A career resolution is exactly what it sounds like: a resolution for your career intended to help you grow into a better professional. At Work It DAILY, we believe that you need to work on your career every day (yes, you do, in fact, need to "work it daily"). So, everyone should make a career resolution or two along with those other ambitious personal resolutions. They can be little things like learning a new skill or growing your professional network, or bigger goals like landing a promotion or getting a new job.
But how do you know what kind of career resolutions to make?
You can begin by asking yourself, "Am I where I want to be in my career?" If your answer is "no," you need to take a closer look at your career goals.
Here are five more career questions you should be asking yourself this new year to figure out how to grow your career and become the professional you know you can be.
1. Am I Proud Of My Job Title?
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You could be a janitor or a neurosurgeon, it doesn't matter. If you aren't proud of what you do for a living, there's something missing: passion and purpose.
Career burnout is real, but sometimes it's deeper than that. Our passion at 25 won't necessarily be our passion at 40. And that's okay.
When we are passionate about what we do, we are proud because we are doing what we think is important, what we love doing. We feel a sense of purpose. We are adding value to and making a difference in this crazy world—in a small, but significant way.
Every job is important. No matter what your job title is, if you aren't proud of it, and don't feel like you can leverage your strengths as a professional in the position, you should absolutely change that. Identify that one problem you want to find a solution to and go after it. What are you waiting for?
Remember, the only bad job is the one you aren't passionate about, the one that isn't allowing you to leverage your professional strengths and reach your potential.
If you don't know what your professional strengths are or what kind of work you'd find purposeful and fulfilling, we recommend taking our free career quizzes.
Take the quizzes now to learn your unique combination of professional strengths and how they can help you get better career results so you can be proud of what you do.
2. Do I Feel Secure In My Career?
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This is a bit different from job security. Actually, job security doesn't exist. Every job is temporary. Think you can stay in the same job for decades and then retire? Think again. While that may have been commonplace for past generations, today's workforce and job market are completely different than what they were a decade or two ago.
So what does it mean to feel secure in our careers? When we believe as professionals that we can add value wherever we are.
You are a business-of-one. A company won't want to invest in you if they don't know the kinds of services you provide, the kind of value you could add to the organization, and the problems you could solve for them. Here are some examples of questions that will help you determine if you're secure in your career:
- Are you adding value at your current job?
- Are you honing your skills, expanding your network, and building your personal brand?
- Do you feel confident that if you lost your job, you'd be able to find a comparable one in the same field?
- Do you feel confident you'd be able to demonstrate to potential employers how you add value?
Since every job is temporary, it's extremely important to constantly work on our careers and ask ourselves these questions frequently so we always feel secure in our businesses-of-one.
3. Will I Be Able To Achieve Wealth?
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When most people think of "wealth," they think of dollar signs and anything that you can attach a monetary value to. Our jobs help us build wealth. We're not going to tell you that money isn't important. Of course it is! It allows you to live the life you want to live. In many ways, money equals freedom.
But the truth is, there are other forms of wealth that are more important that you can't attach any monetary value to.
Real wealth comes in the form of family, friends, hobbies, experiences, knowledge, and community. If you don't have these things, money will never fill that void.
So, is your career allowing you to build this type of wealth? The intangible kind? Or are your relationships suffering because of your job? Is your work-life balance nonexistent? Do you have any time to pursue hobbies, learn, or volunteer?
Your career should never inhibit you from achieving real wealth. The best job isn't the one that pays the most. It's the one that pays the bills and gives you enough time to live, too.
4. Do I Have Any Regrets?
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Just asking ourselves this question can be difficult because maybe we don't want to know the answer. Acknowledging that you regret something in your life is the first step to making a change. Guess what? There's still time to chase your dreams!
If you do have regrets, that doesn't mean you haven't been a successful professional. That also doesn't mean you haven't had a good career. You could be the most successful person, but if you never got up the courage to start that business, make that career change, or go back to school, you'll most likely think, "What if?" for the rest of your life.
You'll never know if you don't try. Don't be afraid of failure. Life is just one big experiment, and it's your job to learn from those experiments. That's how you discover what works and what doesn't. That's how you discover what's possible.
And even if you do "fail," that's an incredibly more valuable experience than waiting out the clock on a mediocre career. So, don't give up on your dreams just yet.
5. Can I Reach My Full Potential In This Role? In This Career?
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When we feel like we have more to contribute to society, that's a sign we haven't yet reached our full potential. Do you feel like you're wasting your potential at your current job? Do you think you'd reach your full potential in another career?
Really think about what you want your professional legacy to be. It's a lot harder to get up in the morning when you don't find fulfillment in your work. When it comes time for you to retire, are you going to look back on your career and feel like you could have accomplished much, much more with those 50 years?
Everyone has unique gifts, skills, and expertise. When we focus on developing ourselves as individuals, as businesses-of-one, it's a lot easier to share those things with the world. Give yourself a chance to reach your full potential. If you haven't taken our free quizzes yet, your results will help you do just that. You may be surprised by what you can accomplish.
Before you get back into the same routine at work this year, we hope you take a few minutes to ask yourself these career questions. Listen carefully to how you answer them. You may need to make a career resolution or two.
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By CAREEREALISM Founder, J.T. O'Donnell
Recently, one of our new CAREEREALISM Club members e-mailed me to let me know after one month in our program, she had gotten not one, not two, but THREE job offers. My response? I worked with her to negotiate more money from the job she wanted - and she got it.
I can't twist your arm and force you to try a Career HMO. All I can do is share with you the stories of success our new members are having so you can decide for yourself if it's time you get the support you want and deserve. So, here's her story:
Why did you join the Career HMO?
"I joined CAREEREALISM Club after watching the free "Ace the Interview' video by JT. She immediately had me complete the Interview Prep Tool and then we met over the phone to review and improve my answers. After that, all the interviews turned in my favor. I was a step ahead in interviews because of the help I got from JT and the Career HMO. I had three offers in hand within a month versus 10 months of struggling alone to find a job. I can't be thankful enough to the Career HMO program for such a tremendous boost to my confidence and the job search.I felt worthless just until last month. Now, I feel like I can land any job and ace any interview."
What's your favorite part of the Career HMO?
"The best part of CAREEREALISM Club is the availability of information you need no matter what stage of career you are in. Even though I'm in a new job, I am reading the CAREEREALISM Guidebook to understand my career stage and how to move on to do better in my current job. The best part is, I don't have to search all over the internet for career help. I log onto the Career HMO and there are career coaches who can help with any career question."
Who do you think would benefit most from joining a Career HMO?
"I would say almost everyone, from college grads to highly experienced professionals should use a service like this. Things are changing everyday, even in the job market. It's like the IT industry - you need a pro with a pool of expertise to keep you up-to-date with the changing trends. CAREEREALISM Club acts as one for professionals at all stages, not only job seekers."
How are you using the Career HMO on an on-going basis?
"I started my new job last week, within a month after joining CAREEREALISM Club. Currently, I'm reading CAREEREALISM Guidebook and working on building an effective LinkedIn account with help from the Career HMO tutorials."
We realize the Career HMO is a new concept and can't beg you to join. But...
We can make it worth trying out. Click right to take a FREE tour and learn how you can save $20.00 on a membership. It comes with a 7-day FREE trial (you aren't charged until the seventh day and can cancel before then).
Plus, we offer a 30-day no-questions-asked money-back guarantee.
Who knows? You could be our next success story!
CAREEREALISM.com provides the best career advice from proven career experts on a daily basis. How do you find a job today? You get career and job search help from us! Sign-up today to get our updates daily.The photo for this article is provided by Shutterstock.
