Decide To Make 2012 Your Best Year!!!

Picture yourself one year from now. It’s January 2013 and you are just coming off your most successful year to date. What do you see?

Promotion? New job? New business venture?

Since ambiguous goals are never achieved, really spend some time analyzing what you want most from your career over the next 12 months.

To get started, sequester yourself in a quiet spot and write down some initial ideas. It may help to get outside your everyday surroundings for this.

Next, add some framework to your vision with the following four steps:

1. Craft a clear statement of what you desire most. Your notes should give you a good 10,000-foot overview of what you hope to achieve this year. Now you need to distill them down to one, actionable sentence. For example, “In 2012, I will get promoted to a senior accountant.”

2. Outline the plan you’re going to use to reach that goal. Don’t be intimidated by the word ‘plan’. A plan is nothing more than a list of activities arranged by priority and sequence.

3. Set a time when you intend to reach your goal.

4. Review and update your plan frequently. This isn’t something you create and file indefinitely. Your career strategy for 2012 should be a working, breathing document. I review my plan constantly, and I’m always making tweaks based on new goals or information. Not only does this keep me focused on the right things, but it’s incredibly convenient to have where I’m going, how I plan to get there, and when I want to arrive all in one place.

Now, what would make 2012 your best year ever?