11 Strategic Career Resolutions to Make Right Now

We did it again.

Hubby and I procrastinated, waiting until the last day of vacation to realize that we have not crossed one thing off of our lengthy at-home to-do list.

All of the things we had been waiting for months to accomplish over the Christmas vacation. Nothing.

Of course, putting so much weight into the last week of the year was definitely not a good strategy.

It’s not because we didn’t plan.

It’s because we are not good at personal planning. Despite the fact that we have spent our careers planning at work.

And we are so busy lamenting the fact we’ve missed our holiday goals, we are both woefully behind with developing personal goals for the new year.

How about you? Have you planned for the New Year? Either professionally or personally?

I can hear your silence.

Which means you probably haven’t thought about your goals or resolutions or whatever you want to call them either.

At least I’m in good company.

Here’s the deal: throughout my career, I’ve learned that everything comes back to planning.

Plan the work and work the plan.  You can always alter the plan as things happen, but in order to be successful you need to have goals, as well as the strategy and tactics to accomplish those goals.

As individuals, we sometimes forget that we need personal plans too. We get so caught up in the plans we have at work that we miss the opportunity to develop personal goals outside of the office.

Something everyone should have – and review each year – are career goals.

You can call them goals or resolutions or simply “things I want to achieve.”

The main objective is to write your goals down, along with strategy and tactics for action.

To help you get started, here are 11 Strategic Career Resolutions to Make in 2017: 

• Vow to do things differently. Stop doing things the same way you’ve always done them.   What’s the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results. If you want to see change in your career, examine what you’re doing now and try something new.
• Push past fear.  I’m always afraid when I’m trying something new. Who isn’t?  Fear has stuck with me at every new job or promotion I’ve had, like gum sticks to the bottom of a shoe. Yet I’ve always fought through it, knowing that it’s temporary.  The first three months can be nerve-wracking as I question what I’m doing.  By six months I know enough to be dangerous. By nine months, I’m fine, and I wonder what I was so scared of to start with.  Go ahead, push past the fear.
• Persevere: Realize that achieving your goals requires dedication, patience, and hard work. Anything worth having is worth working for. Persevere, if it’s something you really want.  My goal out grad school was to be a buyer at Neiman Marcus. To do so, you had to not only be accepted into the executive development program, but also proceed through several different jobs designed to weed people out.  It was a “sink or swim” mentality.  Took me five years to achieve my goal and I succeeded – the only one from my program who did.  Patience, it turns out – along with hard work – really is a virtue.
• Tune-Out the negative self-talk.  Positive thoughts create positive things/results.  Negativity helps no one.  Yes, we can all have a moment here and there, but that’s it. At staff meetings at one company I worked at, we each had to tell our “high” for the week – one good thing that had happened to us. It could be work-related or personal.  The point was that something good happened to everyone each week, and we should remember it.  Keep this is mind when negativity creeps in.
• Be proactive.  I believe in making plans and preparation.  Yet at some point, we have to take action or our planning becomes procrastination.  Identify your goals, develop a strategy along with the tactics for execution, then GO! If you need to adjust the tactics along the way, do so.  The important thing is to Be like Nike and just do it.
• Try to fail 10 times. I’ve heard it said in sales training that it takes 10 “no’s” to get a yes. That means the more “no’s”, the closer you are to success.  Don’t be afraid to fail; that’s where we learn our greatest lessons, and ultimately each failure will help us achieve our greatest success.  It also means you’re trying to succeed, vs. doing nothing towards your goal.
• Appreciate Your Career Journey.  Don’t compare yourself to anyone but you. My definition of success is different from others.  A friend from graduate school has been retired for years because she had the opportunity to work for Dell in the beginning and stock options were part of the compensation. To me, she made a good decision and as a result achieved success.  Yet she believes I’m one of the most successful people she knows.  It’s all in the eyes of the beholder. Believe in your journey.
• Embrace New Opportunities.  Sometimes the best opportunities are not what we envisioned. A VP interviewed me for a buying role, then offered me a role in event marketing – something I had never before considered. The initial title and compensation was lower yet I could see the long-term potential of gaining experience in a new area. I accepted the opportunity and my career took off.  Sometimes it pays to be open, take a chance, and drop your ego if you must.
• Engage your network.  Or become engaged, if you’ve lost touch.  This includes connecting with college pals, former colleagues, friends of your parents, family, etc.  Get involved in your local alumni group, industry association, or even social groups to meet new people.  Focus on building a relationship with individuals, especially if you can help them out; not simply connecting with mass quantities of people. There will come a day when you need something – like a job – and the better the relationships, the more likely it is your network will help you.
• Upgrade Your Skills. We all need to learn something new to stay on top of our game.  It’s good for our brains as well as our ability to advance in our careers.  And it’s easy to do.  There are industry events to attend, and plenty of online sites offer a wide variety of affordable webinars and courses (sevendollarcourses.com and Lynda.com, for example).
• Volunteer. You’ll get satisfaction from giving back, as well as make new connections. You never know when either may come in handy. And you can add this to your resume.  

Take one step at a time. The important point is to take the first step, then another and another. By the end of the year you will see progress!