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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One of my favorite quotes is your success can be no greater than your plans are sound. Sadly, though, too many of us “fly blind” in our lives and our careers.
I should know.
For a long time – eight years to be exact – I did the same thing. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do professionally, so I just took opportunities as they came to me. I thought I was happy. I had a job I enjoyed at a boutique communications firm and I was making decent money.
Things were going well, right?
Perhaps on the outside. But the truth was I couldn’t shake a nagging feeling something was missing in my life. That I was supposed to do more…something BIG… if only I could figure out what it was. I felt like I had this fireball of ambition growing, but absolutely nowhere to channel it. So I just sat back and let life happen to me for way too long.
But then something did happen. (Unplanned and unforeseen by me of course… )
I changed jobs and went to work in an organization more than a hundred times larger than the communications firm. And after a few weeks of settling in to corporate life, someone asked me a question I’ll never forget.
“Have you filled out your career plan yet?”
Huh? My previous job, while quirky and fun in its own right, was simply too small and understaffed to have “career plans” for its employees, so I’d never been exposed to the concept. Once I found a copy of the plan, however, it was a total “light bulb” moment.
“This is the framework that will help me find FOCUS in my career.”
Hallelujah! [Insert audio of angels singing and clouds parting.] After almost a decade in the workforce, I finally had a document that would help me identify my goals and act on them. It was a turning point in my success and, now, I want to give YOU the tools to create your own career plan so you can truly get organized, get motivated, and get what you want. So I hope you’ll join me for a free CAREEREALISM webinar where I’ll show you step-by-step how to:
- Identify your goals
- Transform them from “wishful thinking” into serious action
- Track your progress along the way
Regardless of whether you’re in a large corporate environment, a small office, or work for yourself, a proactive approach to your career will help you achieve long-term success – and this session is full of all the information you need to get started. Don’t make the mistake I did and allow days to turn into years with no clear direction in your career. Sign-up now for a jam-packed hour that will help you hone in on your priorities and inspire you to take action to achieve them.
Remember: Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.
Note: This webinar has already occurred. If you are interested in learning more on this topic, please e-mail Emily at ebennington@msn.com.
Emily Bennington is the co-author of "Effective Immediately: How to Fit In, Stand Out, and Move Up at Your First Real Job," a book written with her own post-college boss and mentor. Emily teaches a graduate-level course on professionalism and is passionate about helping career newbies become emerging leaders.The photo for this article is provided by Shutterstock
