The beginning of the year is a time known for reflection, introspection, and renewed ambition. With these tasks often comes the opportunity to evaluate your career goals and set New Year’s resolutions that align with your aspirations.
However, the process of choosing resolutions can be challenging. Many professionals struggle to craft meaningful resolutions that truly reflect their career objectives. Additionally, the pressure to set and achieve these resolutions can lead to feelings of discouragement and overwhelm.
So, how do you choose resolutions that set you up for career success? What challenges might hinder your ability to achieve them, and how can you effectively prevent these obstacles?
In this article, I share:
- The major benefits of setting New Year’s resolutions for work
- Common struggles in keeping resolutions (and tips to overcome them)
- Expert advice on selecting resolutions that pave the way to success
- Strategies for writing practical, achievable career resolutions
- 21+ examples of New Year’s resolutions to inspire you as you craft your own
Benefits Of Setting New Year’s Resolutions For Work
So, why should you set New Year’s resolutions specifically for your career? This process has several benefits, including:
Gain clarity on your career goals.
For starters, setting New Year’s resolutions at work provides a great opportunity to reflect on your career and establish goals for your professional development. The beginning of the year is the perfect time to step back and ask yourself questions such as:
- What do I want to achieve at work and in my career this year?
- What skills do I need to develop to advance my career?
- Are there specific roles or projects I want to pursue?
- How can I better align my daily work with my long-term career goals?
- What support and resources do I need to succeed?
Engage in meaningful self-reflection.
The process of setting New Year’s resolutions offers a valuable opportunity to engage in thoughtful self-reflection as you enter the new year. In the hustle and bustle of daily work, intentional self-reflection often takes a back seat. However, New Year’s resolutions provide a dedicated framework for engaging in this essential practice.
Focus on yourself.
Speaking of which, setting New Year’s resolutions is a chance to prioritize yourself—something that is often overlooked, especially if you’re in a leadership position where much of your focus is on others.
Tip: If you tend to prioritize the development of other people, consider using your resolutions as a chance to practice focusing on your own career growth and personal well-being.
Provide purpose, meaning, and motivation.
New Year’s resolutions can infuse your work life with additional purpose and meaning. This newfound focus can also serve as a powerful source of motivation, especially if you’re feeling uninspired by your current job or career path. As a result, you might consider setting resolutions that aim to make your day-to-day work more exciting or seek inspiration from activities outside of your professional life.
Practice stepping outside your comfort zone.
You may want to use your resolutions as an opportunity to step outside your comfort zone in your career. If you’re up for the challenge, this process can push you to the next level and help you discover what you’re truly capable of achieving. One advantage of setting resolutions compared to other goal-setting methods is that there are typically no significant consequences (other than perhaps personal disappointment!) if you don’t achieve them.
Bolster your confidence.
Setting and achieving New Year’s resolutions can significantly increase your confidence, especially if you set ambitious goals. Simply making progress toward these resolutions, even if you don’t fully attain them, can improve your self-esteem and overall sense of accomplishment. This is because the act of striving for goals reinforces your belief in your abilities and fosters a growth mindset.
Why You Might Struggle To Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions (And Tips For Maximizing Your Likelihood Of Keeping Them)
It’s common to set New Year’s resolutions in January, only to see them slip by the wayside as the months progress. Why is it so hard to stick with your career goals and turn them into reality?
The time of year.
Another major hurdle that can stand in the way of achieving your resolutions is the time of year. While the start of January is a popular time for setting and revisiting goals, it may not be the best time for everyone.
Solution: Don’t feel pressured to set a New Year’s Resolution by Jan. 1 simply because others are doing so. You can establish resolutions at any time throughout the year. What matters most is finding a moment that feels right for you and aligns with your personal circumstances and motivations.
Lack of flexibility in adapting resolutions.
Although setting specific resolutions can help you stay focused and motivated, being too rigid with your career goals can also hinder your ability to fully realize them. It’s common to fall into all-or-nothing thinking, where you feel that you must stick to your exact resolution or else you have failed. However, this mindset can impede your progress.
Solution: If you find yourself struggling to stay on track, don’t be afraid to adapt your resolutions. Adjusting your goals doesn’t mean you’ve failed; it means you’re aware of your evolving circumstances and willing to make necessary changes.
The process of making progress toward your goals can be just as rewarding, if not more so, than reaching the actual goal.
You’re unclear on the “why” behind your resolution.
One of the biggest opportunities I see in goal setting is that this type of planning allows you to slow down and gain clarity on the “why” behind your resolutions. This understanding can really enhance your motivation and commitment.
Solution: You must be clear on the “why” behind your resolution if you want to maximize your likelihood of following through on it. The following questions can help you uncover the motivation underlying your career goals:
- Why is achieving this important to me?
- What will my life look like if I achieve this?
- What will my life look like if I don’t achieve this?
Your goal isn’t exciting enough. (Yawn…)
Another common reason people struggle to follow through with their resolutions is that they simply aren’t exciting or motivating enough. When goals lack inspiration, it becomes difficult to muster the enthusiasm needed to pursue them. After all, one of the primary reasons for setting goals is to ignite motivation.
Solution: Ensure your resolutions are ones that excite you rather than feeling like obligations you “have to” fulfill. If you find yourself lacking excitement about your goals, it may be time to go back to the drawing board and redefine what truly inspires you.
Your goal is too BIG.
I’m a major proponent of setting goals that feel impossible to achieve. However, sometimes a goal can be so lofty that it becomes overwhelming, leading you to feel paralyzed and unsure of where to start.
Solution: If you find yourself with an overwhelmingly ambitious goal, consider breaking down your resolutions into smaller quarterly or monthly objectives instead of trying to tackle one massive goal for the entire year. You can also use the popular SMART framework to articulate your career goals:
- Specific: Is your goal specific enough to provide clear direction?
- Measurable: How will you measure your success? In other words, how will you know you’ve achieved your goal?
- Achievable: Is your goal attainable given your current resources and constraints?
- Realistic: Is this goal realistic based on your experience, knowledge, and skills?
- Timely: What is your deadline for completing the goal?
A caveat: You might also consider setting what I like to call “impossible goals,” or those goals that feel unattainable. Even if you don’t fully reach them, you’ll likely make considerable progress along the way. With the right mindset, plan, and support system, these seemingly impossible goals can become achievable.
Your plan lacks details.
Once you have a clearly defined goal, you want to break it down into actionable steps. Simply envisioning the end state without a roadmap of how to get there can be overwhelming.
Solution: If you find yourself struggling to make progress, consider breaking your plan down into smaller, more manageable steps. You can also complement this with weekly or monthly check-in reviews with yourself or your support system to see how you’re progressing toward your resolutions. Many of my tech clients find it helpful to conduct quasi-scrum meetings with themselves to stay on track toward achieving their career goals:
- Progress: What progress have you made since the last check-in (scrum meeting)?
- Roadblocks: What roadblocks are standing in the way of you reaching your career goals?
- Support and Resources: What support or resources do you need to achieve your goals?
- Action Items: What actions will you complete between now and your next check-in (scrum meeting)?
You lack the proper support and resources.
As you continue to articulate your goals, you may come to realize that reaching your career objectives often requires additional support.
Solution: Take inventory of your current resources and identify what additional support you may need to reach your goals:
- Additional Education & Training: Is it time to invest in additional education, training, or credentialing to support your career ambitions? There are a lot of free resources available online to gain additional experience and strengthen your skills.
- Management’s Support: In what ways might you involve your boss in your goal-setting progress? Consider scheduling regular check-ins to discuss your goals and elicit feedback.
- Mentorship & Sponsorship: How can you leverage mentorship and sponsorship to advance toward your goals? Is there anyone you need to add to your Personal Board of Directors?
- Professional Coaching: Would it be beneficial to invest in a coach to further support you? Many companies allocate professional development funds to employees that reset in the new year, which can be used for coaching.
You’re not ready to change.
Lastly, you may have a clearly articulated goal, a solid action plan, and a great support system but still not be ready for the change needed to achieve the goal—at least at this time. Resolutions often require you to step outside of your comfort zone, and that can be incredibly scary.
Solution: While there are benefits to pushing yourself in your career, you must to listen yourself and recognize when you’ve reached your limits. Remain flexible and adjust your goals to avoid burnout.
A quick story (anonymized, of course): One of my clients secured a final interview for a very senior role with his absolute dream company. However, when the big day came, he realized that he preferred the familiar discomfort of his current employer over the uncertainty of a new position and wasn’t ready to step beyond his comfort zone.
Expert Tips For Choosing New Year’s Resolutions So You’re Set Up For Success
Now that we’ve explored some of the reasons people struggle with resolutions, let’s dive into how to best choose ones that maximize your success.
Reflect on your history of success.
Before diving into new resolutions, take a moment to reflect on your experiences with goal setting. As you choose your resolutions, it can be helpful to reflect on how you’ve approached goals in the past:
- If you consistently exceed your goals, it might be time to set loftier ones.
- If you consistently meet your goals, you’re probably doing a lot of things right and should consider staying the course.
- If you struggle to even get close to reaching your goals, you may want to lower the bar, revisit your plan, or strengthen your support system.
Take inventory of your current obligations.
As you refine your career goals, you also want to consider any additional obligations you may have, both at work and beyond. Many of my clients strive to maintain some semblance of work-life balance while managing responsibilities such as caring for both their children and aging parents, pursuing additional education, and working full-time jobs.
Consequently, you want to ask yourself: How much can I realistically change in a given timeframe, considering all my current commitments at work and in life?
Play to your strengths.
Building upon this reflection, it’s important to recognize that although there’s great value in stepping outside your comfort zone, you’re more likely to succeed if your New Year’s resolutions play to your natural talents and strengths, rather than focusing on overcoming your weaknesses.
How To Write New Year’s Resolutions For Your Career
There are various ways to approach writing your New Year’s resolutions for your career.
Decide on the level of detail.
Some people choose to use a word or affirmation as their resolution, aiming for simplicity and memorability while avoiding getting bogged down in details.
Others prefer a more specific and detailed approach, with a structured plan with actionable steps they can follow throughout the year. As a tech career coach, I often find that my clients benefit from being very structured and detailed when mapping out their career goals, as this mirrors the way they approach work projects. In fact, many of my clients utilize tools like Trello, Asana, Jira, and similar platforms to track their career progress.
Note: While it’s easier said than done, try not to let the process of articulating and mapping out your goals hinder your progress. It can be easy to get caught up in the details of how you’ll achieve your goals and lose sight of the actual work required to move forward.
Focus on what’s in your control.
For regular readers of my job search blog and Forbes column, you know I often emphasize the importance of focusing on what’s in your control if you want to achieve success in your career and life.
The same advice applies to your New Year’s resolutions, since you want to focus on goals that align with what you can influence.
For example, instead of setting a resolution focused on landing a specific job, you might set one that focuses on submitting tailored applications and sending networking messages each week. This allows you to take actionable steps toward your career advancement without worrying about things that are outside your control.
Include your colleagues in the process.
Your workplace can be a great environment for maximizing the likelihood of you achieving your career goals.
If you work on a team, consider involving your colleagues in the process in order to create a natural support system and accountability within the workplace. If you’re a manager, you might wish to provide your employees with an opportunity to write and share their resolutions with the team.
Similarly, if you lead an employee resource group (ERG) or a similar committee, encourage members to develop and share their resolutions with one another. This collaborative approach not only strengthens team relationships but also enhances motivation and commitment to achieving goals.
21+ Powerful Examples Of New Year’s Resolutions For Work And Your Career
Now that we’ve discussed various strategies for setting effective resolutions, I want to conclude by sharing some examples to help you craft your own meaningful goals.
As a career coach, I frequently hear about the aspirations of diverse professionals. Drawing from this inspiration, I’ve compiled a list of powerful resolutions that can guide your career journey:
New Year’s Resolutions For Work
- Show up confidently in meetings and presentations.
- Make a point of highlighting my contributions and accomplishments, even when it feels uncomfortable.
- Be open to new opportunities that enhance my career.
- Step outside my comfort zone to take on projects that challenge my current skills.
- Improve my time management by setting daily goals and conducting weekly audits of my calendar.
- Enhance my public speaking and storytelling skills by joining Toastmasters.
- Strengthen my online brand by updating my LinkedIn profile and regularly posting content on the platform.
New Year’s Resolutions For Leaders
- Create an environment where my team members feel welcomed and empowered.
- Shift from a directive approach to one that encourages collaboration, creativity, and innovation through coaching.
- Learn to trust my team with projects and practice delegating.
- Actively seek feedback from my boss, colleagues, and direct reports.
- Prioritize diversity and inclusion on the team by implementing programs that center the voices of the oppressed.
- Implement a mentorship program that builds our internal talent pipeline.
- Cultivate my leadership skills and network by participating in the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO).
New Year’s Resolutions For Recovering Workaholics
- Incorporate regular breaks into my work day, even when my email inbox is overloaded.
- Stop checking my email after hours and on the weekends.
- Maintain a better work-life balance by returning to my hobbies.
- Engage in regular physical exercise and meditation.
- Make it a priority to use all my paid time off.
- Set boundaries that allow me to leave work at work, including when I’m on vacation.
- Invest in an executive coach to hold me accountable to my goals.
Final Thoughts On New Year’s Resolutions For Your Work And Career
Setting New Year’s resolutions is just one approach to career development. However, this practice is a powerful one if you’re looking to gain clarity, step outside your comfort zone, and bolster your confidence while prioritizing yourself and your professional growth.
You’ll be most successful in achieving your resolutions if you complement them with strategy, planning, and action. Consider setting aside time for regular check-ins with yourself—and with your support system—to ensure you’re consistently working toward the right goals. And don’t forget that it’s completely normal for your goals to evolve over time as you gain new experiences and insights.
On a final note, if you’d like the support of a trauma-informed coach while developing your resolutions and making progress toward your goals, please feel free to schedule a consultation. I’m here for you! You’ve got this!
