The festivities are all over and maybe you’re suffering the consequences of over indulgence from the past few weeks, possibly regretting eating that last mince pie or two.
Not only do you have that to contend with, you have to drag yourself out of bed on these cold, dark January mornings to go and do a job that is not filling you with excitement.
If this is you, now is a good time for you to do a career detox. The New Year is a good time to detox your body and rid it of all the impurities that have built up so that you feel invigorated and bursting with energy to get through the year ahead.
Why not do the same with regards to your career and rid it of the things that have built up over the past year (or years) causing you to dread getting out of bed on these cold, dark January mornings.
The following recipe will help you to feel more energised about how you will approach your career in 2018.
Career Detox Recipe
Serves 1
Ingredients
- 1 notebook
- 1 pen
- A quiet comfortable location
- Soft calming background music (optional)
- 1-2 hours of your time
- A reflective mind
- 1 cup of tea (can be substituted with coffee, juice or water)
Method
Preparation time 10 mins; cooking time 1-2 hours
- Allocate 1-2 hours of your time in your diary. At the said time, take the note book and pen, go and sit in the quiet comfortable location with your cup of tea (or substitute). Switch on the soft calming background music (optional). Switch off all phones and electronic devices. Relax and develop a reflective mind.
- Use the following questions to increase your self awareness about how you view your career; how you feel about it; what you want for your career and what you can do about it.
Reflections on 2017
- What were the highlights of my career during 2017? How do I feel about these highlights?
- What did I do well in 2017? How do I feel about these successes? What do I need to do to have more of this?
- What didn’t go so well in 2017? How do I feel about this? What could I have done differently?
Relationships
Colleagues
- How were my relationships with my colleagues?
- How much do I enjoy working with them?
- What support do I need from my colleagues?
- What can I do to improve relationships with my colleagues?
Manager
- How is my relationship with my manager?
- What views/ideas that I have put forward over the past year have been taken on board?
- How much support do I get from my manager? What further support do I need? How can I ask for this?
- What pressures may my manager be under that I am not aware of?
- What can I do to improve our relationship?
Direct reports (for those in management roles)
- How is my relationship with my team(s)?
- How motivated are they in their work?
- How interested am I in their personal development and how do I express this?
- How am I supporting them with their personal development?
- How much autonomy do they have?
- How do they view me? How approachable do they find me:
- What views/ideas that they have expressed over the past year have I taken on board? Where I have not taken their views/ideas on board, how have I expressed the reason for not doing so to them?
- How can I better support them?
Personal Development
- What areas do I want to develop in 2014
- What support/resources do I need in order to do this?
- How will I go about getting that support?
- What needs to happen for me to enjoy my work/ feel fulfilled with what I do; feel satisfied with my job and to feel motivated?
Taking your responses to the questions, spend some time reflecting over them, examining your thoughts and feelings about what it is that you need to do and what support you need in order to do it. Finally, make a plan to apply this in 2018.
Why not try and add your goals to your personalised Goal Setter here on Careers Club? – CLICK HERE
Author Bio:
Carol Stewart, The London Career Designer, is a Personal Development, Career & Business Coach and founder of Abounding Solutions. She works with women in their forties who are unhappy at work but are too scared to do anything about it. She helps them to develop the confidence to make a career move and find something that they love. This could be a complete career change or it could even be exiting the corporate environment and setting up their own business.
Carol herself made a significant career change in 2011 when at the age of 44 she left the organisation she had worked in for 28 years, went back to university and set up her own business.
She is also a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management and a Member of the Association for Coaching.
Carol’s free ebook ‘5 Steps to Pursuing Your Passion at Mid-Life – A Guide to Designing a Career You Love’ can be downloaded at http://aboundingsolutions.com/ .