robbed Anjani of the opportunity to become a mother, something she now regrets.
Anjani now lives a healthy and balanced life, full of love, friendships and purpose. She mentors other women on a path to healing. As for leaving law, it was the best decision he ever made.
Looking back, he realized that when he was young he had no guidance on what to do with your life or career or how to manage finances and relationships.
Eight years after leaving the legal profession, Anjani better understood what happened to her when she began therapy and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Anjani is overcome with emotion as she reflects on everything she has faced during her career and what she would say to her past self.
‘A big part of my healing journey has been finding my inner child, being there for her and nurturing her. “I really feel for her because she had to go through all of this practically alone,” he says.
After taking a leap of faith and quitting her job, she moved to India, something she describes as “day and night.”
‘It was a breath of fresh air. It was wonderful, loving, eye-opening and all my questions about life were answered,” he tells me.
‘It made me find meaning in my life, I healed my own trauma in three months. India really saved me. “He was the light in my life and he still is.”
Anjani now lives a healthy and balanced life, full of love, friendships and purpose.
She guides other women on the path to their own healing, and as far as giving up the law, it was the best decision she ever made.
Her message to other women is simple: ‘Trust yourself, trust your gut, trust your instincts, trust your intuition and don’t listen to what society tells you.’
‘Fly your own ship. Make sure you are doing something you are passionate about.
“And success, money and abundance will come because you follow your passion and your heart.”