It’s common to make New Year resolutions at this time, but how many of you review the year you are exiting? Especially in work life, whether you work for yourself or others, you can learn lessons to guide your progress and growth.
If you were to close your eyes and scan over the past 12 months, what stands out? Is it that fantastic trip you took, or precious time spent with friends and family, or does something work-related make you smile?
Most of us need to work to earn a living, but what else does your career bring you? What are the meaningful parts of your role? What keeps you engaged? What demonstrates that your efforts matter?
Lisa works in the healing arts and is reminded that her hard work matters when clients praise the positive results of her efforts. Harry, a musician, is motivated to continue long hours of practice when audiences cheer and return to experience his superb performances. Tony feels recognized when his boss salutes him in meetings and hands over more authority.
While exterior validation feels yummy, what are you hearing inside yourself? What’s going well from your perspective? How do you measure success in your work? Is it quantitative, objective, or emotional? By making yearly career goals it is possible to evaluate your progress. This can be the year to begin a structured process to know where you are:
1. List your most important career Wins of the last year. For example, these could be advancements in pay or responsibility, completion of projects, or advanced skill development. Karen was asked to take on new responsibilities when a co-worder suddenly left. While she felt unprepared to carry out unfamiliar duties, Karen jumped in. She grew new skills by working with a mentor as well as taking an online course. Now Karen is amazed and proud of what she can do.
2. Make note of those times when you are in Flow: you are so immersed that time flies by. Analyze the pattern of those times. Are you working with a team, creating something unique, or using a skill you are very comfortable with? Marty finds whenever he is thinking outside the box, he is extremely satisfied and excited.
“When you recover or discover something that nourishes your soul and brings joy, care enough about yourself to make room for it in your life”
Jean Shinoda Bolen
3. List your Lessons learned: those things you love to do, those you’d rather avoid, your system for finding solutions. Sarah realizes she is better having great independence than being micro-managed. Often failures while painful, can teach us a great deal. Bob took a risk with a friend to start a new business. They were matched in their talents and ended up competing in decision making because they lacked complementary skills.
4. Appreciate all the Skills you have used as well as new ones gained. Imagine how these skills can be transferable. Marion is a great cheer leader for her team. She can translate those skills into leadership and management opportunities.
5. What Risks paid off the most this year? Stretching out of your box and doing something new lead to growth. Which one of these risks reaped returns? Was the “pain” worth the “gain”?
6. List the new Relationships you have made and how you want to prosper from their existence. Bob joined the Board of a non-profit and is meeting professionals outside of his field. It is bringing an infusion of viewpoints and personalities that spice up his life.
Once you have an overview of this year’s work, it’s time to look ahead. What do you want for yourself in the future? Set your intentions. Where do you want to be? Is it staying where you are, moving to a new role in the same organization, or is it time to move out? People put off making changes waiting for the planets to align, but the reality is that nothing will be perfectly timed for a change. You can make the change now on your terms or have change happen to you without your input.
“Life has no smooth road for any of us and in the bracing atmosphere of a high aim the very roughness stimulates the climber to steadier steps, till the legend, over steep ways to the stars, fulfills itself”
WC Doane
Whatever you decide, it helps to have an accountability partner to brainstorm goals, steps, and review progress. Whether this partner is a peer, a colleague, or a professional coach matters less than the act of committing to a regular process.
So look back before you look ahead:
Make sense of this year
Write your “take aways”
Keep what you like
Discard the rest
Take a new step forward
Be bold and see you on the path!
