Career Resolutions: How To Make 2018 Count

By Perminus Wainaina

Happy New year Professionals! 2018 is finally here. And for most people this means new way of doing things, new opportunities and new careers for others.

After the holiday festivities crowned with family parties in the village, January becomes the best the time when you start thinking about healthy lifestyle while everyone is really at their best. Well, as for me this is the year of working SMART.

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However, when it comes to making career resolutions, most professionals aim for the moon and end up falling off the wagon after two weeks.

I have seen people who have made decisions to forego fast foods only to meet them few days later at the counter with mouthwatering packages!

Acting impulsively while drafting your career resolutions can be detrimental in the end. Many stories have been told of professionals who kicked off the New Year in high gear only to give up in the first few weeks.

So why do you make career resolutions that don’t make it into February? 4 possibilities…

1. You have vague career goals. You probably don’t take time to really evaluate what specific areas of change you wish to see in your career. For instance you’ve made a career resolution that states ‘ To up my job seeking game in 2018’
2. You bite off more than you can chew. When your resolutions are too ambitious, you struggle to change your habits, hit the targets and become discouraged when you fail and ultimately give up altogether. For instance, you’ve set targets to open a high end restaurant in Westlands while your budget can only allow for a fast food joint elsewhere.
3. Setting unrealistic timelines. Rome wasn’t built in a day, neither will your career. You’ve probably set timelines that are unrealistic. You can’t expect to recruit 10 employees in January and still expect them to have hit your company targets around this timeline.
4. You are too hard on yourself. Let’s face it we are not perfect. Therefore, you can’t expect that once you decide to change your career profession, it shall be smooth sailing all the way. You will go through several interviews, you will send out several applications and you might also get several regret emails.

A 4-step guide to Making 2018 the most successful year in your career

What are your New Year’s resolutions then for career success in 2018? More importantly, do you have a plan for achieving them? Let’s take a closer look at some of the resourceful nuggets you need in order to make this year a great success in your career.

1. Visualize the ideal picture of a successful career

Evaluate your past activities during the year 2017 and learn from previous mistakes. Did you attend interviews without feedback? 2018 offers you a blank canvas to start afresh.

How do you want to grow your career? What capacities would you like to develop?

If you were looking back on 2018 a year from now, what would be fantastic to see? Will you be glad you took that public speaking coaching session? Answers to these questions will give you direct answers to setting the right goals for your career.

2. Perform a career audit

The start of a new year is the perfect time to perform a career health check. You’d be surprised at how easy it can be to lapse into career stagnation, disappointments and losing focus once you ignore career evaluation.

Whether you’re a recent graduate or senior executive, now is your chance to take stock of your career.

Start by making a list of which aspects of your job make you happy, and which leave room for improvement. Is your current job what you really want to be doing? Is it time to consider a career shift? Re-evaluate your career situation, and you’ll find that the path ahead becomes much better focused.

3. Display your professional abilities

Take a different direction from what you did in 2017 to get different results.

Most professionals do not take time to evaluate their experiences in order to pin out areas that they need to work on. Evaluate your chances in your current field. Are you at per with the industry requirements? Are there skills you need to work on?

If conditions in the job market seem great for you, then plan for your next steps; polish up your CV and cover letter, make sure your interview skills are sharpened and be not afraid to make them known.

4. Set up a functional career growth plan

So you’ve set some goals , laid out how you’d like your year to be and put your career in shape but how are you actually going to make all this happen?

This is where structure comes in.

If you pick two goals for January, you can create some structure for making them to actually happen: For instance, you want to get career coaching and a second opinion on your CV by a professional CV expert this month. When will you do this? What time of day? Be specific.

Remember to create accountability with others. Allow a coworker you trust to be accountable for your set goals. This is important to ensure that at least a third party is accountable on your behalf.

How did you do, what did you learn, what obstacles came up (and how will you adjust for them going forward), and what is your intention for the coming month?

Finally,

If you do these actions, pick a few focuses for the year, create short term goals to make them happen, and then create this kind of structure to make your career goals stick, I believe this is going to be your best year ever.