As 2024 kicks off, we find ourselves inundated with ‘new year, new me’ posts. Ultimately, we have a brand-new chapter ahead of us, and the perfect opportunity to make a fresh start. If you want to prepare yourself for success in your personal and professional life, these are some actions you can take – right now!

Write down your goals

The first step is to understand exactly what you want to achieve from your year. When you understand your overall goals, you can start to take steps to break these down into manageable steps. For example: do you want a new job? Do you have a financial goal? Would you like to start a new business? Do you want to lose weight? It is important to be specific about these goals, as it will help you to understand the actions you need to take to reach them. For instance:

• Start a new job as a Financial Director
• Lose 3 stone
• Earn £100,000 per year
• Complete a 10K race

It doesn’t matter how ‘huge’ your goals may seem, just write down what you would ideally like to achieve from your year. You may even want to consider creating a vision board, where you can see your goals in front of you. This is often more effective than just writing them down.

Consider milestones

You will want to see progress throughout the year, which is why you might also set monthly or weekly milestones. If you are not achieving the milestones, then you may want to consider making tweaks to your plans. For example, if you have a particular career goal and you are applying for jobs without any success, you might want to look at professional CV writing services. If you are looking to lose weight but the pounds are failing to come off, you might want to add more exercise to your plan or look at your calorie journal in more detail. Most people lose inspiration if they set unrealistic goals without incorporating any milestones. It is unrealistic, for example, to lose 3 stones in a month, but if you set it as a yearly target, it is much easier to achieve.

Break the goal into steps

You can now break your overall goals into the manageable steps you can take to get there; as it is important not to just focus on your overall goal. It can be more enjoyable to pay more attention to the journey, than the overall goal. If we take the new career goal as an example, there are various actions that could be considered, for example:

• Do you have the necessary skills for the career, or do you need to undertake a course?
• Do you need a new CV?

If you take these actions and apply for roles on a regular basis, you will be setting yourself up for success.

Similarly, if you want to lose 3 stone, your actions might include:

• Setting and recording your daily calorie goal
• 45-minute exercise each day
• 10,000 steps or more a day

When you focus on the daily actions you can take, the overall goals will take care of themselves.

Take action

Most people fail with resolutions as they don’t take the necessary actions to achieve their overall goal. The goal may seem too difficult to reach or they might start taking steps and then get fed up with it. The main point to remember is that all you need to do is take the small, daily steps that will build up to helping you achieve your overall goal. If you take these steps, you are much further forward than most people!

Reward yourself

You may also want to consider rewarding yourself when you achieve your milestones. This can be an important way to keep yourself on track. Take yourself out for a meal when you hit a milestone or go out and buy yourself something nice. Recognition doesn’t have to come from someone else, be your own cheerleader!

If you are looking for a new job in 2024, we can help at Inspired CVs. Our professional CV writers can provide a high-quality graphic or traditional CV tailored to your individual needs. You can contact us to find out more, or order directly and we will arrange an initial consultation.