Reflections on 2024 to Prepare for 2025

By Paul Cecala, GCDF,  December 3, 2024

Photo by Jan Kop’va on Unsplash

Where did this year go! For me it flew by very fast leaving me with many accomplishments completed and some unfinished. I am thinking about this because every year, my business coach and I look at the year’s successes for my business and the things I need to do different or better to grow it next year. I highly recommend you do the same, especially as it pertains to sustaining and growing your career and job search.

It is important to periodically look at your accomplishments and goals to make course corrections and celebrate the successes. Here is how I approach this important task along with some of my successes and areas for growth.

 

1. Work with a coach.

Yes, I have a team of business coaches whom I meet with monthly to discuss the status of my business and gain insights from these mentors and advisors on ways to improve. I also meet with several colleagues and belong to 3 different professional associations to see what is working for them and learn from their mistakes.

You should have a management or leadership coach and/or career coach along with a couple of mentors on your advisory team. As independent 3rd parties, they can offer perspectives and guidance you may not have considered. And, since they should fall into the been there, done that, category of life experiences, there is much value to be gained from their wisdom.

 

2. Look back at the past year

Usually, in Oct or Nov I start gathering data from my past year’s business activities. I’ll consider the things that I did, quantify their effects, and project where they should land at the end of the year.

Some of my more significant 2024 accomplishments

• Publishing my book on schedule on March 1st.
• Conducting the marketing plan for the book completing about 50% of my goals and attaining 90% of my 2024 financial goal for the book.
• Completing 8 days of corporate communications and leadership training for 4 different organizations meeting 65% of the financial goal for this income stream.
• Successfully teaching the job search course I created twice. I only reached half the people I wanted to and made 75% of the income I had hoped for.

Using this data and industry research, client testimonials, reviews and surveys, I begin to evaluate their effectiveness by completing a SWOT analysis. This data helps inform where I want to go for the coming year.

I suggest you do the same. With the help of the activity tracking dashboard in my book, Take Control of Your Job Search, Worksheet 3, you can identify the strengths and weaknesses of your career plan. You may need to best guess the last month or two’s activities to see trends. With this data you can then determine what is and what is not working to adjust your long-term goals and daily activity for next year.

3. Write out your annual goals for work and career

I have a long business plan that I update once every 3-5 years (it is part of what good business leaders do) which outlines my financial, marketing and advertising, services and products development, professional development, and other goals for the coming year. To create the goals section, I have an annually updated and adjusted excel spreadsheet listing the goals, their projected cost in time (hours) and money, and revenue. I then prioritize them and break those goals down into no more than 3 that I can accomplish each quarter. For VERY large goals, I might split it into primary objectives to accomplish in the quarter. These are then further broken down into monthly and weekly tasks. Throughout the year, my coaches and I review these goals, adjust according to market and business conditions, and, in Nov, evaluate their future for next year.

For those in job search, my Project Planning Methodology, as outlined in my book, easily accomplishes most of the same concept for you. (See Worksheet # 2 – 5, pgs 12-25 in the book). One key to their success, though, is to consistently review them throughout the year to learn from them and adjust your activities accordingly. These cannot be static documents you look at once and put away. Create a monthly calendar event to review your goals. It should only take 15-30 minutes or one session with your coach to see the trends and make changes to your next month’s actions.

 

4. This seems time consuming

At this point you are likely saying, Paul, it sounds like you spend hours on this process. And, yes, I do spend a fair number of hours, maybe about 30-40 over 2-3 months. And it takes maybe 30 minutes per week to consistently track the data. But this is for my business and demands more time.

You should likely spend less than 8 hours on this over 2-4 weeks to research, identify, and plan your annual goals. And, it may take 30 minutes per month to update and evaluate your progress.

Fifteen of my 2024 clients were diligent in creating, tracking and adjusting their job search goals. They each reported that it helped keep them more motivated because they could see the progress being made. Nine commented that it helped with their family support by showing the family that progress and giving them qualitative and quantitative actions they were taking towards finding work. Seven were absolutely convinced, as am I, that it reduced their time in job search by weeks to months (I estimate an average 3 months compared to clients that did not follow the process). All stated it took only an average of 1 hour per month out of their time.

5. Address the unaccomplished or lackluster performing goals

• I did not accomplish all I set out to do. A good set of goals will stretch our capabilities and likely will not be completed. What did I fall short on?
• I wanted to get on 9 podcasts this year. I made to 5.
• I wanted to have my book in eBook format on Kindle. That has become a priority for 2025.
• I wanted to increase my 1 on 1 coaching hours by 60% over 2023. Thay are going to be flat, essentially the same.
• I wanted to do fewer speaking engagements but increase the number of paid gigs and increase my conversion rate of attendees to clients. I did more speaking, fewer paid, and did not convert as many clients.

There were others, but these are the biggies to me. It’s okay. Where I fell short on these, I did better on others. And armed with the data I collected from these goals I know what I need to do differently for 2025. For example, if anyone knows of a good agent to book me into paid speaking engagements, let me know. I need to contract with someone!

Addressing your low performing goals may mean addressing some of your fears or insecurities. That is what makes these areas of growth. It also provides you with issues to discuss with your coaches and mentors. Let them help you become a better and more successful you. That is not only their job, but also why they do what they do in those roles!

Closing thoughts

I wrote this article for three reasons:

1. I wanted to share some of my successes from the past. It is a way for me to celebrate my work. I am not seeking kudos or congrats from you. I just needed to see in print some of what I am proud of from 2024.
2. I believe strongly that a good coach will practice what they preach. I hope you see from this that I am doing the things I recommend for you. In fact, I interviewed for no less than 7 jobs in 2024. Three were for part-time positions, 4 were with the employers I conducted the corporate training for. Some might argue though, that for the 140 people I did a free introductory consultation with, those were all interviews.
3. I want to encourage you to set and manage goals for yourself. They don’t have to be elaborate. There does’t need to be many. But you need to have them. You need to write them down, break them into manageable tasks you complete monthly, weekly, and daily. And you need to celebrate them as soon as you accomplish them. This may be the single greatest thing you can do to improve your success and stay motivated in your job search!

If you like what you read here, reach out to me. If you want more assistance with preparing your goals for 2025, let me know. Together, let’s make 2025 your most successful year. If I can help you with that, I will be closer to meeting my 2025 goals!

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Paul Cecala

Paul Cecala can help you navigate to your success. Learn more about his services here.