Success as a lawyer, and in life, starts with having absolute clarity on what you want. When you have that clarity, you become a laser beam, focused and not wasting time. When you don’t have it, you are more like a shotgun, doing random lunches and calling it client development.
I frequently tell lawyers that when they are setting goals, they should consider what will come out of it to be a marathon (their career) that will be accomplished by a series of sprints (Weekly or monthly activities.)
So, if you are willing to do some self-reflection, here is a list of questions you can ask yourself and answer to consider where you want to be at the end of the marathon-what you want in your career and life.
The Who Questions:
- Who is important in my life?
- Who do I want to benefit from what I am doing?
- Who can help me?
The What Questions:
- What is my definition of success?
- What do I want to accomplish?
- What are my strengths?
- What are my challenges?
- What do I want to learn?
- What do I want to experience?
- What do I value the most? (My core values)
- What contribution do I want to make?
- What do I want to have?
- What do I want to earn?
- What am I most passionate about?
- What do my clients need the most?
- What is the most important thing I should do to accomplish my goals?
The When Questions:
- When do I want to accomplish each goal?
The Where Questions:
- Where do I want to live?
- Where do I want to visit?
The Why Questions:
- Why is each goal important to me?
- And, why is that important to me?
The How Questions:
- How do I want to accomplish my goals?
- How can I best use my strengths?
- How do I want to live?
- How will I know when I have succeeded?
- How will potential clients find out about me?