Along with goals in your path to a successful career, you're certain to encounter many hurdles or rocks along the way. They'll threaten to block you with lost jobs, money problems, lack of promotions, economic turn-downs and scores of other glitches. Unless you're born rich, are seven feet tall and can slam dunk or become a rock star, it happens to everyone.

The best way to smooth out that rocky path to success is to set specific time lines and career goals you want to reach. It is never too early to start planning. If you're a high school student, by the time you're in the middle of your junior year, you should have started considering what you want to do with your future. You don't need to choose a specific career yet, but it's the time to start setting those goals you'll hope to attain as you make your way along life's path. Of course, as a normal teen, you should have all the fun you want, but always keep in mind that those special years end much too soon, and you must face the realities of coping with the rest of your life.

The first step along that rocky road is to make a realistic assessment of your educational, mental and physical capabilities. If doing those slam dunks in the NBA is your fondest wish, and your height is five-foot-three, chances are rather slim. If you see yourself as a PhD scientist planning Mars shots at NASA, and you've never earned a math or physics grade above a C minus, you can scrub that mission. However, clever high schooler that you are, you know you have unique skills, there's a personal path out there, and you're about to take your first step on it.

If you enjoy the field of education and feel you'd like to spend your adult life in the classroom working with new generations of students, first talk with your parents, school adviser and your favorite teacher. You should know by now that a teaching career requires a college degree, preferably two college degrees, so you'd better get good grades through your high school years. Even more important, with college tuition expensive and going higher each year, those applicants with the best high school grades are the most likely to be offered scholarships. Oh, by the way, if you want to have a career in the NBA, and you're seven foot seven and can shoot a basket, you can forget about paying college tuition. In fact, if you shoot accurately enough, you can forget about college and go directly into a multi-million-buck contract.

If you're still in high school, no matter

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