So today, we’ll discuss the five best goals you should make for your career growth. Then, we’ll examine how to stick to those goals like a pro. Let’s dig in.

Professional growth majorly depends on your skillset and how you have honed them. That’s why you should learn one new skill this year. It doesn’t have to be complicated or take all of the time of your day. You can start small—after all, learning the basics doesn’t hurt anyone.

You can always master it later on by continuous and deliberate practice.

The easiest way to complete this challenge is to enroll in the evening or online classes, especially if you have a day job. And if it’s something that can even help you provide more value to your company, talk to your supervisor. That could lead to you saving on the cost of courses or seminars as the company will pay for it.

No growth is complete unless you read some great books about it. Most people even set goals to read a hundred books a year. However, it doesn’t have to be that way. Just pick a few titles that work for your schedule and align with your current goals. Here are some titles recommended for you:

Switchers: How Smart Professionals Change Careers and Seize Success by Dr. Dawn Graham The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America’s Rich by Thomas J. Stanley, Ph. D. and William D. Danko, Ph. D. Invaluable: Master the 10 Skills You Need to Skyrocket Your Career by Maya Grossman

If you’re interested in other topics and have different titles in mind, add them to your list of must-reads this year too.

3. Add to Your Professional Networking List Each Month

According to Hubspot, 85% of the jobs come from recommendations or your network. So, it’ll be a worthy goal to spend some time growing your professional network this year.

If attending networking nights is not your cup of tea, you could always go online. LinkedIn is one of the best platforms to start from, but you could also grow your professional network through Facebook.

Your initial steps should be:

Optimize your profile Join the necessary groups Indulge in conversations with the essential people.

That leads us to our next point.

4. Re-do Your Online Profiles for Personal Branding

Whether you have a regular 9-5 job, you’re a full-time contract worker, or an entrepreneur, your online profiles represent you in your absence. So make sure they’re representing you right and not stealing any new opportunities coming your way.

That’s why you should ensure online profiles represent you well. Here are some things to look at:

Upload a professional profile picture. Re-do your cover picture for personal branding purposes Re-write your bio section and make sure it shows your accomplishments and how you can help the right people. Share your best achievements that can lure people into contacting you. If it’s been inactive for a long time, don’t forget to add your recent experiences.

5. Get Organized, Be Productive, and Create a Progress System

To ensure more work and fewer distractions, keep yourself and your workplace organized.

Your initial steps should be to work on your time management and make room for important but not urgent tasks. Otherwise, you may find yourself repeating what happened last year. Perhaps, you get caught up in day-to-day work while your goals accumulate dust on your pinboard.

To ensure you keep progressing, create a progress system. That means a community or a group of people where you can share your work goals and at what speed you’re proceeding to accomplish them.

Additionally, define the KPIs of your success, put deadlines on each of them, and share it with your new year goal community. It’ll keep pushing you to make progress even if you don’t want to because others are involved now.

6. Be a Part of a Big Project

If you’re seeking promotion and career growth in general, make it your goal to be a part of a big project this year.

Talk to your supervisor about an ongoing project that you can participate in. If there’s no such project available for you, pitch one. Yes. Brainstorm the ideas that can help your company solve a problem or in any other way. Write a project proposal. Finally, discuss it with the management team.

It’ll also help send a message that you’re genuinely interested in your and your company’s growth.

7. Start a Side Hustle

It’s hard and not for everyone. Still, if you have some time to spare and want to create multiple sources of income, it can be a perfect goal for career growth. A few examples for you to consider can be: tutoring online, Freelancing, starting a blog or vlog, etc.

Before you start, here are a few tips to keep you going.

Identify your current skills and how you can use them in this new side hustle. Set clear goals Set milestones to encourage you to begin. Ensure you have a market to the problem you’re trying to solve by aiming for real customers (it can be just one in the beginning). Make sure you differ from your competition. Don’t quit your job until you have a good flow of clients.

How to Achieve the Goals You Set for Yourself

Setting new goals is a pretty easy task. Starting to work on them is also not that difficult. The most challenging part is consistently working to achieve these goals until it’s done.

Most people genuinely work towards their goals for the first few weeks, but then they stall. Do the following to make sure your precious goals don’t end up like this.

Be as Clear About Your Goal as You Can

Instead of just writing down I’ll do this or that, clarify why exactly you want to do this out of everything in the world. What will be the outcome of accomplishing this goal? How will it change your life for the better?

After all, if you decide to work in your free time instead of just scrolling through your news feed, you’ll probably need more motivation than “I’ll re-do my online profile today.”

You should clarify what you’re keeping yourself from achieving in your career by not working on your particular goal.

Only See the Goal, Not the Obstacle

You chant, ‘I won’t use social media this week. I have to work,’ and not help but wonder why you keep thinking, ‘what about just five minutes? I’ll only check the quick notifications and leave.’

That’s because, according to Simon Sinek, your brain is incapable of focusing on the negative outcomes. You tell your brain not to think about something, and that’s exactly what it’ll think about.

So, instead of telling it what not to think about, tell it what it should do. For instance, at 7:00, I have to work on my online portfolio, and then, at 8:00, I’ll read. And see the change for yourself.

Be Ready to Invest in Yourself

Another essential point. If you’re genuinely interested in working on your professional growth, at some point, you may need to invest a bit of the money. It can be a small amount for some things, but it might become a substantial sum for other skills.

For instance, if you’re beginning to work on your coding skills, you can start by learning the basics from YouTube and practicing it. But in the long run, you may need to consider taking actual classes.

Start Small

Another essential thing for you to consider. If you genuinely want to achieve your goals this year, only add the critical objectives to your list instead of overwhelming yourself with everything at once. Leave all the other ones alone.

For a whole month, just focus on doing one thing. As Desmond Tutu once said, there’s only one way to eat an elephant. One bite at a time.

New Beginnings Need New Goals

New goals keep you going and your life interesting. So, never miss a chance, if you have one, to be a better version of yourself.

Start working on these career goals today. Who knows, this year turns out to be the best one to achieve the heights of career success.