As we begin the new year, it’s only natural to want to set new goals and objectives for your career journey. Career resolutions are important to focus on when you want to align your professional aspirations to your personal values, interests and skills. How you approach your career goals for the year will help set the tone for your professional growth.
Reflecting on your experiences, identifying your vision and taking the time to set actionable goals will help you stay confident and shape your career journey with successful outcomes.
7 Tips to Help You Evaluate Your Career Goals
Follow along for insightful tips to help you evaluate your career goals for the new year.
Tip #1: Identify your long-term vision
You will need to think about where you want to be in your career journey five to ten years from now. Do you want to move into a leadership role? Are you looking to break into a new industry? Or do you want to build your skill set in a specific area of expertise?
Having clear objectives that contribute to a long-term vision is the first step in setting career goals. Focus on your strengths and explore your interests if you are unsure of your goals. This will help you clarify what you are looking to achieve.
Tip #2: Reflect on achievements and your current role
Take the time to reflect on your achievements in the past year and use what you learn to further your growth and identify areas of improvement. You can evaluate your past projects, awards, skills gained and anything else that has led you to where you are in your career.
By reflecting on your achievements, you will gain a sense of pride and confidence and see your strengths and progression more clearly.
Tip #3: Set SMART goals
The SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time-bound) framework is a great guide for setting goals. This framework helps you ensure your goals are clear and actionable instead of having a vague approach.
For example, while your goal in the next year may be to get a promotion, reframing the goals to include projects you will take on and skills you will develop within a set timeframe will help you achieve this goal in a more realistic way.
Tip #4: Focus on opportunities
As mentioned, learning new skills or focusing on improving a skill are great goals. Developing new skills can open doors to opportunities to advance your career.
Identifying any gaps or opportunities for improvement can help you set actionable goals to progress in your career.
Tip #5: Be open to feedback
As we work on ourselves, it’s important to be open to feedback that can give you an outside perspective on your strengths and areas for growth. Talk to your mentors, managers, colleagues and anyone else you trust to give you feedback on your performance and areas where improvement might be needed.
Questions such as, “What are my greatest strengths?, “Where can I improve or grow? and “What opportunities should I pursue?” will all help provide the insight you need.
Tip #6: Stay flexible
While you can plan and set goals, life happens, and things can change. Challenges or even new opportunities may arise when you least expect them, and this is the time when you need to try to stay flexible and adapt to any changes happening.
This doesn’t mean you need to abandon your vision, it just means you need to change your goals slightly to align with evolving circumstances.
Tip #7: Celebrate your wins!
Goal setting takes time, so it’s important to celebrate all the progress you have made – big and small!
Learning a new skill, taking on extra challenges and putting yourself out there are all reasons to celebrate and will act as a reminder to keep going.
