New Year’s Resolutions for your Career

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It’s the start of a brand new year. What better time to take stock of your career, examine your options and set a few goals to keep you on track, or perhaps even change direction. Here are some of our suggestions for some work-related resolutions you could set yourself for 2010.

• Learn, baby learn: whether it’s brushing up on existing skills or developing new ones, it’s never been more important to keep your skills current than it is today. The broader your skill-set the more valuable you are as an employee, and that can deliver all sorts of benefits.
• Embrace technology: technology is reshaping the modern workplace, familiarise yourself with the latest technology and how it’s helping your industry to grow and evolve. Understanding technology and its role in your organisation will help you to do your job more effectively.
• Update the CV: things can change rapidly in todays workplace, and it never hurts to be prepared. While we’d certainly advocate tailoring your CV for specific job applications, having a generic, up-to-date template to work from will save you time, and help you hit the ground running if you do find yourself job-hunting.
• Learn a language: learning a new language can be invaluable if your business puts you in contact with people overseas on a regular basis, but can also be an empowering and life-enriching experience on a personal level… it’s a win-win.
• Get organised: resolve to tidy those files, clear out old e-mails, review your contact list. Re-evaluating your records and clearing out the dead wood is a great way to refocus your priorities and get a bit of perspective as you head into the new year.
• Build your network: establish a personal goal to meet and network with more people on a regular basis. Set yourself a network expansion target of, say, 5 new people each month, and try to stick to it. Expanding your professional network can have all kinds of knock-on benefits. It’s normal to be a little apprehensive at first, but once you get over the initial trepidation meeting new people is fun and productive.
• Read more: pick five key best-selling business books that are relevant to you professionally, and make a point of reading them during the course of the year.
• Make more me time: setting a goal to create more time aside for yourself and your family may seem counterintuitive in a list of resolutions for your career, but feeling more fulfilled outside work will actually have a tremendously positive impact on your career.
• Save more: planning to put more money aside for the future is always a good idea. At the moment that’s a tough proposition for many workers, but we’re getting used to tightening our belts. When the inevitable turnaround comes, and prospects improve, chances are that we won’t miss a little extra cash diverted into our savings every month.
• Look after number one: perhaps its a bit of a cliché, but the concept of a healthy body and a healthy mind is crucial to career success. You can only operate at your peak, at work or at play, if you take care of yourself. Could you eat more healthily, or do more regular exercise? The fitter and healthier you are, the better you’ll perform at work.