What's your New Year's resolution?

I hope you had a wonderful (and restful) holiday weekend! After a few days off, things will begin to get back into a routine soon. But, before they do, this is the perfect time to put together a 2016 New Year’s game plan.

What resolutions will you make this year? In 2015, Nielsen reported the top ten New Year’s resolutions were:

Stay fit and healthy
Lose weight
Enjoy life to the fullest
Spend less, save more
Spend more time with family and friends
Get organized
Will not make any resolutions
Learn something new
Travel more
Read more

One thing that can influence many of these resolutions is career success. When you’re happier at your job, you tend to enjoy life more. When things are going well at work, it’s also easier to save — and often, to travel and spend time with loved ones.

But, when work is out of balance, everything can really be out of whack. In fact, a psychologist recently revealed to me that the majority of her patients often report the source of their unhappiness and stress to be work related.

If you can relate, it might be time to re-evaluate your 2016 plan. What are the things you don’t like about your current situation? What do you like? And, what would you like to change?

Begin to reflect on how various factors like money, vacation, and stress play into your priorities. What you may find is that your priorities shift over time. What was important ten years ago may no longer be important today.

Based on what’s important to you, begin to develop a list of steps you can take to pursue a different career. And, whatever you do, the list should not begin with “apply online.” Sadly, one of the biggest misconceptions about finding the perfect job is that applying online is an effective way to find a job. Don’t get me wrong, lightening does strike once in a while. But, it’s not something to count on.

Your plan should include:

Look for opportunities to join networking organizations
Perfect your elevator pitch
Identify other types of jobs of interest
Research companies you want to target
Introduce yourself to people you don’t know — who have interesting careers or work at companies of interest

And, most of all, put the fear of failure out of your mind. So often, when we’ve gotten a new job, it’s been because a hiring manager contacted us. It’s less frequent that we are proactively in charge of our careers. And, therefore, the rejection we may face when venturing out can be tough at first. Just know that it’s very normal to get a number of nos before you get a yes. This happens to even the best candidates.

But, if you can be resilient and continue to push yourself, you will find that your resolutions will result in a very different (and happier) 2016.

I hope these tips have helped you. Visit CopelandCoaching.com to find more tips to improve your job search. If I can be of assistance to you, don’t hesitate to reach out to me here.

Also, be sure to subscribe to my Copeland Coaching Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher where I discuss career advice every Tuesday! If you’ve already heard the podcast and enjoy it, please consider leaving a review in Apple Podcasts or Stitcher.

Happy hunting!