As we move into the New Year, many of us reflect on the past year and set intentions for the year ahead. Among the most common resolutions are goals related to personal growth, career development, and self-improvement. While these aspirations are important, they often require more than just a change in habits; they demand a deep commitment to nurturing both our professional skills and our sense of self-worth. The start of a new year offers a powerful opportunity to take intentional steps towards advancing in our careers while also fostering a healthy relationship with ourselves.

How can you use the New Year spirit as a launchpad for career development, self-worth enhancement, and overall growth? This two-part blog will share some tips to help you push ahead in your career search.

1. Assess Your Current Situation

Before you can chart a course toward career development and increasing your self-worth, it’s essential to take stock of where you are right now. Reflection is the first step in any growth process. This involves asking yourself some key questions:

• Where do I stand in my career right now?
• What have been my major achievements, and where could I improve?
• Do I feel valued in my current role, and how can I enhance my contributions?

Reflection allows you to recognize both your strengths and areas where you may need growth. If you’ve been feeling stuck in your career or uncertain about your value, this process of honest self-assessment can help uncover gaps in your skills or areas where your confidence may need a boost. This is not about being critical of yourself; rather, it’s an opportunity to approach your career with curiosity and a desire to grow.

2. Set Clear, Actionable Goals for Career Enhancement

Once you’ve assessed where you are, it’s time to define where you want to go. Setting clear, actionable goals is critical to advancing your career. Whether you’re aiming for a promotion, considering a career switch, or looking to enhance specific skills, having clear goals can provide you with a roadmap for success.

When setting goals for career development, consider the SMART framework:

• Specific: What exactly do you want to achieve? Instead of saying “I want to get promoted,” say, “I want to be promoted to a senior manager position within the next year by taking on more leadership responsibilities.”
• Measurable: How will you measure your progress? Determine clear milestones to track your development.
• Achievable: Ensure that your goal is realistic given your current resources and timeframe.
• Relevant: Align your goals with your broader career aspirations and values.
• Time-bound: Set a clear deadline for your goals to create urgency and focus.

By breaking down your career goals into smaller, more manageable actions, you can create a step-by-step plan to achieve them throughout the year. This helps to prevent overwhelm and gives you a sense of accomplishment as you check off each milestone.

By intentionally focusing on strengthening your inner dialogue and self-esteem, you’ll begin to see the external effects in your career as well. You’ll speak up for your value, ask for the opportunities you deserve, and have the resilience to overcome challenges that come your way.

Don’t wait for the “perfect” moment to act. Start now, even if it’s just a small step. The process of moving forward—whether that means applying for new positions, seeking new projects, or advocating for yourself—builds confidence and reinforces your sense of worth.

The New Year presents a fresh start and a chance to refocus on your personal and professional development. By prioritizing your career growth and boosting your self-worth, you create a solid foundation for success. Remember, career advancement doesn’t happen overnight, and increasing self-worth is an ongoing journey. However, by setting clear goals, committing to continuous learning, and cultivating a healthy sense of self, you’ll not only achieve your professional objectives but also foster a deeper sense of fulfillment in all areas of life.

As you move forward into the New Year, take the time to invest in yourself and your future. With CFIR career coaching you have a chance to build focus, determination, and a healthy self-worth, whereby you can make this year the one where you truly thrive both professionally and personally.

Erin Leslie, career coach at CFIR and founder of EQFootprints is a Career Strategist and Leadership coach who will enable any professional or team to achieve their career aspirations through personal development, training and coaching.

Erin practices one-on-one and team coaching with clients and mentees across all industries. Certified in EQ-i 2.0 assessments, Erin specializes in emotional intelligence practices and tools to support a stronger emotional quotient in the workplace. Her emotional intelligence acumen harvested through 25 years as a business career woman in tech; combined with a tailored coaching style she has the intuitive ability to uncover personal or environmental barriers and help identify new goals for your business audience. Helping professionals, teams and newcomers with all aspects of business negotiation, personal branding, networking and business culture is not only a vocation, it is her passion.

Key Points:

1. Tangible Goals System
2. Internal Motivation
3. Self-Compassion

Have you ever set a New Year’s resolution filled with determination and ambition, followed by a shattering crash? I have! 

Setting a resolution is a big deal and can surely contribute to our sense of ambition and fulfillment. However, we tend to set goals that are completely doomed for failure. Read more for tangible tips to help your resolutions actually stick.

Tangible Goals System

Think of a goal you want in your life. Now, take that goal and break it into smaller goals (the more the merrier!). It is crucial to differentiate between what is and what is NOT in your control. These simple but mighty tips help our goals to become realistic, attainable, and practical. The more specific and distinct your system is, the greater the probability of following through with your goals. 

Internal Motivation

Consistent momentum’s best friend is internal or intrinsic motivation. Odds are, when we’re preoccupied on what the world thinks we “should” be doing, our motivation comes in spurts. Meaning, we are likely to experience that crash. If your motivation is coming from a place inside of you, it’s intrinsic and its lasting. Learning how to access that place inside of us can be easier said than done. Psychotherapy can be a great tool to help us strengthen our sense of self, improve our identity resilience, and learn how to differentiate between internal and external motivators. CFIR professionals are here to help you do just that, and more.

Self-Compassion

Don’t let a lapse turn into a relapse. Allow the setbacks to happen and then get back on track. Prioritizing self-compassion leaves us with the realistic wiggle room we need when it comes to attaining a goal. It can also help us to manage our expectations, eagerness, and feelings of guilt. Self-compassion is not based on positive judgements or evaluations, it is a way of relating to ourselves. The motivational power of self-compassion is the difference between working hard to grow and to learn vs. needing to impress ourselves and/or the world.

Natasha Vujovic, RP (Q). is a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) at CFIR. She works with individuals and couples experiencing a wide range of psychological and relational difficulties including anxiety and stress, depression, mood and grief, relational conflict, trauma, life transitions, personality, body-image, marital and pre-marital, internal conflicts, family dynamics and self-esteem. Natasha is an integrative therapist pulling from psychodynamic/analytic theories and takes a collaborative and honest approach to session.

By: Kamala Pilgrim, Ph.D., C. Psych (Interim Autonomous Practice)

It’s the time of year again when millions of us are thinking about all the goals we want to achieve. We typically start off excited to follow through with our well-intentioned resolutions. We say to ourselves with conviction, “This year I’m making some changes!” Our lives seem fresh and rife with opportunity – but by about January 10th we run out of steam, begin avoiding, or just give up on our goals. Psychologists note that one of the reasons resolutions tend to dissolve rapidly is because it is difficult to withstand the discomforts that are part and parcel of making changes. The ability to tolerate and adapt to challenges with a sense of awareness, openness, and focus, and taking effective actions that are guided by what we truly value, is key to creating and maintaining the life you want (Harris, 2008). Following are seven strategies to help you begin to move in the direction of your dreams:

1. Get crystal clear on your values

Resolutions are often framed as goals and not based on our core values. The difference is a value is a path on which we would like to continue moving over time while a goal is an outcome that we can reach…or not (Harris, 2008). The desire to be energetic is an example of a value, whereas wanting to join a gym is a goal. It is more effective for goals to follow our values, not the other way around. When our values are foremost, our lives develop greater meaning as our decisions are rooted in what we really care about. We also are more willing to make an effort if we understand how we believe attaining our objective will enhance our life.

To get started on clarifying your values, ask yourself the following:

• What matters most to you in life?
• How do you wish to feel each day?
• How do you want to interact with yourself and others?

2.  Adopt S.M.A.R.T goals

Next, consider resolutions that reflect these core values. e.g., If you want to feel more enthusiastic, what actions can you take to get there? 

Break these down into smaller steps based on behaviours you can do that are: 

• Specific 

• Measurable 

• Achievable

• Results-based and

• Time-bound

Develop short-term (can be done in the next few days and weeks), medium-range (can be done in a month or two), and long-term (can be done in the following six months) objectives that are in line with these S.M.A.R.T criteria.

3. Visualize

Regularly reflecting on your values is critical to making them paramount to your life. It is important to remember what matters most to you and to allow those factors to seep into your psyche. Spend a few minutes every day, picturing in vivid detail how you will feel, act, and behave toward yourself and others when you are making choices in accordance with your values. Engage all five of your senses in this process whenever possible.

4. Know your pitfalls and trick your future self

Track your efforts to meet goals. Then reflect on times when you tend to fold in the face of temptation, throw in the towel, or procrastinate. Use this knowledge to set your future self up for success. (e.g., If you notice you never get out to the gym once you’ve arrived home from work, pack your workout bag the night before and go right after you leave the office.)

5. Welcome hiccups 

Develop and practice a self-compassionate attitude toward setbacks which will inevitably come. Instead of berating yourself, speak to yourself at these times the way you would to someone you love. 

6. Practice mindfulness 

Mindfulness is a state of awareness that involves paying full attention, on purpose, to everything happening in the present moment, without judgment (Kabat-Zinn, 2012). Since we spend so much of our time either worrying about the future or dwelling on the past, we miss out on the now, which is the only place where our power to make changes lies. Though a by-product of this practice is that the things we observe such as, distressing thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations will decrease in intensity, it is not the purpose. The aim is to make space for these experiences without resisting or attempting to escape them and to return to your core values to guide your actions. Doing this will both sharpen areas of the brain that govern self-control and build tolerance of uncomfortable thoughts, feelings, and sensations. You can begin to develop this skill by practicing the following meditation every day:

“Sit in a chair or crossed-legged on a pillow. Take five, deep, smooth breaths in and out. On the end of your fifth exhalation, allow your breath to flow in naturally without any attempt to control it. As you breathe in mentally say the words, “inhale”, as you breathe out, mentally say, “exhale”. When the mind shifts to thoughts, practice noticing them as if they are clouds passing through the sky, and come back to your meditation. When an emotion arises, bring awareness to where you feel it in your body and breathe into and around the area(s) providing it with as much space as possible. Return to your meditation.”

Start with two minutes of meditation practice and work your way up to fifteen to twenty minutes. 

As you pursue your values and related goals, unhelpful thoughts and emotions (I.e., those that would take you away from your values if you give them credence) will emerge. Use a similar strategy of gently acknowledging them and coming back to focusing your attention on the choices that align you with your most cherished values in the present moment. 

7. Make goal engagement rewarding

If we are constantly in self-control mode, your body and brain will surely rebel. As much as possible, pair your goals with something pleasurable: e.g., Write in your favourite café, light scented candles while doing housework, exercise while listening to music you enjoy. 

Just make sure that whatever your chosen accompaniment, it is guided by your core values.

If you put these techniques into practice on a consistent basis, you can make some gains in achieving your goals. 

Psychologists at CFIR are also available to offer you support in defining and sticking to your objectives this new year and beyond!

For more information please see the following sources: 

• Harris, R. (2008). The Happiness Trap: How to stop struggling and start living. Boston, MA: Trumpeter.
• Kabat-Zinn, J. (2012). Mindfulness for Beginners: Reclaiming the present moment – and your life. Boulder, CO: Sounds True.
• McGonigal, K. (2012). The willpower instinct: How self-control works, why it matters, and what you can do to get more of it. New York, NY: Avery.