Career Development During the Holidays Series: The New Beginnings Phase

Okay. You’ve socialized. You’ve reflected and planned. What’s next?

Action!

On what?
Internal career development. Job search. Career change. Increasing your profile and personal brand in your market / community. Launching that product or service. Personal development. Personal or family projects. Health. You name it.

Some powerful ideas for getting a strong start to your year:

1. Schedule your year

Major events and milestones. Self-set deadlines for goal achievement. Vacations. Long weekends. Weekly fitness activities. Putting something in your calendar has power.

2. New Year’s Letter

A business, or professional-oriented New Year’s letter can be a great way to get the word out about what you are doing and where you see your market going in 2006. Provide some value. Create a touchpoint with your network and clients.

3. New Year’s Meetings

Follow-up on those meetings you couldn’t schedule during Christmas and book others. Agenda? Kick-off for the year. How can you help. What are they working on. Sharing what your goals and plans are. Works with your network, clients and colleagues.

4. Make Decisions

Have you been procrastinating on making a decision? Career change? Going for a promotion? Starting a new project? Now is a great time to be decisive. Decide yes or no, and then get on with it.

5. Make a Plan

Create a road map for your projects. For your job search. Be clear about next steps. Don’t get stuck at the implementation phase.

6. Take Early Action

Making a strong start to your projects in January / February will create excellent momentum in the first quarter.

7. Remove Roadblocks

Let’s face it. We can have a lot of baggage. Commitments we haven’t delivered on. Unfinished projects. Promises we made but don’t want to keep - with others, and ourselves. My advice is try and clear as much of these as possible. Removing baggage has a powerful way of freeing us up to take on new things. How?

• Decide which you need to follow-up on and which you should abandon, based on your priorities, and take the appropriate action. Perhaps renegotiate some of your deliverables to better fit your current priorities and situation.

• Blitz those that you have committed to completing.

8. Consider Partnering with an Expert

If you aren’t making progress, want to move faster, or want the expertise of a professional, consider getting some help. On your internal career development. Job search. Resume. Career change. Solobusiness. Fitness or financial goals. Investing in ourselves is one of the best investments we can make.

Of course, there are many more ideas. The point of this article, and the previous two in this Career Development During the Holidays Series, is that there is a natural opportunity to make significant strides in your career development during the Holidays.

Happy Holidays!