Tom O'Neil: Goodbye 2019, hello 2020

Get ready to hit your career stride in 2020. Pic Getty.

As 2019 recedes into the distance and 2020 rapidly approaches, it's a great time to take stock of your role and career, preparing yourself properly for an exciting 12 months ahead. Ask yourself the following questions to help point you in the right direction for a great 2020:

Successes — What were the key successes you had in 2019? Were you promoted? Did you work on any exciting special projects? Were you given further authority in your position? Helping to recall your successes in the past 12 months is a powerful exercise, giving you real clarity on the positive parts of the year.

Failures — As we all know, life is not perfect, and neither are our careers. What did not go so well this year? I know for myself, I have a whole litany of half-finished projects as well as proposals that were not successful.

Learn — Looking at these two ups and downs of 2019, what are the key learning points you can take, and successfully implement next year?

More of — What do you need to do more of in 2020? Do you need to be more daring or more conservative? What projects do you need to focus your energy towards, and how can you put resources into place that will allow you to do this effectively?

Less of — What did you invest too much energy/time/money, etc into that you feel was wasted? What are key habits or ways of thinking that are holding you back and how can you break these? Are there social vampires crowding around you and sucking your energy that need to be discreetly let go?

Work/Life Balance — How did your life (outside of your career) go this year? Was it a successful and positive time growing with family, or did you spend so much time at the office (sacrificing yourself for their good of course) that you missed key family milestones, or even Saturday sport? Remember no one on their deathbed said, "I wish I had spent more time at the office ... "

Education/Professional Development — To move forward to where you want to go long-term, do you need to further your studies, invest in membership of an industry group or track down some key conferences to attend? Pitched the right way, your employer may even support you in pursuing these.

Where now? — In the book Built to Last by James Collins and Jerry Porras, they talk about setting a "BHAG" — Big Hairy Audacious Goal. If you had the power to achieve (almost) anything professionally in the next 12 months, what would this be? Once you have this vision locked into your mind, create a BHAG, then backfill it with mini-goals you can tick off towards hitting your best in 2020.

Contact Tom O'Neil and the team at CV.CO.NZ for a free CV assessment or to be your personal career coach.