Goal-Oriented

I have always been a list-maker and written out my goals for various projects and for my life in general. Normally being asked to do exactly that would cause me to run quickly to my desk, grab my different colored markers and some post-its and create an elaborate and painfully organized chart of said goals. So why, when I was asked to write out my career goals on my first day of my new job, am I completely stumped?

It could be the fact that immediately on the heels of taking the bar exam, I am preparing to enter the world of finance which, in case you didn't know, is neither the same as practicing law, nor something I expected to embark upon. It could be that this new career path, while delightfully challenging and positively terrifying (in mostly good ways) has my stomach all knotted up. I could be awful at this. I could totally embarrass myself. I could even...fail. gasp!

I will probably do just fine, and I fully expect to meet this challenge head on and come out a winner. These thoughts, nonetheless are hindering my normal goal-making capabilities. I just don't know where to start. What kind of salary is reasonable to expect my first month? How many clients should I have by Christmas? And the worst...How do you plan to grow your business? Uh, I am still learning what the business is, let alone how to grow it.

I do know a few things. I can realistically say that I want to be crazy-successful, I want to make a comfortable living, and I don't want any job that I can't balance with having a family in the near future. I can also say that I know what my minimum is - meaning how little I can make before I'm starving and the student loan police come knocking down my door.

So, I guess I do know, at least, where to start. From there, I'll see what happens. I suppose, "do nothing, be awesome, and get rich" isn't an appropriate goal, huh?