The festivities are all over and maybe you’re suffering the consequences of overindulgence from the past few weeks, possibly regretting eating that last mince pie or two.
Not only do you have that to contend with, but you also might be feeling like 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.
Many people find that the New Year is a good time to detox their body and rid it of all the impurities that have built up so that they feel invigorated and bursting with energy to get through the year ahead.
Why not do the same with your career? Rid yourself of the thoughts and feelings 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 2023.
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 2022
- What were the highlights of my career during 2022? How do I feel about these highlights?
- What didn’t go so well in 2022? How do I feel about this? What could I have done differently?
- What did I do well in 2022? How do I feel about these successes? Who did I tell about my successes and achievements?
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?
- How can I better support 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 better our relationship?
Direct reports
- How was my relationship with my team(s)?
- How motivated are they in their work?
- How engaged are they?
- 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 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 inclusive have I been and what evidence do I have to support this?
- How have I shown them that I appreciate them?
- How can I better support them?
Personal Development
- What areas do I want to develop in 2023?
- What support/resources do I need in order to do this?
- How will I go about getting that support?
- What do I want to do less of in 2023?
- What do I want to maintain as it is in 2023?
- 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.
Visualise how you want your year to be and what you want to have achieved by the end of December. You may find creating a visual representation (such as a vision board) very empowering. Finally, make a plan setting out what action you will take to make it happen.
Happy New Year and happy cooking!
What are your reflections on 2022 and what are you most proud of?
First published on LinkedIn.
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