How To Set Career Resolutions: 16 Career Goal Setting Tips
What is one tip for setting career resolutions for the new year?
To help you set your career resolutions for the new year, we asked business professionals and leaders this question for their insights. From being positive to attaching plans to each goal, there are several tips to set the right career resolutions for the new year.
Here are sixteen career goal setting tips for your new year’s resolutions:
- Reflect on the past 12 months
- Schedule a career coach
- Build your network
- Refine your long-term goals
- Set realistic deadlines
- Embrace progression more than perfection
- Track industry trends
- Find your “Why”
- Be positive
- Celebrate your wins
- Improve your LinkedIn profile
- Write it down
- Look to learn, not earn
- Prioritize your mental health
- Attach plans for each goal
- Reflect on your achievements
Reflect on the past 12 months
One tip for setting career resolutions for the new year is to look back at where you were the previous December. These reflections can help you assess how much you have grown within the past year and set realistic goals for the coming year. If you have a firm grasp on the pace of progress and expected milestones, then you are less likely to get discouraged and abandon your plans and will be more likely to complete goals.
Michael Alexis, TeamBuilding
Schedule a career coach
One thing to improve your career and professional development is to schedule out a career coach for the new year. Career coaches will help build you a plan for the new year and give you tips for improving your professional career overall. If career development is your main resolution, investing in a coach is worthwhile.
Olivia Young, Conscious Items
Build your network
Networking is a fantastic way to develop your career. It helps you catch up with the latest trends in your industry and gives you access to new job opportunities. Participating in conferences, job fairs, seminars can open doors to new business opportunities, career growth, and personal development. While setting career resolutions, take the extra time and energy to prepare a plan for building your professional network. Find experts from your field on LinkedIn and Social Media and make a connection, sign up for business meetings and a knowledge-sharing session, and make your career skyrocket.
Ewelina Melon, Tidio
Refine your long-term goals
As you build your career, it’s important to have a vision of where you want to eventually land. That way, at the end of a year, you can assess if the professional decisions you’ve made align with those long-term goals. It’s easy to get side-tracked and take opportunities that just come to you, but it takes vision and focus to make strategic career moves that will take you where you want to go. When setting career resolutions, think about your long-term trajectory, look within to make sure it’s still truly what you want, and start planning your year.
Meryl Schulte, Markitors
Set realistic deadlines
Give yourself a deadline for your resolutions. If, for example, you aim to find a new position or even apply for a promotion at your current company, give yourself a deadline. This gives you something to strive for. It can also help ensure success because it’s much easier to get tasks done when there is a deadline.
Sarah Pirrie, Healist Naturals
Embrace progression more than perfection
Embrace progression more than perfection. Most of us may think that being perfect would lead us closer to our career goals. However, the more we stumble, the greater our fear of achieving the perfection that we want. It makes us feel upset about ourselves, which often leads us to feel unmotivated and insufficient. We need to reset our focus. By the start of next year, we need to realize that mistakes are part of the journey. They are essential for our growth to be ready in our destined careers. Slowly but surely, as they said. We need to remember to move forward and know that small progress matters in realizing our goals.
Jake Smith, Absolute Reg
Track industry trends
This year make sure you are up to date with the latest trends and development in your industry. There’s a variety of material available to keep you up to speed in your sector, regardless of industry. To assist you to remain on top of business trends, make a resolution to “read one blog each week” or “subscribe to an industry journal.” I follow industry leaders to stay updated about my profession. This simple tip can make a significant change in your career hunt.
Axel Hernborg, Tripplo.com
Find your “Why”
Answer the question ‘Why’ when setting your career goals. It’s the fuel that drives you towards doing something consistently. Let’s say your goal is to receive a promotion this year. What urges you to do so? Is it because you want to prove your capabilities to the team? Probably, you might want to improve particular skills or oversee a very good project to the end. Your ‘why’ helps determine the depth of your reasons behind an ambition or intention. Remember that a very strong purpose could help you sustain your actions towards a goal, according to a set timeline.
Michelle Ebbin, JettProof
Be positive
Think positively! It’s important to not be too hard on yourself. Think of professional goals that make you feel excited, rather than stressed or like you have a long way to go. For example, if you want to move up at your company, lean into this desire with an optimistic outlook. This will affect your ability to tackle all of the steps you need to take to reach your goal with confidence and enthusiasm. Conversely, approaching your goals with worry and self-criticism could make you less productive due to too many anxious thoughts. Don’t let your worries get in the way of staying focused and motivated.
Mike Clare, Mood Health
Celebrate your wins
The key for setting career resolutions for the new year is to reward yourself when those goals are met. Everyone needs something to look forward to – it’s a motivator that helps us get through daily activities. When creating your resolutions, set a reward for yourself once that goal is achieved. For example, if one of your resolutions is to complete an online marketing course, reward yourself with a 3-day weekend vacation for all of the hard work you put in. If one of your goals is a promotion, treat yourself to a new laptop so your technology is up to date to succeed in your new role. Completing your resolutions is that much sweeter when you can celebrate yourself afterward.
Lance Herrington, UNICO Nutrition
Improve your LinkedIn profile
Has it been a while since you’ve been on LinkedIn? If that’s the case, review and edit your profile to project recent developments in your career. You may be contacted by recruiters in your area who have an opportunity for you. It’s also useful for keeping in touch with other people within your organization. No matter what your career goals are, keeping an active presence online is vital.
Heidi Streeter, Holiday St.
Write it down
Writing down your career resolutions and hanging them in a place where they are easily visible is a great way to ensure you stick to them. When we write down our goals, it solidifies what we’re trying to do and motivates us to achieve that goal. Many resolutions become a distant thought because we forget about them as the new year picks up, so it’s important to stay focused. Hanging your resolutions on your desk or in your notebook is a great way to check in with your progress and keep that resolution throughout the year. Setting resolutions doesn’t mean anything if you don’t stick to them. Write them down and check in often.
Corey Walters, Here
Look to learn, not to earn
A great career is built on the foundations of knowledge and learning. Rather than focusing on the journey to increase your paycheck, devise a plan that will see you add value to your role and company through a greater understanding of the industry and how you operate within it.
Pick up new skills in the workplace and use time outside of work to learn more. Read, attend conferences and sign up for online courses that help you gain perspective of your industry. Even if you do not use this knowledge right away, it is bound to help you later.
Remember, not every skill needs to make you money right away. Some skills can help you gain perspective and increase your worth among peers, thus giving you extra leverage in career growth.
In the new year, set a career resolution that has you spending more time on learning resources. You will stand witness to a whole new career path.
Jerry Ford, 4WD Life
Prioritize your mental health
Life post-covid is decades different from previous times. One tip for setting career resolutions and other aspects of life is prioritizing your mental health in every possible condition. If you are fit mentally, there is nothing unachievable and hard enough to set you back.
Set attainable goals, learn something new every day, journal your thoughts, build your contacts, eat healthily, invest in yourself and your passion, practice gratitude, but most importantly, stick to the resolutions you have set for yourself. Remember, consistency is the key to success.
Allan Jeffrey, Ultra Decking
Attach plans for each goal
Your career resolutions should be specific, and each goal should have plans and a set of actions that go with it.
How you want your career to move forward for the new year requires careful and deliberate planning. Be specific about what you want to achieve. It enables you to assign your terms, plans, and steps to take to get there. Being too broad with your career resolutions will not give you a firm sense of direction, and it may discourage you from going beyond your limits.
Arthur Iinuma, ISBX
Reflect on your achievements
Reflect and review the past year. Think about what you have achieved, the challenges you have encountered, and the areas where you could improve your performance. Do you have to improve your negotiation skills? Project management or presentation skills, perhaps? Take time to review your career path, as well. Look back into how you’ve grown in the past several years and see if you are heading towards your initial goals set. Did you get promoted or assigned to carry out a higher level of task? Taking time to review your career journey will help you set or update your career goals as the new year begins.
Abe Breuer, VIP To Go
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