What do I want?
I’ve been wrestling with this question as I plow through a quick business-planning course. It seems like an easy enough question, but as I go to write out my answer, I suddenly find myself a little stumped.
What do I want?
Beyond the basics (i.e., food, clothing and shelter) what do I want deep down? What do I want to do? What do I want to be? How do I want to feel? In the context of this business-planning course, what do I want from Lawducate? What do I want my business to be?
These questions aren’t so easy to answer.
I know I that I want to earn a living from Lawducate. But what exactly do I want to do and sell to earn that money? I have a lot of options in front of me, but limited resources. So, what do I really want?
Do I want to continue to practice law? Do I want to write a blog or a book? Do I want to be a speaker or educator? Do I really want to produce a podcast or web show?
What I want determines what I spend my time, money and effort on. If I don’t know what I want, there’s a high likelihood that I will waste a lot of time, money, and effort with little return on the investment. What will I have achieved and how will I feel at the end?
When was the last time you asked yourself, what do I want? What do I want professionally? What do I want in my personal life?
Write down the answers.
Now ask yourself, is what I’m doing right now helping me achieve what I want? If the answer is yes, that’s great. Keep doing what you’re doing. If the answer is no, you may have to do some soul-searching.
Steve Jobs, in his 2005 Stanford Commencement Address, said:
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
You can’t get to where you want to go if you don’t know the destination. So ask yourself, “what do I want?”
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