No, not Resolutions! It’s Time for Revelations
Author: Athira Premarajan
Coping from the catastrophes that the previous couple of years had given, 2022 was a breather for all of us. Offices adopted hybrid models of work, vacation spots opening, and virtual events turning in-person were all the given gifts of 2022. Now, what’s coming in 2023? How about we do some revelations instead of resolutions this time, and get ready for a prosperous 2023?
Research says, on an average only 9 to 12% of people keep their New Year’s resolution live until the end of the year. So as jingle bells descend and New Year hopes light, it’s time for you to reveal your plans for the upcoming year. As in Proper Practical Plans! To enable an effective plan and a productive outcome ahead, it is important that it is mapped well, to deliver the expected results at every milestone that we plan to par.
- Review past year
Just as you look back at your happy hours and reminisce about your accomplishments, it is important to glance at the areas that did not work out for you. It is a very important, in fact, the initial step towards straightening out things in the upcoming year. In a professional context, this helps in calibrating your career growth at a standard pace where you know the ups and downs, what works, and what doesn’t. Especially, what doesn’t work helps you in planning the future steps in accomplishing your target whatsoever it was.
- Reflect on the learnings
Once you are done reviewing, it is time to reflect on the learnings received from it. There will be improvement areas and a list of things that went well. Reflect on the skills you lacked while you embarked on that important project, reflect on the time you spent on a task that was supposed to take much lesser time than you did, reflect on the steps you took to publish such an article that garnered so many positive reviews and reposts, and so on. Not only self-assessment, but also seek feedback from your manager or colleagues for working out a new you. Ensure to contact trusted acquaintances who can provide you with a critical but honest opinion of you, that will help you in your professional as well as personal growth and development.
- Record Action points
Reflection should further lead to action, basically, actioning of goals that you set for yourself. Setting your goals with clarity and precision can help you achieve them. The Goal-setting theory put forward by Edwin Locke (in 1960) clarifies how goal-setting can essentially improve task performance. Further, the goals should have micro goals that direct towards the main goal. Accomplish these micro goals ritually so that the big goal becomes easy to grasp. Having micro gaols also helps in easy tracking of your progress, which motivates you, giving you a sense of accomplishment at every point of your goal achievement journey.
With that, hope you can outline your 2023 with clarity. The most important aspect to remember is that you must enjoy the process you are embarking on. In the review stage, print out a few photographs of your award night, in the planning stage, have a colourful vision board ready, and so on. Enjoy the process whilst you accomplish your goals!
