Five Strategies to Make 2018 Your Best Year Personally and Professionally
My writing is usually focused on sport business issues, advice for job seekers and news about the Iowa Sport and Recreation Management program. On this first day of 2018, I am branching out with five recommendations – and implementation strategies – that will yield both personal and professional benefits in the new year. Most of these also address the most popular new year’s resolutions, as determined by online polling firm YouGov.
Build exercise into your daily routine
Exercise does not have to involve gym memberships or significant time. I bicycle to and from work every day. My choice of transportation guarantees me a minimum of 20-30 minutes of cardio activity each day, even when my schedule is too busy to engage in any other exercise (it also helps me avoid wasting money on gas and parking - see the next recommendation below).
Make intentional choices every day to be more active. Walk to your destination, walk up and down a few flights of stairs for 15 minutes, do 10 pushups in the middle of the day, shovel the driveway or mow the lawn rather than paying someone else to do it, do wall sits while watching TV – there are dozens of ways to build more exercise into your day.
Beyond the health benefits consistent exercise provides, it will also help you work more effectively. Exercise is proven to help reduce stress, and stress reduces productivity at work. The 15 minutes you take to step away from your desk and walk around the block will help clear your mind and get you refocused on whatever you are working on for school or work.
Save more money
Open a savings account that is off limits (no withdrawals) and start making regular deposits to it. If you stay committed to this over a long enough period of time, you will eventually be able to make more significant and meaningful investments in yourself that you never used to have the money for, such as the down payment for a house, the money needed to help pay for a semester abroad, fees for a field trip or money that will make it easier to accept an unpaid internship. Your long-term goals with a savings account will change at different stages of life, but you will never regret having more money on hand to do the things that are truly important to you and will have a lasting impact on your happiness or your career.
Constructing a personal or household budget goes hand in hand with this recommendation. It can be quite revealing to go back through several months of credit card bills, bank statements and ATM withdrawals (and to consider how much of what you spent money on has any value to you now). Build a monthly budget around your basic expenses (rent/mortgage, utilities, car payment, etc.), set a limit on monthly entertainment/spending money and make it part of your budget, and put the rest into your off-limits savings account each time you receive a paycheck.
Put down the phone
Smartphones are essential for many reasons in modern society, but they can also damage interpersonal relationships and limit your ability to make authentic connections with new people and develop your professional and personal network. As I wrote a little over a year ago, I observe college students in my classes missing out on dozens of opportunities each semester to develop relationships with peers and instructors that could positively influence their professional futures because they choose instead to interact with their smartphones and laptops. In a research study reported on by the Washington Post, “phubbing” (snubbing others in favor of a mobile phone) was linked to decreased marital satisfaction. The same behavior also hurt other relationships because phubbers are seen as less polite and attentive.
So put your phone away more often in 2018, spend more time interacting face to face with the people who are present in your daily life and introduce yourself to peers on campus or at work. Commit to tucking your phone away in a bag or elsewhere out of reach for a designated period of time (e.g., during dinner with a friend or during class), make eye contact with those around you and have conversations. Your communication skills will improve over time, and development of those skills is essential to unlocking your full potential. As the Washington Post also reported on recently, Google performed exhaustive research to identify the most important qualities held by its top employees, and “communicating and listening well” were near the top of the list, ahead of any technical, engineering or mathematical abilities.
Free reading
Read (a book, not your facebook or Twitter feed) for at least 15 minutes before going to sleep each night. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the amount of time Americans 15 and older spend reading on weekends and holidays has declined in recent years as time spent watching TV and using computers for leisure has increased. Why is this concerning? Because reading comprehension impacts nearly everything we do, and it does not improve by binge watching shows on Netflix.
Reading comprehension affects one’s ability to distinguish details in writing, understand the meaning of written communications, connect ideas within a document and ultimately to communicate effectively. Moreover, reading is the gateway to a lifelong education. If you consider the formal education that you completed or are currently working on in school to be the finish line in your educational career, you will fall far short of your professional and personal potential. Education should be a lifelong endeavor. Books and other written material hold the key to learning new information that can be applied to your career, your relationships and your personal growth. Read whatever you want – fiction, non-fiction – just read. And do not skim through sections that are not immediately understood. Look up unfamiliar words and pay attention to the punctuation and sentence structure used by authors.
Along with the previous recommendation, reading consistently will help you become a better communicator in the new year while also enriching your life.
Reconnect with people in your network
Networking is not about collecting LinkedIn connections or meeting someone and never speaking to them again. Effective networking is about building authentic relationships. Just like all relationships in our lives, networking requires a commitment of time and energy after the initial connection.
Carve out time each week – the first 15 minutes at work, the last 15 minutes before you leave the office, whatever works for you – to send at least one message to a connection that you want to keep in your professional network. Depending on the person and the way you typically communicate with them, you could send an email, a handwritten note, a text message – just something that reminds them of your existence and interest in staying in touch. Make it a goal to communicate in this way two or three times during 2018 with each of the people in your network that you would most regret losing as a connection.
Start the year by reaching out to those in your network that you need to reconnect with after a long layoff. Everyone is busy, so most people will understand if you let them know that you apologize for losing touch and look forward to doing a better job of staying connected in the future – and then follow through on it.
Just about everyone, me included, can improve in one or more of the five areas outlined above. Stay committed to making progress, and have a happy and fulfilling new year!