Career Success for Me in 2023 - How to make New Year’s Resolutions for your career
Are you thinking of making some New Year’s Resolutions to make a positive difference in your career in 2023?
As the year ends, it is time to look forward to 2023. Are you thinking of setting some New Year’s Resolutions around your career and looking for some ideas to set some career goals?
Rather than abandoning your New Year’s Resolutions before the end of January, create some career plans that you feel motivated to stick to. So this time next year you will be able to look back over the year and congratulate yourself on all you have achieved.
Making New Year’s Resolutions for your career is a good idea as it's a way to think about where you are now and to look forward to the new year with positivity and optimism. It’s a way to think about what you want for your career and your life in the future and what needs to change.
Rather than making generic sweeping statements, such as “I am going to be happier at work in 2023” or “I am going to be more successful in my career in 2023”, make resolutions that are achievable and measurable and that you really want to go for.
Read on to find out more as to how to make New Year’s Resolutions for your career and make 2023, your best work year ever.
1. Find the career areas you want to work on
To find out what you want your New Year’s Resolution to be about, think about the areas that affect your career success and happiness at work the most.
Make a list of what’s not working for you at the moment at work such as:
I always feel tired at work
I am bored at work
My confidence is low at work
I hate my job and want to change careers
I want a promotion but can’t see how to get it
I feel overwhelmed at work
I am stressed and anxious at work
I am not good at interviews
I want to change jobs but don’t know what to
I hate my boss and don’t get on with the team
Another way of finding the career areas you want to work on is to consider the main areas that affect career happiness:
These are:
Your Why: Doing work that has meaning and purpose to you, suits your values and has a sense of contribution and accomplishment
Your Where: Working in a safe environment with sufficient resources and suits you
Your How: Ensuring your mind and body is fit and well and how you go about doing your work
Your Who: Working well in relationships
You What: Doing what you love to do and being engaged and motivated
Have a look at each factor: the why, where, how, who and what. Score where you feel you are now. Then give a score to where you want to be this time next year.
Make a list of the career happiness factors you want to work on:
For the factors that you want to work on think about each area and what is not working for you or how you can make something work better.
For example,
Engagement: Score now: 3, This time next year: 7
What’s not working: I do not know what my strengths are at work
I feel stale and uninterested in what I do
Once you have some negative statements, turn them into positive ones:
Positive Statements: I will find out what my strengths are at work and how I can use them
I am going to find out what interests me at work and do more of that so I feel motivated
2. Create some career ideas as to how you can meet your career resolutions
Now you have some positive career statements, start to generate some career ideas as to how you can meet those resolutions.
For example, if you feel you are bored at work and need a new challenge, you might have a positive statement that you will feel motivated and energised at work. To achieve this, you may want to try to enrich your job by taking on new projects. Or you may want to learn new skills. Alternatively, you may want to seek a promotion or apply for a job elsewhere.
If you feel overwhelmed at work, you might have a positive statement that you will be able to manage your workload. Your career ideas around this might be to speak to your manager about how you will prioritise your workload. You could consider getting some career coaching with a career coach as to how to manage your feelings of overwhelm. You might want to work a four-day week. Or you might want to change jobs to a role that involves less of what causes the overwhelm.
You feel overlooked at work and have a positive statement that you want to get a promotion at work. Therefore your career ideas may include speaking to your manager for advice. You may want to get a mentor at work who can help you, Or you may want to learn new skills that will improve your performance in the areas required at the higher level in the organisation, Or start to go to networking events to learn more about the opportunities in the organisation. Another career idea might be that may want to get involved in high profile projects.
If you hate your job and want to change your career, you may have a positive statement that you will change your career in 2023. So a career idea may be to find a career coach who can help you with your career change. Alternatively, you may want to find some books to read on the subject of people who have made career changes and transitions. Or you may want to read blogs about how different people have changed their careers.
Write down your options and ideas for each positive career statement.
If you need some inspiration to find career ideas, read my blog 101 career ideas to be happy at work.
3. Make some career decisions on your career ideas
Now you have some career ideas around your career goals and resolutions, start to decide what you are actually going to do. If it helps, for each career idea, do the pros and cons by listing the advantages of that career idea and weighing it up with the negatives. Get a sense of your energy and motivation around each idea. You will only take action if you feel the pull towards an idea and are motivated to do it.
4. Break down the career ideas and options into manageable actions
Now you have decided what you are going to do, break down the high-level actions into chunk-sized action lists. For example, you have decided to move jobs as you want to find a company that suits your values at work.
If you want to move companies you will need to: get your CV up to date, update your LinkedIn profile, find out which websites are the best for the sort of jobs you are looking for, set up keyword searches on those websites and on LinkedIn, search for jobs on relevant websites, find agencies that manage the sort of jobs you are looking for and contact them, prepare for interviews, understand how competency-based interviews work, learn how to do pre-recorded job interviews, practice behavioural interviews and pre-recorded job interviews.
Once you have a list of your actions, start to prioritise them in order of when you will do the actions and put timescales around those goals and actions.
You have made some SMART goals - Specific, Measurable, Achievable and Time-Bound!
By breaking the resolutions into SMART goals, you have a manageable action list that you can monitor progress over the coming months.
4. Take action on your New Years Goals and Resolutions for Career Success
The most important thing to do is to take action on your goals and resolutions.
There is no point in thinking about and planning what you are going to do and taking no action. By breaking down your larger career goals and resolutions into bite-size actions, you will feel less overwhelmed and more motivated to take action on your career to ensure that this time next year, you will be where you want to be. Good luck!
I am Diana Dawson, Founder of Working Career. As a Professional Career Coach, Career Psychologist, Career Counsellor, Career Consultant, Executive Coach and Wellbeing at Work Coach, I work with organisations and individuals to help manage their careers.
I am an Accredited Master Coach with the Association for Coaching, a Coaching Psychologist and Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapist with nearly 20 years of experience in the field.
I work with professional people from different sectors and backgrounds to cope and flourish at work. I also run Career Workshops and Wellbeing Workshops for organisations.
I can provide one-to-one career coaching in Edinburgh or zoom sessions worldwide. I can provide Career Workshops at your organisation or remotely. Find out more about me here