We make all kinds of commitments to make changes in the new year and wind up not keeping them. Try these sustainable career resolutions for 2023.

Oh, look! It’s the end of another year. Congratulations on making it through 2022.

The time has come when people start thinking about New Year’s resolutions.

At the end of the year, we make all kinds of commitments to ourselves to make changes in the coming year, many of which fall by the wayside by the time February rolls around. And that’s just depressing. So, we wanted to offer some sustainable career resolutions for 2023. You should be able to keep these resolutions over the long term because they are simple and not overly time-consuming.

Success means different things to different people, and your goals will differ from anyone else’s. If, however,  you’ve been looking for a more successful career, a better job, a higher salary, or a more robust skill set and knowledge base, we’ve got easy steps and strategies -sustainable career resolutions – to make that goal more attainable over the next 12 months.

Here are 12 sustainable career resolutions for 2022:

Update your resume.

Go through your resume and update your summary, skills, and experience. Look at it with a critical eye and ask what can be improved upon. Give it to a friend and ask for feedback. Do this once a month.

After the initial update, it shouldn’t take too much time or energy as long as you stay on top of regular changes.

Update your LinkedIn.

Stay current with your LinkedIn profile. As with your resume, ensure your work history and skills are up to date. Improve any sections that need it and never let it lapse and sit unused.

Like your resume, this shouldn’t be too big a commitment after the initial overhaul.

Maintain your LinkedIn contacts.

Stay connected with your contacts by messaging them or commenting on their posts. Help people where you can by sharing a post in which they ask for help finding a job, for example. Stay connected so that, if you ever need to ask for something, you’re not doing a cold outreach and aren’t that person who only gets in touch when they want something.

Spend 15 minutes a day on this.

Maintain your real-life connections.

And let’s not forget about your real-life friends and acquaintances. Stay connected with these people as well for all the same reasons. COVID may have limited our face-to-face time, but we have phones, emails, Zoom, and social media. Send a few messages or make a few phone calls per week.

Again, this can take as little as 15 minutes a day.

Post relevant content on LinkedIn once a week.

You can handle ONE post a week, right? Post something relevant to your industry, share a news piece, or write an article. If you post regularly, you’ll become recognizable, and people will know who you are.

This should require a time commitment of about 10 minutes to curate something if you’re regularly reading relevant news and views or a few hours to write your own article if you have the time.

Make new connections.

Try to regularly add new connections to your network. Make them real connections based on mutually beneficial relationships in which you exchange information, have conversations, or connect in some other way, rather than more names of people you don’t know on your social media connections lists.

Spend half an hour each week looking for people you’d like to connect with.

Read six books that will help advance your career.

That’s one book every two months, which is probably doable. If you don’t have time to read, listen to the audio versions during your commute. Choose books related to business, success, learning, careers, or your particular industry. Reading is the best way to improve your mind and your life.

The time commitment here depends on how fast you read and the length of the books, obviously.

Add skills.

Aim to add four skills to your skill set this year. That’s one skill every three months, or every quarter. Go through the job postings for positions you would like to hold either now or in future, identify the skills listed in them that you’re lacking, and learn them.

The time commitment depends on the skills, obviously, but be sure to choose goals you can handle so that you don’t drop it and get discouraged.

Volunteer.

Everyone who can should donate a portion of their time to helping others. There are so many benefits to volunteering. It leads to new personal connections, is a learning opportunity, adds new skills, and may even lead to job opportunities. Plus, you know, you’re doing something that benefits others, and that is always a good use of time.

Volunteer commitments can be as little as an hour or two once or twice a month.

Send thank you notes.

Resolve this year to never let an opportunity to say “thank you” pass by. Thank interviewers for this time after job interviews, thank people who give you referrals and references, thank anyone who helps you in any way. Thank them profusely, in writing. Thanking people is satisfying and addictive. Once you start, you won’t want to stop. People appreciate having their contribution, no matter how small, acknowledged.

Thank you notes take mere moments to write and have huge social pay off.

Build your personal brand.

If a personal brand is elemental to your career choice, spend the time and energy required to build that up. Focus on your website and SEO, and build up your social media presence. Learn about brand building and how to apply best practices.

Devote as much time as you can depending on your stage, how much time you have available, and how important your brand is to your career. An hour a week may be all you need.

Move towards a needed change.

If you’ve been meaning to make a change and are in a position to do so, do it this year. So much is in flux right now, and if we’ve learned anything from the last three years, it’s that life is unpredictable, and there may never be a right time for a change. If it’s time to make a career change, start taking steps.

This can take as little time as a few hours per month to research a new skill or job or send out feeler messages to potential contacts.

Devote time to getting what you want and deserve.

We’ve tried to include resolutions that are not overly time-consuming or daunting but that only take a few minutes a day or hours a week. Things have been hard for many lately, and we only have so much time and energy. That being said, you matter and should be devoting time to getting what you want and deserve.

Heading into 2022, resolve to dedicate yourself to improving your skills, knowledge, and happiness. This will improve your chances of success in all areas of your life.