Now that the dust has cleared a bit from 2020, you may be exhaling and thanking your lucky stars that you’re (finally) moving on to a new year.
But are you?
In speaking with my peers, many have expressed feeling a kind of residual professional “hangover” from last year, still a bit foggy and slow-moving. Or worse, determined to attempt a return to normalcy (whatever that means), they go back to what they always did and wonder why they’re experiencing what famed baseball player Yogi Berra aptly described as “déjà vu all over again.”
In French, déjà vu means literally “already seen” and usually refers to something excessively familiar. The problem in treating this year like the last is that you’re destined to repeat the same mistakes because you’re unconsciously working from the same playbook.
If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again expecting a different result, it makes sense to avoid professional déjà vu in 2021 and beyond; here’s how:
Audit your time
So many of us mindlessly move through our careers, unaware of how we spend our days. We get caught up in being busy but not productive, always wishing we had more time when what we need to do is be more intentional with the time we have.
Start by auditing your time—how many hours do your mindlessly scroll social media versus working on your goals? Are you losing yourself in Netflix when you could be reading or listening to an educational podcast? So often, these time sucking activities are simply enabling fear-fueled procrastination and indecisiveness.
Hold yourself accountable by logging all of your activities for a week to get a complete picture of where you shine and your blind spots. And be brutally honest in your assessment; you can’t begin to make positive changes until you have an accurate baseline. As cringeworthy as your current reality may turn out to be, greater self-awareness helps you become more mindful and structure your time to achieve what you want.
Seek clarity
If you consider yourself ambitious yet seem to be spinning your wheels professionally, you probably lack clarity.
Clarity is all about focus and is obtained by answering a simple question: What do you want? Though this may seem like an easy exercise, it can be surprisingly difficult for some because they’ve never taken the time to consider it.
Also, realize that you’re allowed to change your answer over time; what you wanted when you began your career (or even last year) may no longer apply. Now might be the perfect time to go for that leadership role. Challenge yourself to be open enough to allow new and alternative—and sometimes even better—possibilities to emerge.
But here’s the thing about clarity: it demands specificity, and there is no room for a wishy-washy answer. You can’t make progress if you “kind of” want something. The more focused you can be about what matters most to you, the better.
When you have clarity, everything becomes easier. People understand you, what you offer, your value, what differentiates you, how you can help them, and how they can assist you.
Get alignment
The magic starts to happen when you can identify what you want and then marry your attention with your intention.
Having clarity enables you to align your goals with a plan to achieve them and stay away from the things that can derail you. Your environment always wins, so make sure you’re surrounding yourself with people who support and encourage your professional growth and try to limit your interaction with those who don’t.
Equally important is proactively spending your time on activities and projects that support your goals. Ask yourself if what you’re doing (or about to do) moves you closer to—or farther from) your goals, and then adjust accordingly.
Protect your time and learn to say no to those people and things that no longer serve you so you can yes to those that do.
Repeat as needed
To avoid getting caught in the comfort zone of career coasting, remember to periodically check-in with yourself. Reassess how and with whom you’re spending your time, whether your goals have shifted, and what’s helping you move closer to them or preventing your progress.
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February 02, 2021 at 06:51AM
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How To Not Make Your 2021 A Repeat Of 2020 - Forbes
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