Ah, the New Year. It’s reflection time for many of us. The year is wrapping up and we start thinking about what our goals are for the coming year. Our resolutions. Lose weight, make more money, save more money, spend more time with family and friends, the list goes on.
Do you make work resolutions too? Not just your performance goals, but true resolutions. How to make your work life better—how to be a better you?
For me last year, it was to make a true lifestyle change. I left a job with a large corporation in search of better work life balance, in search of the ability to really make a difference in an organization. I wanted to use the skills, the hard won lessons, and the experience I’d gained over many years in different client side organizations in a different way.
In taking my ‘leap of faith’ over the last year, it’s brought me a wealth of new contacts, new experiences and new beginnings. I could teach courses on how to network, how to convince your spouse to let you quit (eek), and how to find a place that just “fits.”
A lot of your happiness depends on what your personal values are. What motivates you? What do you need to be happy? Growth? Money? Appreciation? A pat on the back? Location? What I find also effects happiness is how you see happiness and gratitude. One of the best lessons I ever received in business was to assume positive intent. It’s so easy to misinterpret what someone means especially in today’s world of email and text. You can’t always get the meaning from the words. By assuming whatever someone was saying or doing was meant as a positive, it changes how you respond. I work very hard to practice this on a daily basis as a work in progress.
I’m so happy with my work resolution and the changes I’ve made this year. initiate-it really fits me. I’m having a great time, doing good work, and my family appreciates the new me too.
This year my work resolution is about broadening new skills. Learning new industries and thinking about how to apply marketing strategically to meet their goals. My second goal is about staying in the moment. Keeping my laptop down, my phone turned over and my mind on the present conversation. In the digital world I live in, I’m always multitasking and I want to try really “tasking” and staying focused.
What’s your work resolution? Are you ready to set your goal and go for it?
Posted by Lisa Rogerson, the newest member of initiate-it’s team. We’re initiate-it, a full-service agency in Richmond, Virginia. We’re driven to find a better way. Everyday, in everything we do.