Ignore the fact that 85 percent of the people who make New Year’s resolutions break them within the first month. Let’s begin the New Year with optimism and imagine how fantastic it would be if you could find that new job you’ve been dreaming about for decades.
If that goal sounds too intimidating, you may choose to start with smaller more realistic goals. Big or small, let’s agree to make a career resolution that will give you something to work on during these cold winter months. Even if only one out of 10 people are successful, that would be a great triumph for that one person — and that one person could be you.
Stop right now and get your computer or a pen and paper. Writing down your goals makes a big difference. How big? Harvard conducted a study following the success of their graduates over a 10-year period. The 3 percent who had written goals were earning, on average, 10 times as much as the other 97 percent of classmates combined.
Read that sentence again, because this is too important to ignore.
Allow me to describe the results of this study in a more direct manner. Talk is cheap. It’s not enough to dream about what you want to achieve. You have to write it down and make a commitment. Life coaches recommend that you write your goal on a piece of a paper and carry it in your wallet. Hang it on the wall, stick it in your glove compartment … the specific location doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that you are making a commitment to yourself and you put it in writing.
Your career resolution does not necessarily have to be an enormous change in your life. Even small goals can make a big difference in your quality of your life. Here are a few examples:
Arrive at work 10 minutes early and use this time to relax or plan your day. Prioritize the most important tasks you need to complete and schedule a few minutes to take a short walk away from your desk. Read one or two books on mindfulness and learn how to control some of the stress in your life. It sounds like a small change, but co-workers will notice something is different. We can’t eliminate stress from our jobs, but we can control how we react.
If a new job has been in the back of your mind for years, maybe 2017 is the year to make that change. Start with a written plan. Do you need to expand your skills? Where can you get the training? Exactly when will you enroll for the training? Maybe job sharing or shadowing someone within your current employer can jump start your career and create opportunities for internal promotions? Everyone’s resolution is unique and this is one task you can’t delegate. This is your opportunity to imagine what could be and what will it take to make that happen?
I believe career resolutions are important because we spend a third of our lives at work. If you include the time I spend worrying about work, it’s closer to 90 percent of my time.
Here is a proverb: “There are three types of people: Those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who wonder what happened.” If you don’t manage your career you may very well end up wondering what happened. You want to avoid that outcome at all costs.
Career resolutions are a good thing. Writing them down is the most important step between daydreaming and actually taking action. Each January we are given the opportunity to make plans for a better future. Even though the statistics can be discouraging, I believe you’ll sleep better if you at least give it your best effort.
Happy New Year!
Bill Kaminski is president of Stone Associates Training. He is an HR consultant with 35 years of experience in the employment field, teaching managers the art of hiring great employees. Bill is also an adjunct instructor at Keuka College. You can contact Bill with questions, suggestions or comments at www.bill@stoneassociatestraining.com.
