The #1 Best Gift For Your Career This Holiday Season!
By Christie Mims. Posted on .
It's the holiday season (yay! This girl *me* loves some Pink holiday corporate cocktails!), and you are probably thinking a few things:
1. I should be paid more - will I get a bonus?
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2. I can just sort-of ... slide downhill. Take some calls, avoid some clients, and focus on the holidays parties (and avoiding my family). Now is the time to online shoe shop!
3. I'm too busy to think about my next career move! (But reviews are kind of stressing me out - I need that bonus!)
You are buying gifts for family, friends, and office white elephants...but what gift are you giving to your career?
Have you thought about what it will feel like to wake up on January second yet? When you think about it do you immediately recoil in dread when the thought of "Ugh...I have to go back to work" creeps in?
And then feel tired?
It kinds of destroys the holiday cheer, no?
Well, I have a solution.
Maybe it's time to give yourself the gift of a career strategy for 2013. "What is that?" You ask with excitement :). Well, step one is to take a night off from the parties, the hustle, and holiday frenzy, and pour a glass of wine and spend some time thinking about your career.
STEP ONE:
The first think I want you to think about is what you do out of habit, and what you do out of necessity. For instance, we often check our blackberries or iphones out of habit, not necessity. And then we waste time worrying and stressing about stuff that doesn't matter all that much (right then). Has that ever happened to you? You are out at a dinner, doing something fun, you see someone reach for the iphone so you do and then....
...Stress. Anxiety. Overwhelm, and needless business results. So, make a list of the things in your career that you are doing out of habit, and make a list that you are doing out of necessity. And then see where you can get some more time, and what you can let go.
STEP TWO:
Figure out your big career goal for 2013. What is the one big thing that you are going to do for your career. Get a promotion? Get some training? Change jobs? Get a raise?
Decide on that, that one thing you really want for next year and circle it.
Then create your five musts to get there - so, if getting promoted is your big goal - then your five musts might be:
a) Believing that you deserve it/are ready for it (this is often an important step that many people forget!)
b) Getting your support team together. Who's going to cheerlead and practice with your? (A coach? A friend? Family?)
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c) Get your success "talk list" going. What accomplishments have you taken on that are a big deal? What are you doing that makes a promotion a no-brainer?
d) Get your "next big project plan" rolling. What is that next thing or responsibility you need to take on to make this promotion happen for you?
