Personal and professional development for your new resolutions for 2021

With the beginning of this new year, it is easy that you have proposed resolutions with which to make the most of the months to come. These dates are a source of inspiration for millions of people, a stage of closing of a cycle and the beginning of a new one that encourages us to try new things and not get stuck in what is already we know.

Therefore, in this article we will talk about the pillars on which you can build your new personal and professional projects for this 2021.

• Related article: "Personal Development: 5 reasons for self-reflection"

6 Areas of personal and professional development from which to set goals

If you have proposed to take advantage of the start of the new year to self-motivate and give a boost to your personal and / or professional career, look at these areas in which you can grow and improve. They will serve as reference points on a map that It will help you set goals, see your progress and make corrections as you progress.

1. Know how to pose new challenges

The simple fact of specifying (putting into words, among other things) the challenges that you want to prioritize during the coming months is a key activity.

There are some simple tips that you can apply to do it in the best way, such as:

• Reserve between a day and a week to think about challenges and write them down in a notebook that you carry with you.
• Establish an order of priorities in two categories: short and medium term challenges, depending on whether they last days or months.
• Select between one and three challenges in each category.

2. Overcome uncertainty

The situation of economic and health crisis from which we started makes it necessary to learn to tolerate uncertainty more. If we let the fear of making mistakes paralyze us, it will all have been in vain.

In this sense, it is necessary to develop anxiety and stress management skills; if you need help, it is always possible to start going to psychotherapy either in person or by video call.

3. Know how to measure our forces

It's very important control well the rest times, planning and execution of plans, so that we neither stay without doing anything nor get frustrated and end up throwing in the towel at the idea that we are not progressing as we wanted. Challenges always have to involve us a certain effort, since otherwise we will not progress.

4. Boost your self-esteem and your self-confidence

Your self-esteem and self-confidence have to develop as you progress through your projects.. You must be able to recognize your progress as such, so that you do not reach a point where it gives you a certain "vertigo" to face to the next phase of the challenge, and without the impostor syndrome holding you back (especially if you are focusing on your development professional).

• You may be interested in: "6 good tips (and habits) to boost your self-esteem"

5. Promote your development of professional skills

This is due both to having as references (whether teachers or mentors) the best in the fields in which you want to improve, on the one hand, and because you know how to “map” from the beginning of professional skills that you want to perfect and polish.

Something that usually helps in this is to take into account the distinction between soft skills and hard skills. The former refer to knowledge that cannot be put into words and have to do with the management of emotions, communication and social skills, and even the fact of having physical preparation, in certain cases. The second are related to knowledge and experience that have a direct relationship with a field of specific job: knowing how to program, mastering the use of a computer program, knowing the jargon used in a sector, etc.

Knowing this, and assuming that progressing along one path does not imply progressing by leaps and bounds along the another if we do not invest time and efforts to improve in both, it is easier to reach our objectives.

6. Improve your capacity for self-motivation

None of the above will be viable if you do not adopt certain habits and strategies to motivate yourself.Especially at the beginning, when you face new challenges that can catch you “by surprise” and demoralize you when you see that at that point you don't know how to do almost anything.

The good thing about getting used to taking care of this aspect of professional and professional development is that this experience can be useful for many types of projects that you propose; The bad thing is that to achieve this you cannot limit yourself to observing what others do and copying it, because each individual has their own sources of motivation and gratification, interests, values, etc.

Of course, there is a rule that is met in almost all cases: do not subdivide the big goals into small objectives short-term or even achievable in a matter of a few hours is fatal, so make sure you do it forever.

Do you want to have professional psychological support?

If you are interested in having psychological assistance and / or coaching services, we invite you to contact us. On UPAD Psychology and Coaching We have been working for years both for individuals and for professionals and companies in the fields of psychological therapy, coaching, sports psychology and training. You can count on us both in person and in online sessions by video call. Here you will find our contact information.

Bibliographic references:

• Fryer, J. and Elliot, A. (2008). Self-regulation of achievement goal pursuit. In D. Schunk and B. Zimmerman (Eds.), Motivation and self-regulated learning: Theory, research, and applications (pp. 53 - 75). New York: Erlbaum.
• Harackiewicz, J.; Barron, K.; Elliot, A.; Tauer, J. & Carter, S. (2000). Short-term and long-term consequences of achievement goals: Predicting interest and performance over time. Journal of Educational Psychology, 92 (2): pp. 316 - 330.
• Mantilla, L (1999). Skills for life: An educational proposal to live better. Bogota
• Stella, C. (2013). The Study Skills Handbook. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Richard, W. (2008). Time Management: Proven Techniques for Making Every Minute Count. Adams Media.