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:

  1. Who is important in my life?
  2. Who do I want to benefit from what I am doing?
  3. Who can help me?

The What Questions:

  1. What is my definition of success?
  2. What do I want to accomplish?
  3. What are my strengths?
  4. What are my challenges?
  5. What do I want to learn?
  6. What do I want to experience?
  7. What do I value the most? (My core values)
  8. What contribution do I want to make?
  9. What do I want to have?
  10. What do I want to earn?
  11. What am I most passionate about?
  12. What do my clients need the most?
  13. What is the most important thing I should do to accomplish my goals?

The When Questions:

  1. When do I want to accomplish each goal?

The Where Questions:

  1. Where do I want to live?
  2. Where do I want to visit?

The Why Questions:

  1. Why is each goal important to me?
  2. And, why is that important to me?

The How Questions:

  1. How do I want to accomplish my goals?
  2. How can I best use my strengths?
  3. How do I want to live?
  4. How will I know when I have succeeded?
  5. How will potential clients find out about me?