If you’ve already decided 2023 is going to be the year you grow your career, you may now be trying to soak in as much as you can about the subject. So, without any further ado, here are eight ideas for you to consider that will take your career to the next level.
Have a Clear Goal in Mind
Growing your career will be much easier if you have a very clear, SMART goal in mind. It will help you focus on the key tasks and help you manage your time better. Know that you won’t be able to do it all this year. Set your priorities and timelines, and don’t stray off that well-planned path.
Identify Your Weaknesses
You may already have spent a significant amount of time considering what your strengths are. If you haven’t yet shown the same consideration to your weaknesses, now is the time to do so.
Note that you don’t, by all means, need to start working on them right away. For now, it will suffice to understand what can potentially trip you up and which tasks or goals to avoid for the time being.
Consider Readily Available Growth Opportunities
Take a look around you and figure out what opportunities are available practically instantly. Is there a course you can attend? Is there a promotion option available at your current company? Do you know someone who works for the company you would like to transition to?
Before you start casting a wider net, take a look at what’s right in front of you. You may be so focused on your current job and trying to find a better opportunity that you fail to spot when it’s already presented itself.
Learn a Valuable Skill
Figure out what skill you could start working on immediately that will help you achieve the career goal you’ve set for yourself. For example, you might find that learning Spanish is very useful if you want to branch out to a Spanish-speaking market.
Make sure that the skill is directly related to the goal. While it would be fun to enhance your creativity and improve your drawing skills, leave it for a later time if you’re currently not looking for a role in design.
Figure out What Motivates You
Motivation is an often underrated element of growth and success. If you’re not sure why you’re doing something, if you don’t have something pushing you to overcome all the inevitable hurdles, you won’t get there as soon or as efficiently as you could have.
Find that one thing that kindles your fire. Maybe you want to make a name for yourself, maybe you want to earn a certain amount, or maybe you want to be able to tell yourself you’ve worked hard at the end of the day. Remind yourself of your reason whenever it gets tough.
Get Ready to Leave Your Comfort Zone
As PT Barnum would put it, comfort is the enemy of progress. In order to grow, you need to be uncomfortable, and you need to actively seek out uncomfortable situations.
This will be an everyday challenge. You will feel anxious, miserable, and nervous, and there will be countless times when you want to give up. However, by learning how to leave your comfort zone, you will find yourself looking back one day amazed by the progress you’ve made.
Learn to Say No
Opportunities will arise along your journey that will appear appealing but that won’t ultimately align with your end goals. When this happens, you need to know how to say no and not look back.
You can’t possibly make the time for everything you want to do in life at the same time. This is why prioritizing and ensuring that you understand what you are chasing in the near future is so important.
Simplify Your Day
It is estimated that we make 122 decisions a day. Some of them are less important, while others will impact your career growth. In order to eliminate decision-making fatigue, eliminate as many decisions as you can.
Create a weekly capsule wardrobe, plan your meals ahead, set up a specific workout routine: anything that helps you focus more on making those big, important decisions instead of the small, insignificant ones.
Wrapping Up
Kudos for choosing to grow your career this year! Hopefully, our tips will help you achieve your goals faster and accompany you on your journey to greatness.