5 Ways to Prepare Your Career for the New Year (Decade)

As we draw the year to a close many of us are looking forward to some well-deserved time off to relax, eating some good food, seeing a movie or two, and spending time with family.

But the holiday break also affords us an opportunity to spend some time thinking about our job and career and what actions we might take to enjoy our work more and become more successful in our career over the coming year.

Here are five things you might do over the holiday break to prepare for the new year and to set yourself up for success in the coming decade.

Sign up for a class. There are so many opportunities to enhance your skills and deepen your knowledge in areas that can positively impact your career, from online courses and webinars to conferences and classes at a community college. You don’t need to spend a lot of money to find an impactful class, but you need to start somewhere.

Seek out a mentor. Take a few moments to identify someone you’ve been wanting to learn from. You likely already have this person in your circle of contacts but, perhaps, you haven’t let them know you wanted a more formal mentorship. Now is a good time to ask.

Add a good habit. You know you need to eat better, sleep more, and get some physical exercise in but it can be overwhelming to consider everything you could change in your life so make a plan to make one change. Maybe it’s a simply as avoiding a drink tonight or going to sleep at a reasonable time. Start with one day and then make it two days and then three. That is how we change to begin to make good decisions. These decisions will lead to better decisions and impact your life and career for the better.

Consider your thoughts. We are what we think about and it’s important in every area of our lives, and in our career, to think thoughts that move us forward, rather than negative thoughts that bring us and others around us down. Avoid thoughts that blame others or dwell on past failures or mistakes. Add a practice of meditation, yoga, or prayer to your life to slow down and allow you to more effectively evaluate your self-talk.

Schedule a vacation. Yes, though you might enjoy a break over the holidays take some time to plan your next vacation before you dive back into the stress of your working life. Having a vacation planned will also give you sometime to look forward to and you’ll know that there is a reward coming for all the hard work you do.

Do even some of these things over the holidays and you’ll be set up for a more successful new year at work.  

5 Ways to Ensure Your Vacation Benefits Your Career

A summer vacation can be a great time to build energy for your career or job if you do it right. Unfortunately, many of us don’t know how to relax, nor do we know how to leave work behind.

In order to gain the most benefit from your vacation and return with renewed enthusiasm and focus at work implement the following guidelines for your trip.

Don’t check emails or respond to texts and phone calls. When you are on vacation you need to be on vacation. This is a time for making a clear break with work and get some time to recharge. Make the effort to catch up on your messages before you leave and be sure to set up an out-of-office message.

Be sure to relax and avoid constant motion on your vacation. The point of a vacation or holiday is to relax and recharge, rather than run from one event to another or one historic site to another architectural wonder of the world. By all means enjoy your vacation and see and do whatever you wish but do so at a leisurely pace. Effective pre-planning can help you appreciate the locale while also ensuring that you’re getting in some R & R.

Consume responsibly. It can be tempting to overindulge and eat anything you want or to drink too much while on vacation. While it’s okay to enjoy some of the treats you might discover on your travels or enjoy a drink of the local wine, beer, or whisky, if you overdo it you’ll find that you feel less energized for your return to work and will want time to “recover” from your holiday.

Get enough sleep. Like we just discussed, be sure to get enough rest. Balance a late night out with a leisurely morning and since you’re on vacation, why not treat yourself to a nap? The important consideration here though is to avoid changing your schedule so radically that it becomes difficult to readjust to your normal work schedule.

Give yourself at least a day to recover before returning to work. You don’t want to fly home at 8 pm on a Sunday night and head back to work at 8 am the next morning. 

Take a day to return home, resume your typical routine, catch up on the laundry, and prepare yourself mentally for the return to work.

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: The Best Time to Ask for a Promotion

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

• Here is the Best Time to Ask for a Promotion: "
  Visier discovered the ideal times, and circumstances, to receive a promotion. 
  If you’re waiting for cooler weather to ask for a promotion, think again. The research showed summer was the best season to ask for one
  ."

• 4 Steps Women Should Take When Considering a Career Transition: "Take stock of your skill set and what sets you apart. Be brutally honest with yourself about what you do well and where you have previously failed. Ask for feedback."

• Why You're Probably Networking Wrong (and what to do instead): "these tools automatically sync your communication history with your contacts across a variety of networks, and remind you when it's about time to reach out and rekindle those relationships."

• Do This One Thing During Vacation to Come Back Recharged: "When we are on vacation and feel some sense of distance from the hustle and bustle of our daily routine, Kadoch says, life feels good again and gives us the chance to come back to work with more energy and focus."
• 4 Things Leaders Bring With Them Every Day: "Humility opens the door to learning. It also allows you to defer to the person with the greatest subject matter expertise and context about the problem so it gets solved the best way possible."

Daily Leap Career Video of the Week: 5 Tips to Get You Back to Work After Vacation

Each week we present our Daily Leap Career Video of the Week. The video we share presents news or advice related to career development, searching for a job, the economy and employment, and other career-related topics.

The Forbes video below identifies 5 tips to help you get back into the routine of work, starting with "plan for your return" by coming home on a Saturday instead of Sunday. Watch the next four in the video.

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: 6 Rituals to Reach Your Potential

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

© Bellemedia | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

• 6 Simple Rituals to Reach Your Potential Every Day: "Solo-task and do more faster by working in 50/10 increments. Use a timer to work for 50 minutes on only one important task with 10 minute breaks in between."


• 15 Ways to Make Your Life Better This Summer: "If you have dreams of being an entrepreneur but aren’t yet ready to jump in with both feet, try a summer experiment and see what works. .... See what resonates, learn and then decide if it’s the start of a hobby or a career change."


• Why Stress and Anxiety are Your Best Friends: "Anxiety is an inevitable part of life, and success typically requires embracing it (or at least tolerating it) rather than avoiding it."


• Enjoy that Vacation and Avoid Work Stress: "To maximize the relaxing benefits of your vacation, have a good re-entry plan. This can include arriving home a day early — or at least earlier in the day — so that you have some time to unpack, do laundry, and get a good night’s sleep."


• 3 Steps to Stop Procrastinating: "Take a baby step on an unwanted task by working on it immediately and then planning to finish the task by breaking it up into manageable amounts."

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: Leave Your Job and Start Your Career!

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

© Bellemedia | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

• Leave Your Job and Start Your Career: "View taking time to work on your career development as an actual gift to yourself. When else do you get to reflect on what you really want, why you really want it and how to strategize to make it happen?"


• 3 Generous Perks that Keep Employees Happy: "Unlimited vacation....A 2014 Glassdoor survey found that more than half of U.S. workers don’t use all their current paid vacation as it is."


• Social Media Job Hunting Tips: "Do you really want to lose sight of your dream job just because of a risqué, off-the-cuff remark to one of your friends on Facebook or Twitter?"


• Divorce and Your Career: "If you've gone through a divorce, it’s hard to imagine being at work and thinking about taking a risk and being terrified of the consequences. How bad could it possibly be?."


• 3 Ways to Eliminate Stress: "While a small bit of stress is OK, there are many small things that can contribute to your level of anxiety that you may not have considered."

Five Reasons Why You Need a Vacation

I recently returned from an incredible vacation in Alaska, where I experienced a thrilling dog sled ride on top of a glacier, delectable cuisine and drinks, a boat tour and bus tour of pristine national parks, relaxing salmon fishing, seeing breathtaking animals in the wild, and - of course - many stunning mountain views. 

When you are in Alaska - where internet and cell reception is spotty, I had no choice but to separate myself from the everyday pressures of work. When I returned home - albeit a little jet-lagged - I felt refreshed...and eager to get back to my job with a newfound perspective.

You may be telling yourself that you are too busy for a vacation. However, it's more than likely that a vacation is exactly what you need to be even more productive and happier at work. Here are five reasons why you should pack up the car and spend some time away from your job.

Vacations provide perspective: Distancing yourself from your work-related problems will enable you to approach them in a different way, as studies have shown that psychological distance can benefit problem-solving skills.

Vacations decrease burnout: While no vacation can defeat burnout entirely, vacations have been shown to decrease feelings of burnout, at least temporarily.

Vacations increase creativity: Not only do vacations provide perspective, but they can produce new, creative ways to solve problems...particularly if you vacation abroad.

Vacations allow us to connect: Research has shown that families develop stronger bonds when they vacation with each other. 

Vacations benefit our overall health: Numerous studies have discussed the overall health benefits of taking a vacation.

If you are feeling the pressures and demands of your work are keeping you from spending time away, reconsider that notion and take some time for yourself. You and your career will benefit.