Every fresh college graduate wants to be the best employee, and every employee wants to have a great career ahead of him. Working on that takes effort, but it sure is worth it in the long run.
Instead of making the same resolutions year after year and then finding failing to achieve them to your frustration, make resolutions that will change the way you work - like these ones from the experts, collected by Fast Company.
Explore How You Can Make Your Work More Meaningful
Instead of just looking for a job that excites and pays well, make any job you land in a meaningful one that makes you feel fulfilled and impactful.
Danielle Harlan, founder and CEO of the Center for Advancing Leadership and Human Potential and author of "The New Alpha: Join the Rising Movement of Influencers and Changemakers Who Are Redefining Leadership," says you can choose to make positive changes in your job. Find what brings you meaning, and do it even if it means readjusting the rewards you seek from work and life.
Go For What You Want Before You're Ready
Kathi Elster, coauthor of "Working for You Isn't Working for Me: How to Get Ahead When Your Boss Holds You Back," says many put off asking for what they want until they feel like they're more than ready, but end up waiting for it longer than they would have wanted to. Just go for it, even if you're only "75% to 80%" ready.
Find A Taskmaster
Of course, you're not actually looking for a slave-driver complete with all the whips like the Egyptian taskmasters were, but you're looking for someone to be accountable to. A 2015 study from the Dominican University of California evaluated the impact of accountability - having to report to someone how you're faring with your goals - and found that more than 70% of participants who sent weekly updates to a friend either completed or were halfway done with their tasks compared to only 35% of those who kept their goals to themselves.
Watch out for Part two of this list tomorrow.
