On December 21st at 11:28 Eastern time marked the Winter Solstice. It’s the shortest day of the year. If you are seriously into astrology, you are probably heading out to Stonehenge to watch the planets move and take part in a pretty big party.
For the rest of us, it’s a time to take a moment from the madness of shopping, list making and christmas-cookie avoiding and pause to look forward to the longer days coming.
Start to think about your goals for next year. Do a career check up while you are waiting for the FedEx delivery or the next cashier.
Great jobs have work that suits your skills, tools to make your work easier, leaders who defend and inspire and a future that looks bright and inviting.
Got those?
If not, pick out what’s really missing. Atart to think about how to address it. Sometimes, the answer is right under your nose. Prince Charming was getting pretty unhappy at his job and then a new manager offered him the chance to learn some new skills. Suddenly, the world was brighter. It’s easy to see how differently he carries himself when he is happy with what he is doing.
If changes inside are not possible, then start to build out a plan for where you could look outside your organization and how you would go about doing it. You cannot just up and change jobs (unless you have a career fairy godmother up your sleeve). It takes some thinking, planning and talking with friends, colleagues and advisers.
The next two weeks will be busy but not the usual work/home/commute routine. There will be down times that you can use to start to make some notes and lay out some steps.
Think of how satisfying it will be to head out to that New Year’s cocktail party with a plan in your back pocket, a spring in your step and the winter solstice behind you.
Cheers!!
You can follow Laura Machan on her twitter account @recruiterscouch. A complete list of her articles can be found here.