9 Professional New Year’s Resolutions From Small Businesses

Read

I want to dive into more books and periodicals. I miss my pre-internet brain. The one that could focus on something for hours. I’ve been feasting far too long on the immediate snacking of short form content that litters the internet and begs for my attention every second of every day, awake or not. The ability to turn off, center oneself and focus on a thoughtful piece of prose for an extended period is something that I really miss and will commit time to rediscover in 2021.

Expand Environmental Projects

My New Year’s resolution for 2021 is to keep expanding my business and continue to expand on our environmental projects with SOIL that transforms waste into useful resources. I hope to build upon my social responsibility and help people get access to clean water all while developing my entrepreneurial skills and lead Reel Paper to scale and grow more than ever before.

Support 1,000 Financial Advisors

One of my professional New Year’s resolutions is to help 1,000 financial advisors become better email marketers through my email marketing system. This is an important goal for me because not only will it help my business, but it will allow me to make a bigger impact in the world.  This is because it will help the advisors get more clients, which will help them and so on.

Unplug Once Per Week

It may sound counterintuitive, but my professional New Year’s resolution is to unplug once per week. Most weeks, I’m hoping this will be an entire Sunday without my phone or computer, where I can focus on family or personal interests. After such a hyper-connected 2020, I’m hoping that getting unplugged will help to improve my mental health and productivity. By giving myself time away from constantly checking emails or social media, it will make the time I am connected more efficient.

Take More Professional Risks

For the new year, I would like to take more professional risks. If there’s anything I’ve learned from 2020, is that I need to take chances in order to be successful, because we don’t know what tomorrow will bring. I want to do a monthly video series where I talk with a friend in a different industry within the context of something I do as an HR Consultant. I’d like to be more ambitious and daring with the prospects I reach out to. I believe this will assist me to be myself and 100% genuine in how I approach my work.

Retain an Internship Mindset

At the beginning of January 2020, I first stepped foot into the Markitors office as a digital PR intern. A year later, I am currently the community manager of Markitors— only now, I am waking up every morning and walking three feet to sit down at my office desk at home. While 2020 may have brought abrupt change for many of us, I have been lucky to channel this abruptness into amazing growth in other areas, especially towards my professional career. 

That being said, one of my professional resolutions is to retain my “internship mindset” in 2021  and continue it throughout my entire career. To me, this means never being afraid to ask questions, seeking to improve my day-to-day methods, critically think from an outsider’s perspective and viewing every task as an exciting project rather than “just work.” Furthermore, one of the more important reasons for this mindset is staying humble and not getting caught up in the politics of company hierarchy.

Provide Effective Mentoring in the Virtual World

I would like to find some ways to provide more effective mentoring and development to staff in a virtual world. I want to think more creatively about opportunities such as job shadowing and job sharing to provide developmental opportunities just as I might in-person. LinkedIn Learning offers great online courses on countless topics, so helping mentees to identify and participate in appropriate courses, and then debriefing together may provide a different perspective on new insights. It’s important to continue to invest in our people in every way that we can!

Plan To Explore Spontaneity

I plan to be spontaneous…I know, I know it’s an oxymoron. The real goal is to explore more. By planning out my days and weeks, I will ‘plan’ more opportunities for exploration aka ‘spontaneity.’ This resolution aligns with the freedom I sought as an entrepreneur. In 2020, I found myself spending many hours working and working. I began living in some very comfortable, convenient patterns that can become very isolating if unchecked e.g. not driving, staying inside more, even not exercising (early on in the quarantine) because there was one more thing to do. There will always be one more thing to do. Years ago, I made the statement “I want to become uncomfortable, being uncomfortable.” Next year with more exploration, I can grow outside much of the “comfort zone” of my home that I have lived in for much of 2020.

Community Expansion

One of my big professional goals this year is to be added to more advisory boards and establish more partnerships for my organization to expand my reach of aiding growing companies in the Arizona community. I want to give my expertise in leadership and organizational development to improve these companies and enrich the surrounding business community of Arizona.

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