Goal Setting for the New Year

Lawyers Who Launch

The end of the year is a natural closing point for many things and it usually calls people to evaluate goals and look to the future. Neither one of us is big into making New Year’s resolutions. Rather we like making concrete plans and setting goals for ourselves for the coming year. That starts with taking stock of the last year and running through a few mental exercises. Look at the goals you set for yourself last year and get a status check. Keep in mind that not everything needs to have a December 31 deadline. Not fully reaching a goal is not a failure, you just may need more time. As a professional this is particularly important. If you are anything like us, you have big goals and dreams. Not achieving those goals in a year is not a failure and it does not call on you to give up. But the end of the year is an opportunity to evaluate whether that goal is still a priority to you. Give yourself a chance to adjust your goals depending on the circumstances of the last year you just finished. Extend yourself the kindness to be honest about what went well. The next part of this is to consider what you can learn from the challenges you faced in the past year. Maybe you wanted to hit a certain revenue goal in your law firm, and you didn’t. Did you learn what type of files are the best revenue sources for you? Did you find that you are getting more clients from one type of referral source vs another? Sit down with your goal, even if you didn’t fully achieve it, and see what information you can glean. It’s still a win. Now that you have done this, you are ready to move to the future and start planning for the next year. What do you want to accomplish in 2022? Do you have personal goals? Professional goals? We definitely recommend that you have a variety of goals and they can be in your professional and personal life - sometimes they may intersect. Sit down with a pen and paper or open the notes app on your phone and make a list of what you hope to accomplish this year. The best goals have two qualities - they are “measurable” and they are “meaningful.” For example, a common goal is to “make more money.” However, this is neither measurable nor meaningful. However, if you evaluate the why behind the goal and how you can measure success you may change the goal to be - increase income by $50,000 in order to hire an associate to whom I can delegate work in order to alleviate some stress. This goal is now both measurable and meaningful. Bigger goals often take more time - but it can be difficult to keep the motivation to work toward a goal that is going to take a year or more to achieve measurable results. This is why you should celebrate the milestones along the way. Also make sure to give yourself the credit that you deserve. You may have to make adjustments along the way. Celebrating those small milestones is so important because it will help make those adjustments feel like just that - adjustments and not failures.

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Nothing contained within this podcast is intended or should be construed to be legal advice and does not create any attorney client relationship. Please keep in mind that your jurisdiction will have rules of professional conduct that you must follow. This discussion does not fo

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Nothing contained within this podcast is intended or should be construed to be legal advice and does not create any attorney client relationship. Your jurisdiction will have rules of professional conduct that you must follow. This discussion does not focus on the any such rules, including the rules from the jurisdiction where we practice.