May Busch* suggests three things you can do to help your career blossom and flourish in 2020.
How has the New Year started out for you?
I’m asking because I’ve always found this to be an exciting time of year.
One where each of us can make a fresh start.
Where a whole new world lies ahead and there’s everything to play for.
Whether you’re off to a roaring start, feeling underwhelmed, or something in between, this is a natural time to do some thinking and planning for the year ahead.
As my father says: “Chance favours the prepared mind.”
While having a strategy in place is important for achieving big goals, it can feel daunting to do that preparation.
It’s tempting to put it off until later, or to ditch the idea altogether in favour of winging it.
Both are suboptimal if you want to have a great year.
Since I want you to have an awesome year, I’d like to share with you some super simple ways to set yourself up for success.
You can do this without spending lots of time or spinning your wheels.
Here are three things you can do right now to get your career off to a great start in the year ahead.
You’re not alone. I’m putting these to use as well.
Choose your theme for the year.
This can be an overarching theme that will sustain you through the year, like a touchstone.
For example, it could be “the year of the promotion” or “the year of getting your degree”.
Or it could be “the year of living dangerously”, which is the name of a movie.
You can also choose a set of words or phrases that really embody the theme you want to live out for the year.
This could be: “Let’s make everything simple, easy and fun this year.”
In my case, I’m going to choose staying focused as my theme.
One of the big lessons I learned this past year was the need to get and stay focused.
I think it’s going to be a big challenge, but I can’t wait to tackle it.
Identify the three big wins you want to have this year.
Next you need to think about your wins.
I want you to pre-determine and pre-select the three big wins that you want to have this year.
It could be a combination of landing three new clients, or passing an exam you need to pass in order to get to the next level of your career.
Or maybe the third one is getting over your fear of speaking by giving a big talk.
So, think about what your three big wins are going to be.
It’s a more energising way of asking yourself: “What are my three big goals for the year?”
Decide what investment you’re going to make in yourself.
Think about how you’re going to invest in yourself this year.
Think about which exact things you’re going to spend your time, energy, mind-space and money on this year to build your foundation and make you even better.
*May Busch’s mission is to help leaders and their organisations achieve their full potential. She can be contacted at [email protected] .
This article first appeared on May’s blogsite.
