How to Daydream Your Way to Success
For lawyers and law students, achieving career success often entails landing their dream lawyer job.
Unfortunately, due to the nature of lawyering, those dream jobs (like just about any lawyering job) often place excessive stress and burdens and responsibilities on the dreamer. And after some time, even those who land their high-powered dream jobs will begin to fantasize about living a different life as a Yogi, or even food server, to escape their high-stress realities. Fortunately, those daydreams can actually help (even if you're not in your "dream" job yet).
Success Is Personal
When examining your own career goals, you need to get personal and answer the existential question: What does success mean to you?
Is it measured by wealth, notoriety, or trial record? Is it measured by the friends you keep? Or maybe the hours you work? Where you live? What you do with your free time? The questions to ask yourself to define success for you will vary, and you might find that the questions you choose to ask yourself might be just as telling as your answers.
Learn From Your Daydreams
As a recent Fast Company article explained, your fantasy job might actually help you find success in your current job.
It explains that exploring the reasons behind why you fantasize about a different type of job or career can help you pinpoint what you might be able to change about your current job to achieve higher job satisfaction. Perhaps you dream about working a simpler job in order to have more social interactions with people, maybe you want to be outdoors during the day, or it might just be the excessive hours? Take a step back and examine your own case from several angles.
Pros and Cons and Analyze
What are the pros and cons of scaling back your hours, or taking long lunches to go on a hike a few times a week, or making other small or significant changes to help increase your own career satisfaction? Make the list. While you don't want to put your career in jeopardy, you might find a few things to do that could really change your career outlook.
Want information on effective marketing? Let the experts at FindLaw's Lawyer Marketing give you a hand with FindLaw Integrated Legal Marketing Solutions.
Related Resources:
- Judge Jails Attorney for 'Acting Like I'm Some Kind of Idiot' (FindLaw's Greedy Associates)
- Valparaiso Law School Hits Another Roadblock (FindLaw's Greedy Associates)
- 6 Tips for Talking to Non-Lawyer Friends About SCOTUS (FindLaw's Greedy Associates)