Introduction
The end of the year is a good time to slow down and take stock of your career; where you’ve been, what you’ve accomplished and where you’re heading. It’s a perfect time to reflect on your career plans and personal priorities. What have you accomplished? What needs to be finished or reinvented? What are your successes and your disappointments? What new challenges lie ahead for you and your organization? What new goals do you want to set? What innovative ideas are on your horizon? What do you want to achieve in 2014? December is a time to look back, to look at the present, and to design for the future.
New Goals and Passion
No matter how many times you’ve heard the same thing, it’s worth repeating. Taking charge of your career is your responsibility. The end of one year is a good time to design for the next year. Don’t leave it up to others to make career decisions for you. Take charge of your career and life! For example, many who lost their jobs were totally unprepared for the recession. For others, the recession presented opportunities to kick-off plans and projects they had set in motion over past years. For example, an IT specialist for a real estate firm said, “When the bottom fell out of the housing market, half my department received pink slips. I knew it would be only a matter of time before I joined the ranks of the unemployed so I quit and opened up an on-line gadget business that I’d been dreaming about for a few years. I’d been working in my garage to develop a device to charge cell phone batteries through kinetic energy. It took two years to get the business up and running, but now I am making more money than before and have never been happier.” Recession, Threat or Opportunity? Dave Collins, http://www.davetalks.com/articles/surviving-the-recession.htm
Of course, taking stock of your career and your future can be a daunting experience. The unvarnished truth of self-assessment opens doors leading to both opportunities and challenges. Many people understand the need for change, but remain frozen in place. Don’t be afraid to move forward to meet your goals and live your passion. No matter which Zodiac Sign or Birth Star you’re under, your horoscope in December reads: “Don’t be afraid to move toward your important goals this new year and live your dreams. Opportunities and challenges walk hand in hand, but even the longest journey begins with a first step.”
What's Your Passion?
What are you passionate about? What are your passions and goals for 2014? What’s most important for your future? Is it learning, health and well being, community, work and career, social relationships, family, or home?
My passion and goals for 2014 center around two projects. First, it’s to raise moral consciousness by fostering meaningful conversations between parents and children through the Wonder Kids Cards™ project.
The Wonder Kids Cards™ (
www.wonderkidscards.com) contain questions and situations that draw attention to 11 moral principles or values, such as, gratitude, kindness, generosity, love, awe, intentionality, forgiveness, etc. My second passion is to learn as much as I can about the causes and possible adaptations and mitigation brought on by Climate Changes. My goal is to develop, test and finalize a presentation for the League of Women Voters in Palm Beach County, to draw attention to the environmental plight of Florida. We are building coalitions to support the Action Plan for the four contiguous counties in Southeast Florida for the next ten years.
Have a Plan to Bring Your Passion to Life
To reach any goal, you need a plan. Set realistic short-term goals that provide several alternative approaches to achieving your long-term objectives. For example, I see a growing epidemic of greed and lack of moral consciousness in many parts of our world. It’s increasing at an alarming rate. How can we reduce this trend of greed and lack of moral consciousness? Character building needs to start early. Instilling principles of morality is an important part of child rearing. How do you foster meaningful conversations with your children without sermonizing? Researching the issue, I realized that little children and early teenagers love to play card games with their parents. So my colleague from Scotland, Fiona Blackie and I created a deck of cards and guidebook to foster conversations about critical moral principles. Our goal for 2014 is to develop a marketing strategy to bring
Wonder Kids Cards™ (
www.wonderkidscards.com) to thousands of parents, teachers and children.
What's Your Passion and Your Plan?
The end of the year is a good time to make a list of your interests and come up with something you would love to do and excel at. Of course, it’s always easier to look back at the road we’ve traveled than see the turns and twists in the road ahead of us. But don’t let that deter you. Take our Take our
TWENTY YEAR JOURNEY® and start setting your work and life goals for the years ahead.
Look in the mirror and see what you’ve already created and what’s missing in your life. Make the necessary changes to have the life you really want. If you take responsibility for change, change will happen. Always remember, the longest journey begins with the first step.
Summary
December is a time to look back, to look at the present, and to design for the future. Take charge of your career. Use some of your Holiday time to make a list of your interests and determine how you can spend more time doing what you love and living more of your dreams. Start with a plan. Set some realistic short-term goals and action steps that move you toward your long-term objectives. Don’t leave it up to others to make career decisions for you. Don’t be afraid to move toward new goals so that you are working at something that excites you.
Make 2014 the best year yet!
About the Author
Caela Farren, Ph. D., is Founder and President of MasteryWorks, Inc., - a leading Career Development consulting organization offering innovative solutions to large and mid-size companies, including Bayer, Baylor Health Care, Brown Forman, CapitalOne, Northrop Grumman, Reebok, Sprint, Sandia National Labs and Sodexo. MasteryWorks, Inc. provides enterprise web portals, training, consulting, e-Learning, and an assessment framework for employees and managers. For more than thirty-five years, Dr. Farren has been a passionate leader around complex issues redefining the workplace. She envisioned the current workplace climate fifteen years ago, when she published a cornerstone compendium on career development, “Who’s Running Your Career: Creating Stable Work in Unstable Times” (Bard Press, 1997). Through MasteryWorks, Inc., she oversees solutions that create the foundation for impact-filled “career conversations” - centered on increased contribution, performance, and fit. She is a leading authority of strategic approaches which consistently deliver employee engagement and retention goals for her clients.
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