5 Career Goals to Set For Yourself Before the End of the Year

With us down to the last quarter of the year, this is a good time to take stock of the goals we can create for the few months ahead.

Here are 5 commitments you can make to yourself with the intention of tackling them before the year ends.

1. Acquire a skill outside of your comfort zone

We often gravitate to things we’re good at. Year after year, we can rack up learning experiences in skills we actually love, leaving the trickier stuff for another day. These last three months of the year, let’s commit to start some learning around the things a little outside of our comfort zone.

For example, you can take up a class to enhance your public speaking skills or soft skills such as time management. This will put you at a better place in your career come next year

2. Ask for that raise

Have you always wanted a salary increase but feared to ask for it? With performance reviews in tow, take this time to show all the impact you have created in your role this year, and ask for that raise!

It is all about documenting your success and regularly communicating your value to management. You can do it!

3. Think about your next career chapter

This is the perfect amount of time to start charting some actual action items against a new role you’d like to explore. Might it be at a new company? Look at LinkedIn and hitting up industry conferences to meet new people in your field. Inside your current organizations? Start some informational interviews and see if you can hook up with a new department on a joint project.

A new role doesn’t have to be immediately on the horizon to make these moves. In fact, the more social capital you’re able to build up with people over time, the easier it will be to jump to a new position exactly when you’re ready. These small steps over time are the very things that position you for all kinds of unexpected opportunities.

4. Learn to have hard conversations with co-workers

We all have that one co-worker we avoid. Maybe they’re not pulling their weight on a team project, or perhaps they’re just generally difficult to deal with. Over the next three months let’s promise to add to our emotional intelligence toolkit and pick up some skills for how to have hard conversations.

5. Fit your career in your life, not the other way around

And last, but arguably most importantly, let’s promise to not make our work world our whole world. While our jobs should be exciting enough to get us out of bed every day, our lives are made of so much more. Over these next few months, recommit to the mindset that your job is just one of the many pieces of your life that add up to who you are.