How can you make 2022 a great year for your career?

Well, the first place to start with this stuff is your mindset and understanding that you have the ability to shape your career in the next 12 months. Nobody else can do it for you, although as we will discover later other people can help you along the way.

 

Your mindset gives you inspiration and confidence and allows you and encourages you to take the actions you need to take.

 

So, with all that said here are 4 actions you can take to have a great 2022. 

 

Firstly, it’s important to …

 

1.  Design your year

 

Your career and how it turns out is not pre-determined, you have the ability to shape what happens next, in this new year and in the rest of your career. So, you can do this by ‘designing your year’.

 

Steven Pressfield, the author of Turning Pro and The War of Art, said that ‘most of us have two lives: the lives we live and the lives we are capable of living’

 

You get the idea, you get to decide on the direction of your career and life and the things you do thereafter influence the outcome.

 

So, what’s important to you in your career? Think here about your values. Think big picture as well as some of the smaller things.

 

What do you want to learn in the coming year?

 

What projects or other work do you want to spend more time on in 2022?

 

Where is it time for you to take the next step in your career? What skills do you need to do that?

 

And finally …

 

What support do you need to move forward in your career? 

And,

 

Where will you get that help? 

 

Now I want you to make a list of the things that you want in your job or career this year, based on your answers to, or reflections on, these questions.

 

Write your ideas down.

 

Review and refine your ideas. 

 

And whilst I’m not a big fan of SMART for goal setting – it’s overused as a concept and underused as a useful framework; it can be very helpful to be more specific with designing your year.

 

Can you be more specific about what you want to do?’ 

 

Do some further refinement of your list. Make your goals more specific if you can. 

 

And then, looking at your list again,

 

Are these things on your list, your job and career aspirations for this year, attractive? Are they things and outcomes you really want? If not, can you re-word them to make them more attractive?

 

If the goals are challenging that’s a good sign, but it’s also vital that they are attractive.

 

 

 

Ok, let’s move on to the second action …

 

The second thing is …

 

2.  Professional development

 

Professional development - the continued learning, training and education, keeps you up to date on current trends as well as helping you to develop new skills for the purpose of advancement at work.

Developing yourself professionally allows you to take control of your career, map a future that fits with your developing needs and ultimately work in a job, or series of jobs, that bring you satisfaction and suitable rewards.

Of course, the professional development topics most appropriate for you will be unique to your role, industry and your current situation. 

 

IT skills, people skills, budgeting, and project management are just a few of the subjects available for you to study. Many of these subjects can be studied online through for example LinkedIn learning or even YouTube.

 

Make a list of the professional development you can undertake this year to get the best of out of your career in 2022.

 

Ok, so when it comes to having a great 2022 in your career, so far we have …

-       One, Design your year and

-       Two, develop yourself professionally

And the 3rd action is …

 

3.  Refresh your connections 

 

A strong network helps you in several ways and is the next action I want to talk about. In 2022 having a network of individuals who can help you and support you is tremendously beneficial. There are many ways that your network can help you this year including:

 

-       Supporting you in your existing role, helping you with a problem for example

-       Connecting you to other people that can help you

-       Helping you to find new career opportunities

-       Helping you to build your skills and knowledge, you can learn from your connections

-       Providing recommendations and references and of course,

-       Boosting your confidence when you feel supported

 

 

It’s also worth mentioning mentoring relationships as these can be extremely supportive in your career. Having a strong bond with an experienced professional in your field helps you to learn and grow. You benefit from their experience helping you to boost your performance at work.

 

 

 

So the action here is to strengthen your professional connections and if you don’t already have one seek a mentor to support you in your career.

 

Ok, that leads us on to the final action …

 

And the final action is …

 

4.  Boost your confidence 

 

I’ve talked about this before, how confidence is the positive motivational energy you need to extend yourself at work and in your career. The elixir that makes it easy to apply for new jobs, speak to your boss about a pay raise or even take steps to change jobs completely. When this confidence is absent it seems like all these things are beyond you. Like there is some invisible force field preventing you from progressing in your career.

 

Confidence is a state of mind of course and although there is no ‘magic switch’ that you can flip to create this state of mind there are some things you can do to generate confidence. 

 

The first thing is to remind yourself of the journey you have taken, your achievements to date and all your strengths. Think about the occasions that you have felt confident and reflect on what it was about those situations that made you feel that way. Draw strength and confidence from the progress you have made and let go of any limiting beliefs you may have about yourself and what you believe you are capable of.

 

Remember also that confidence isn’t something fixed which you have or you don’t have. It’s something you can create and develop. You do this by developing intention for your job and career (discussed in step 1), by developing new skills (discussed in step 2) and by building and refreshing your connections (discussed in step 3).

 

 

So the action here is to remind yourself of the journey you have taken, your achievements to date and all your strengths. Draw strength and confidence from the progress you have made and let go of any limiting beliefs you may have about yourself and what you believe you are capable of.

 

And, always remember, it’s not ‘I need to be confident to take action', but rather ‘I need to take action to be confident’.

 

What are the actions you need to take today to boost your confidence and make 2022 a great year for your career?

So, there you have it, the 4 actions you can take to make 2022 a great year for your career.

-       Design your job and career the way you want it

-       Make personal development a priority in 2022

-       Refresh your connections, and finally

-       Take action to boost your confidence

 

 

 

Your call to action today is to:

 

Review these actions and get started today with one action today to get started making 2022 a year to remember for your career.

If you need help from a professional coach, reach out to me and let's have a FREE 45-minute chat. I can support you to make the leap into a more enjoyable role.