Denzel Washington has proven, more than once, to have wisdom to pass along to the next generation. His words are good advice for all of us, though. In May, 2015, he gave the commencement address at Dillard University. In that speech, Mr. Washington told the audience to "Dream big. But remember, dreams, without goals, are just dreams. And they ultimately fuel disappointment. So have dreams, but have goals - life goals, yearly goals, monthly goals, daily goals. I try to give myself a goal every day."
An ancient Chinese proverb exclaims that "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Each portion of that trip can be broken down into manageable portions - milestones that we can use to measure our progress against the journey, as a whole. You can break it down into 100 ten-mile portions, 1000 one-mile portions, all the way down to the approximately 2,000,000 steps that it would take the average person to walk 1000 miles. Along the way, every step is a goal, every mile is a goal, every 100 miles is a goal. Break them down to something manageable, so you can actually keep track of your progress, and visualize your progress as you go.
While pursuing your goals, though, Mr. Washington also cautioned against doing things just to stay busy. "Just because you're doing a lot more doesn't mean you're getting a lot more done. Don't confuse movement with progress. My mother told me, 'Yeah. You can run in place all the time and never get anywhere.'"
It takes approximately 2,000,000 steps to walk 1,000 miles, but one can walk 2,000,000 steps on a treadmill and end up exactly where they started. Be sure that when you're setting your goals, and you're working towards meeting them, that you're not working hard to end up where you started. Too often, law firms focus on the billable hours that they're logging. They want to hit a certain number of billable hours, to bring in the money that they need to pay the bills and help them reach the next step. But, in the end, do billable hours count for more than steps on a treadmill? Our dreams and goals should be focused on getting the best results for our clients, and on building a reputation that enables us to build the practice that we want to build. Billable hours don't do that. They only represent the amount that we are doing. Our reputations are based on what we're getting done.
The trend in the legal profession is towards alternative and flat fee agreements for work done. Clients are increasingly demanding to know ahead of time exactly what their attorneys are going to cost them for a matter. If we focus our efforts on effective planning and goal-setting, then we can measure our progress, and we have a benchmark that we can measure ourselves against. We can better establish what our services will cost our clients, and what our schedules should look like. Don't do a lot just to do a lot. Do what you do to get things done.
An ancient Chinese proverb exclaims that "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Each portion of that trip can be broken down into manageable portions - milestones that we can use to measure our progress against the journey, as a whole. You can break it down into 100 ten-mile portions, 1000 one-mile portions, all the way down to the approximately 2,000,000 steps that it would take the average person to walk 1000 miles. Along the way, every step is a goal, every mile is a goal, every 100 miles is a goal. Break them down to something manageable, so you can actually keep track of your progress, and visualize your progress as you go.
While pursuing your goals, though, Mr. Washington also cautioned against doing things just to stay busy. "Just because you're doing a lot more doesn't mean you're getting a lot more done. Don't confuse movement with progress. My mother told me, 'Yeah. You can run in place all the time and never get anywhere.'"
It takes approximately 2,000,000 steps to walk 1,000 miles, but one can walk 2,000,000 steps on a treadmill and end up exactly where they started. Be sure that when you're setting your goals, and you're working towards meeting them, that you're not working hard to end up where you started. Too often, law firms focus on the billable hours that they're logging. They want to hit a certain number of billable hours, to bring in the money that they need to pay the bills and help them reach the next step. But, in the end, do billable hours count for more than steps on a treadmill? Our dreams and goals should be focused on getting the best results for our clients, and on building a reputation that enables us to build the practice that we want to build. Billable hours don't do that. They only represent the amount that we are doing. Our reputations are based on what we're getting done.
The trend in the legal profession is towards alternative and flat fee agreements for work done. Clients are increasingly demanding to know ahead of time exactly what their attorneys are going to cost them for a matter. If we focus our efforts on effective planning and goal-setting, then we can measure our progress, and we have a benchmark that we can measure ourselves against. We can better establish what our services will cost our clients, and what our schedules should look like. Don't do a lot just to do a lot. Do what you do to get things done.