4 resolutions that will move your career and business forward
As you write your New Years Resolutions, ask yourself: Will you really meditate daily? How much will you use the gym after January 31? Forget about your aspirational personal goals, this year Im sharing some resolutions that will move your career and business forward. Ive gathered experts from various areas of expertise: branding, marketing, business development, and mindset to get you ready.When it comes to building your Personal Brand or as I like to call it your Professional Perspective, the new year is the perfect time to start or re-start. Instead of a daily 3-mile run that youll abandon the first rainy morning, take that time to start posting on social media about your professional POV.First, escape from what I call Supermodel Mode where you think everyone is looking at you. Step into Teacher Mode, where you focus more on the message youre sharing and the value youre bringing. Envision yourself actually teaching about your area of expertise.Resolution 1: Find and share your unique POVNext, identify 3 areas you are passionate about and consistently post about that. Dont repost random articles without commentary lets see your unique opinion. Share something you learned from a client or colleague this week or react to industry news. Also, dont be afraid to share some more personal content, especially around your families or hobbies. Social media growth comes from what I call the 2 Cs: Connection and Credibility so peeling back the curtain on your personal life will create that connection point. More personal posts often perform better, even on LinkedIn.Resolution 2: Cut, delegate, or automateTake the time to learn about AI even if youre not a technologist, AI is a game changer in all realms of business. For content and branding specifically, its saved me hours as I use it to recycle content, write the first draft of emails or brainstorm.Speaking of efficiency and AI, Kate Kordsmeier, Life and Business Coach and founder of Success with Soul, says Forget shiny new productivity apps2025 is the year of brutal time honesty. Spend a week tracking where every minute goes. Then ruthlessly cut, delegate, or automate the things that dont align with your goals. Time audits arent sexy, but they are game-changing.To implement this, do a one-week time audit. Kordsmeier recommends you track every minute of your time in a Google doc, and notice how you felt about each task. Upload the doc to ChatGPT and have it analyze how you spend your time. Then ask it to make observations with questions like: What are 5 things you notice about me? Where does most of my working time go? What are you surprised to see that I dont do that a lot of people in my position would be doing? Give me 5 suggestions for how I could improve my time management.Resolution 3: Create an idea sharing systemIf youre leading a team or running your own business, Executive and Team Coach Caroline Stokes recommends creating a post vacation idea sharing system for people to return to work inspired to share their ideas as soon as they return from vacation, to foster a more productive environment that can innovate faster and solve wicked problems. Stokes says that because of disengagement of employees and organizations needing to adapt, sharing their ideas quickly is important. This idea can also be used weekly on Monday mornings or after a holiday weekend. To implement, you can use a stand-up for 10 mins to see what ideas can be moved forward, or an in-person or virtual whiteboarding session with post-it notes so people can see where the opportunities for advancement are.Resolution 4: Do one good deed a dayAnd in a world of automation and hyper-productivity, Launch Strategist and Copywriter Brenna McGowan recommends doing one good deed a day for a fellow colleague. She recommends shouting out a podcast you just listened to on your Instagram stories, or sending someone a direct message to say you loved a piece of their content. The idea of spreading kindness and tapping into our humanity resonated with me. Im hyper aware that as we focus so much on productivity and efficiency, we often forget to focus on our more human and personal side (guilty as charged) and thats where real connections happen.With saturated markets and work from home, which can sometimes feel isolating, McGowan says the simple acts of kindness help you stand out from competitors and are free! McGowan says these deeds have brought her a sponsor for an event and an invitation to be on a dream podcast. And as we know, in the age of social media and AI people crave that true connection more than ever.