5 Career Resolutions to Consider for Your New Year

I like a good resolution as much as the next human being, but I also like not feeling that I've piled a load of things up to do all in one go at the beginning of January. That winding down very soon threatens to become a winding up.

Thought 1) What do you feel were some of the highlights of your professional life in the last year? 💫

Think about how they made you feel? Who was there with you? How did you celebrate these highlights?

It's very easy to look over a whole year of professional life and think: 'it's just been another year'. Barring major, often unusual events or circumstances, I've always found there's a tendency to blur lots of things into one and underplay the whole thing. However, if you stop and think, even if your line of thinking is it's-just-been-another-year thinking, what does that mean? Something you might've got down to a tee, might be a skill others would be envious of. You might've worked with customers and clients like you've always done, but think of the numbers, the diversity, and specific examples of the different people you've worked with. At the very minimum, coming up with some highlights or 'top-level' notes on the last year in your workplace will be pretty handy for your CV and interviews if you're considering a career move, and indeed pretty handy for reviews and meetings with line managers to reflect on performance and set business goals for the year ahead.

Thought 2) What were some of the challenges, or the things you had to labour through? 🏔️

What would you do should these be challenges you'd face again? Or, alternatively, how would you look to minimise these?

So, perhaps the things that stick in the mind a little more (if you're like me) are the things that have taken time, caused you more stress than you'd have liked, or have felt like they've required far too many litres of coffee or tea to get through. Good news - you've made it through to the end of the year, and you've navigated these things. If you leave it at that though, you might not get any key lessons or takeaways from these experiences. If you work in an industry or a job with a cycle or a repeated busy period, maybe those challenges are coming round again in 2023. Even if you're at a point where you're looking to change jobs, you'll be doing your future self a favour with a moment or two's reflection on these difficult moments. Mulling over how they could be done differently, whether that's a change to planning, learning new skills to tackle things with, or just even an appreciation that there'll be a point in the year which is more of a robust hike up a hill rather than a step into a jacuzzi, will help map out your 2023 a little more clearly.

Thought 3) Thinking about the year ahead, is there anything you'd like time to do to expand your work? 🔭 

What is your motivation to do this? Who could you speak to in order to help with this? How could you pitch your idea?

So, why not look at the time you're spending in work and think about where you'd like to spend more or less time, and perhaps that identifies a new focus or a new approach? It might be something small that has a big impact - like taking a walk before work, bringing a cup of coffee in, or blocking 30 minutes a week to read those emails you don't usually have time for - or you might start to think that there's another job or future path out there for you that allows you this new focus. The key, however, is to take time to regularly reflect on the areas you'd like to expand on in your work, and not rush the decision to act and get everything done and dusted before that first month of the year is even finished!

Thought 4) Thinking about the year ahead, is there anything you'd like to do beyond what you'd consider work? 🌱

Start with a portion of time a week, or month, whatever seems most relevant. Even daily, but realistically these should be the habits or changes that might be the easiest to stick to, where there are fewest distractions. If you're sitting there looking for a starting point, let's say an hour. Put it in whenever you're least likely to move it, and most likely to make it happen. That might be Monday morning to start the week off with a bang (morning run, anyone?), Wednesday evening to get over hump day (a mini celebration of midweek with friends or family has a nice ring to it?), or a Friday lunchtime (round the week off in style). It really can be any time - the important thing is to have a pattern you become accustomed to and is something you look forward to (for the stifled creative, maybe a spot of midweek poetry writing or watercolours) until possibly a future day comes where you move onto the next thing that piques your interest (depending on the future you're in, maybe this evolves to be writing using AI, or illustrating robot frescos - we can dream). You work hard, and life is busy, but there needs to be time for you - so that there can be your time for others and your career beyond this, too.

Thought 5) If you were going to start a new business, what would you do? 💼