How to Choose and Stick to your 2022 Career Goals

I’ll be the first to say it – Happy New Year! While this may be my second post of the year, I think that it is important to have the discussion of new year goals, resolutions, or plans, whichever you may call them.

It is important to have a set of goals any time of year, but I think that the new year is a great time to start off on a clean slate if you are looking to set your life off in a different direction. Let’s face it, the past few years have been daunting and confusing. While this may be true I have also seen my fair share of career and personal success stories – including one of someone achieving a job they really wanted in my own family which brought about a significant and positive career change.

With this being said let’s look at a few ways you can choose and execute your 2022 career goals.

1. Have a vision – Have a vision you say? It is easy for us to daydream of what we would like, but most of the time that’s all it is, is a daydream. But what if you could achieve that daydream? It is possible and it starts with visualization. In 2021 I took a course on visualization, and we did an exercise where we had to see how far we could turn our arm backwards. It sounds crazy this idea, but just hear me out. The first time we did the exercise I was not able to turn backwards very far. Then the instructor asked us to close our eyes and visualize bringing our arm back even further. We did this and to my surprise I was able to achieve what I visualized in my head.

With this being said, visualize what you want your life to look like. Imagine how it would feel, what you have, where you live, and overall, what you did to achieve this life. Write it down, create a vision board, do whatever makes you feel comfortable to retain that frame of mind. After this write down the goals you have and steps you need to take to get there. If you would like to know more about goal setting check out my blogs on goal setting and strategic planning.

• Discover why you would like to do this – So now that you have made your vision in accordance with what motivates you and possibly set some goals, think about your why, why am I desiring this kind of life? What is appealing to me? Knowing your why can be a step in the right direction to keeping motivated and passionate about what you are doing. Any goal setting and vision execution process is going to have good and bad days. So, this is so important to have a why. So that you can return to your content and remember why you are working to achieve your desired goals and life.
• Keep it fun and don’t be too hard on yourself – Keep your transformation fun, enjoy even the mundane tasks that come your way to make your visualization come true. For example, you want to start a website to promote your products you want to see for a new business adventure. Even find pride in the small things you have to do and the administrative tasks to get your business up and running. These are all a part of the process and keep you one step closer to achieving your vision.

In addition to this, as I mentioned before, there will be hard days. Rather than wallowing in anxiety and allowing yourself to feel down. Think about what you learned from the hard day, and what you would change next time given you encounter this situation.

Working through a life change, even positive ones comes with its own set of challenges. There are new people to get to know. New places to know your way around, and new cultures to explore. You will not know everything right off the top of your head and there will be a learning space that will happen. But this learning experience while working towards your visualization will help you to understand yourself better.