A new year means fresh starts, new goals, and new objectives, personally and professionally. As you reflect on the past year, you might have already made a list of ways you intend to drive your personal growth over the next 12 months. Stepping into your greatest personal and professional self is about self-reflection, self-improvement, mindset mastery, and re-alignment. It’s also about shedding the habits, people, and things that no longer align. Here are some strategies to help you get started and put the wheels into motion.
Determining What You Want
A key process of self-discovery is aligning your goals and objectives with what matters most to you. It’s important to determine what you want, but also need. You must be radically honest when asking yourself, “Where do I want to go and what do I need to get there?” When I first meet with a client, I ask the question, “What are you looking to get out of that next chapter of your career?” I then ask what they need personally in that next chapter to become the best version of themselves.
The personal piece is the hardest for many to answer as mental, physical, and emotional needs can affect our professional direction. The answer will change during different decades and seasons of one’s life. In one season, you might coast through your work day-to-day. In another, you’ll realize you want and need more from your career, which puts you in a place of feeling stagnant or uninspired. And, maybe in the next season, you’ll experience an identity shift from what you need personally in your life or a new way of operating – perhaps a deeper focus on family time, travel, or health.
Like many of my executive clients, reaching the pinnacle of success in your career (whether as a general counsel, law firm partner, or C-suite executive) is often matched with the statement, “Okay, but now what? What’s next for me?” If you’re feeling stuck, here are some questions that can help you identify some blind spots and remove those roadblocks:
- Does your work align with your current values?
- What’s hindering you from beginning that next chapter? Is it fear or comfort that’s driving you?
- Do you feel challenged more than you feel depleted?
- What do you want to be in the next year? Three years? Five years? Ten years?
- What does that next level actually require of you?
Developing Clear Boundaries
Success requires diligence in setting boundaries to prevent derailment from your goals. As a personal example, my own health has undertaken a major transformation over these past five (5) years. After working 100-plus hour weeks consistently for decades, I hit a rock-bottom moment in my physical and mental health at the end of 2021.
If the pandemic taught us anything, it’s that shifts and pivots happen when we least expect it, but it’s how we move through crisis and change that really defines us. For me, that change was overcoming burnout, tending to my own self-care, and being consistent with my health needs. I made a lot of excuses about my workload taking priority. I was excelling in my business and professionally at extraordinary levels. To my detriment, it resulted in putting my own needs on the backburner — frequently canceled or postponed doctors’ appointments, forgetfulness in taking my thyroid medication, losing hair, not sleeping properly, and the list goes on.
At the beginning of 2022, I remember watching a playback of a presentation I did, and realized I didn’t look well at all — my eye was twitching uncontrollably, and I could see the inflammation and puffiness in my face. It was clear I was compromising my health and needed to act immediately. While it’s great to be booked and busy, you can’t continue working at that pace and maintain consistently good levels of energy and overall health.
I share this personal anecdote with my clients quite often because being a high-performer and high-achiever comes with immense self-discipline and drive, as well as deep precision and execution. We bring a relentless desire to be 1% better daily, But it also brings a downside — an inability to turn off your brain, plaguing anxiety over not doing enough, fear of failure, and the pressure to always “be on.” Unchecked overperformance erodes our presence and clear decision-making.
Tend To Your Own Self-Care
I often ask my clients what they’re doing to be their personal best in terms of self-care. It’s something that catches them off-guard because they expect my questions to be career-centric. When you’re on an airplane, the airline steward always says, “Put your mask on first.” There’s a reason for that. Before you can care for anyone else or anything else, you have to tend to your own self-care. It’s about being strategically responsible as the leader of your own life.
In my 20s, 30s, and early 40s, I was able to traverse across my days, weeks, and months with very little sleep. Now, in my late 40s, I’ve got a stringent schedule and routine I stick to with very little derailment, along with a structured exercise regimen. My body craves that rest, but it also needs good nutrition and daily movement to function optimally. Daily walks (I’m a big proponent of 10,000 steps a day) help me to clear my mind, decompress from the cerebral parts of my workday, and create that necessary self-care.
My 2022 wake-up call was much-needed, and I’ve since reaped the benefits of it physically, mentally, and emotionally. If you’re teetering on your own version of burnout due to a diminished focus on your health, I hope this article inspires you to act (and reach out if you need some motivational tips!).
In this new year, be sure to develop a framework that’s not only realistic and practical, but also action-driven and focused on the tools needed to achieve those goals. Remember, your greatest personal and professional self is achieved by doing what aligns with your own value system and needs.
Wendi Weiner is an attorney, career expert, and founder of The Writing Guru, an award-winning executive resume writing services company. Wendi creates powerful career and personal brands for attorneys, executives, and C-suite/Board leaders for their job search and digital footprint. She also writes for major publications about alternative careers for lawyers, personal branding, LinkedIn storytelling, career strategy, and the job search process. You can reach her by email at wendi@writingguru.net, connect with her on LinkedIn, and follow her on Twitter @thewritingguru.
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