Every New Year, many of us set ourselves work goals that we hope will improve our jobs or careers. But we often set New Year career resolutions that are too ambitious or unrealistic, setting us up for failure. These promises can be too vague, too – things like ‘I’ll get promoted this year’ or ‘I’ll change industries completely.’ This can lead to demotivating frustration when things don’t work out.
“New Year’s resolutions can be great,” say the experts behind Serpple, a comprehensive SEO analysis tool. “A lot of people make those resolutions about their careers. They feel that setting New Year achievement goals can energise them and motivate them to reach new heights on their career ladder. But you’ve got to set realistic professional New Year’s resolutions, or they may not work out, and that’s bad for your morale.”
Here, the Serpple experts suggest more realistic goals that may be more achievable, and reveal how they can actually be more helpful.
The Expert’s Guide to New Year Professional Resolutions
Here is Serpple’s guide to setting realistic professional New Year’s resolutions.
Score SMART goals: Make your professional New Year resolutions SMART (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, and Time-bound).
“Instead of setting vague goals like ‘I will improve my communication skills’, set more specific goals like ‘On March 1st, I will take a course on public speaking to improve my presentation skills’. Doable things can be done. Ill-defined aspirations that lack specifics tend to fail because they aren’t physically actionable,” says Serpple.
Milestones: Set smaller and more achievable objectives. Achieving these milestones will help you map out your progress, which, in turn, will help you to stay motivated.
“We recommend small steps that you can actually take, rather than a long journey with an unclear starting point that feels daunting.”
Get clockwise: ‘Oh – I meant to do that but ran out of time’. That’s no good. Manage your time better. Prioritise tasks, ignore distractions, and use time management tools like your digital devices to prompt you to do certain things at certain times.
Get real: What can you really achieve this year? Is a promotion really on the cards? Go for it. Is there a new project you can realistically take on and do? Do it.
“Work realistically on bettering your professional skill sets to win a promotion. That could mean studying to get a new qualification, or taking on new work challenges. Stuff like this can make promotion more likely. Don’t think about – do it!”
Balance: Allocate set times to meet your various responsibilities in life, and partition them so you can focus on them all fully. Work, social, and family priorities won’t then overlap so much that they interfere with each other.
“The New Year is a great time to set defined boundaries between different areas of your life that enrich them all, and make a successful professional life more likely”.
Polish up your LinkedIn profile: LinkedIn is your professional shop window. Make it shine, to complement whichever professional resolution you set for yourself. This is something you can do in ten minutes. If you feel you need help, ask a pro who can help you to amplify and polish your professional online presence.
A spokesperson for Serpple commented:
“Most New year professional resolutions fail because they’re too ambitious or too ambiguous. Take small steps. That way you’ll go a long way.
“Polish up your resume, get a new qualification, make new contacts by networking, improve your workstation ergonomically – these are all doable and realistic goals.
“In summary, these professional New Year resolution tips can empower you, and help you to really go places in your career. Don’t try to do them all at once – you may feel overwhelmed, and be as demotivated as you would be if your New Year’s goal was to ‘climb Mount Everest on one leg’. You’ll never do it. Set goals you can really do. As you complete them, you’ll be amazed at how motivated you feel to do more, and that builds momentum for a new you who can take the world of work by storm.”
