Are you ready for 2025? Are you sure?
Coming off 2024, a most impactful year for the job market and more, we have all the reasons we need to expect another high-impact year, which is what today’s column is about. Of course, the caveat is that we’re entering what most expect will be more turbulent than impactful. which always figures to inject a level of craziness into the equation. Nonetheless, as another page of life is about to turn, we will, as always, proceed with our thinking.
As every year around this time, I field an onslaught of requests from readers for a column on new year’s career resolutions. But here’s my issue: I don’t like resolutions. I like resolution.
Resolutions tend to be transactional, momentary, and fleeting – and most of them don’t make it past January 2. But the good intentions were there (maybe).
We know about good intentions. As Mark Twain observed, “New Year’s Day. Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.”
Besides, if we’re going to make changes, we don’t need the first day of the year to start – for two reasons. First, January 1st gets slammed in the face by January 2nd in a real hurry; and second, there are 364 other days to make the same resolutions, all of which have just about the same life expectancy.
On the other hand, if we stop thinking transactionally and start thinking transformationally, we can build a different mindset. For example, when we ask ourselves what’s really been happening, we realize that this is not just another new year, but a confluence of workplace changes as fundamental as any others in our history, and that includes AI. factory automation, social security, a majority white collar workforce, and globalism. Therefore, resolution – the state of being firmly resolute – leads to a few self-evident realizations, all of which, in turn, compel us to undertake some serious responsibilities. For example:
Commit to lifelong learning.
The only way to keep current – actually, ahead of – 21st century change – is to build learning, both formal and informal, into your career. No career from now on will move forward without continuous improvement. A few years ago, I wrote about a client of mine who embraced that thought, so he and his wife not only signed onto the idea; they decided that each year, they’ll be budgeting for it. Their annual commitment is to take two professional courses per year each. They got – and have stayed ahead of – the game.
Reject inertia; take action and keep moving.
Newton’s first law of motion states that an object at rest remains at rest, and an object in motion remains in motion … unless acted on by an unbalanced [outside] force. Since we’re responsible for our own progress, we must be that force for ourselves, a “preter-Newtonian” concept, for sure, but why not?
Evaluate honestly what has to be done; then don’t skimp.
In for a penny, in for a pound, as the old adage says. And as Ben Franklin said, “An investment in knowledge pays the highest interest.”
When it’s time to act, whatever you have to do, do it now.
“Success delayed is success denied.” Yup: Ben Franklin again. I’ll add: One step in advance is longer than 10 steps to catch up.
When the wind is at your back, keep running hard.
In other words, don’t coast, no matter what the conditions. When times are tough, work hard; when times are good, work harder.
Affirmation and confirmation.
With the above undertakings, we might ask where to start, as they’re all large potential changes in our lives. The answer is to identify one simple step with which to start, so here’s mine: I begin each day with an affirmation: “Today I’m going to…” And then I pick the one or two most important things I’m working on or want to begin, not my whole to-do list, just a couple of critical points. Then, when day is done, I reflect with a confirmation: “Today, I did…” I can’t successfully complete that sentence every day – nobody can – but committing to the conscious effort raises my batting average and drives a lot of successful days, I assure you.
There you have it. Not resolutions. Just resolution.