Graduation is less than a month away, and as the milestone approaches, I have found myself reassessing my career goals.

This past weekend I had the pleasure of having lunch with Julie Hatch, a solo PR practitioner in Fort Worth. Julie is the subject of my final paper, so I won’t go into the details of her story here, but the theme of our discussion was that she rather “work to live” not “live to work.”

Our discussion made me ask myself some tough questions.

As students our success is defined by our grades and progression toward graduation, but success is not as easily defined in the real world. I used to think my professional success would be defined by my salary and my level of responsibility; climbing the corporate ladder was my main focus.

However, as I have grown-up and matured in my career, I have come to realize power and money aren’t everything. Moving up the ladder doesn’t seem as important anymore.  A fancy title and a big office may signify professionally success, but are they going to make me happy? Probably not.

As graduation approaches, I keep reminding myself to adjust the lens through which I view future opportunities shifting my focus to achieving a balance between my personal and professional life.

I don’t know what the future hold for me, but that’s okay. Life is a journey, and I don’t know about you all, but I think I’d prefer to take the scenic route.