Well, we made it. Happy new year, friends, and welcome to 2024 — congrats! I hope you are entering the new year feeling energized and ready for your best year yet. |
This year, my promise to you is to deliver the same bite-sized career mentorship you've come to enjoy — but make things even better. Expect things to be more tactical, in-depth and actionable. And I'll even try to dial up the humor a bit (bear with me on that one). |
Today's Mentor's Corner is a classic for the new year but with a twist. Instead of rehashing the usual New Year's resolutions spiel, I'm going to look at why they often fall short and what you can do instead for real, lasting change. |
Estimated read time: 5 minutes 28 seconds |
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📈 Mentor's Corner Insights put together by me or coaches who usually charge $750+/hour and mentor senior execs. One practical lesson a week that will make a measurable impact on your career, delivered right to you — for $0. |
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Why 95% of New Year's resolutions fail (+ a method I like better) |
At New Year, I'm always reminded of a part in the book, Gates of Fire, when the Spartans do battle with a city called Artemisium. |
To give you some context: |
With an army of professional (and v. disciplined!) soldiers, the Spartans were the "creme de la creme" of Ancient Greece. |
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The locals, on the other hand, were amateurs. They were fishermen, potters, and farmers, picking up arms to defend their home turf. |
So… |
The two armies are facing off… |
And interestingly, have polar opposite ways of preparing themselves. |
The Spartans quietly put on their armour, get into battle formation, and march forward slowly, chanting a hymn. |
Whereas the locals? |
Give this huge "rah-rah" motivational speech. And while this gets them pumped up and charging into battle, after a few minutes, the inevitable happens: |
The motivational "high" (which the Spartans called, "fake courage") wears off, and their spirit crumbles. |
Why am I reminded of this at New Year? |
Well… |
Come December 31st… |
Most people, like the locals, are "pumping themselves up". |
How they're gonna "crush it" in 2024, making ambitious resolutions, ready to go out swinging on the 1st of January. |
But what happens? |
Statistically, 95% will quit in two weeks time. |
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Now, don't get me wrong. |
I'm not saying that New Year is a terrible time to make changes. Au contraire - it's a fantastic time to make changes. |
But there's an "amateur" and a "professional" way of going about it. |
And the "professional" way is what I'd like to share in today's Career Supplement. |
Let's go. |
🔤 "1,2,3, Ubuntu!" |
In 2007, the Boston Celtics finished almost last in the league. |
To turn things around next season, the coach chose one word he wanted everyone to focus on: |
"Ubuntu"… which comes from the old African proverb, "I am because we are." |
I.e he wanted the focus to be teamwork. |
The result? Thanks to better teamwork, The Celtics finished with the best record in the league. |
So…my first suggestion is: |
Choose a one-word "theme" for your year that'll guide everything in your life, not just your career. |
(Mine last year was "growth", and the year before was "foundations." This year, it's "mindset.") |
Then, put the word somewhere it'll stare you in the face. |
Could be on a sticky note on your desk, or on your calendar as a daily recurring 5am slot. |
P.S. reply with your word of the year — I'm curious what you'll choose! |
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Once you have that, ask… |
🎯 What's your 1 thing? |
Now, try to turn your word into a single career goal. To do this, ask Gary Keller's focusing question, |
"What's the 1 thing I can do this year, such that by doing it, everything else becomes easier and/or unnecessary?" |
For some, that might be building better professional relationships, or optimizing your LinkedIn profile. Stuff like those can open doors and bring you new opportunities, and makes everything else easier. (P.S. if you want to optimize your LinkedIn profile, try this free tool) |
The point is, simplify your goals down to the one most important thing. |
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| | | | …by the way, if you use LinkedIn, go to my profile and hit the 'Follow' button. I share a mix of practical career strategy and mid-week motivation — stuff that makes it easy to keep your career on track.
Topics coming up there: how to motivate/uplift a team, body language hacks and how to carry yourself in professional settings. See you there — feel free to connect and say hi! | alright, let's get back to my essay… |
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〰️ Distill it down to a "lead" measure |
The problem with goals like: |
Lose weight Gain muscle Become a writer Build a personal brand Learn French
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… is simple. |
They're not directly in your control. |
(You can't wake up in the morning and decide how much weight you're gonna lose, or how much French your brain remembers). |
Reason being, they're "lag" measures that result from other actions. These other actions are called "lead" measures, and that's what you want as a goal. |
For example: |
Walk 4000 steps before work every morning Do a 5x5 program in the gym on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Spend 30 minutes writing a part of an essay everyday Write 8 pieces of Linkedin content a month Take two hours of conversational French classes per week
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Doing these will get you closer to the goals above, but they're things you can control. |
🚨 Beware the glorious failure |
In 1926, a guy called Arnold Bennett published a book titled, "How to Live on 24 Hours a Day," teaching office workers how to get more out of their free time. |
So, coming from a productivity guru, you might expect to hear: |
"Plan every minute of your day!" or, "Your mind doesn't need a rest - it just needs a change!" or, "Sleep? You can sleep when you're dead!"
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But no. |
Instead, his main piece of advice was: |
"Beware of undertaking too much at the start." |
"Because a glorious failure leads to nothing. But a petty win leads to something that isn't petty." |
So, my advice? |
If you think you can study for 2 hours… |
Try 20 minutes. |
If you think you can write 3000 words a day, try 300. |
Because remember: |
We overestimate what we can do in a day, but underestimate what we can do in a year. |
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That's a wrap. If that struck a chord, please do either one of the following: |
Forward this email to people who might need it, and tell them about my emails. It takes me ~20 hours researching and writing each of these coaching emails. Sharing it takes just 10 seconds and helps me get my thoughts out there. Leave a review on my emails, or say hi on LinkedIn! I'd love to know what part resonated most and how I can make the next one better.
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How NY resolutions evolve 🤣 |
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🔎 Speed Up Your Job Search One actionable piece of advice to help you hack your job search. |
How to improve your resume in 2024 |
Read the full article here. |
If your resume isn't getting you the response you want, it likely is not a problem with your actual experience. It's about how you've presented your experience. |
The good news is, there are usually just a couple of tweaks you need to make that will drastically revamp your resume. |
This guide shares how to improve your resume. Here are two tips I liked: |
🎯 Quantify your achievements. Instead of writing that you "improved sales," say that you "improved sales by 15%". Instead of saying that you "managed a successful team," state that you "led a team of 15 employees…". |
🗣️ Cut the soft skills. Soft skills such as leadership, motivation, and communication are obviously things employers are actively looking for in a successful candidate. But — people make the mistake of just stating things like "strong leadership skills" on their resumes. Don't. Instead, demonstrate those skills through your work experiences. |
To make sure your resume is effective, upload your resume to this tool. It'll analyze each line on your resume and tell you how to improve each one, so you'll get past the resume screeners and hiring managers. It's constantly updated to modern standards. |
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If you're new here, let's get the intros out of the way. |
I'm Rohan. Six years ago, I found myself frustrated with the sea of misleading career advice online, so I started Resume Worded. The goal was simple: provide guidance that actually works. |
But resumes were only the tip of the iceberg. There was a lot of clichéd, generic career advice out there. So, I started this email series. Each week, I talk about real career strategy, informed not only by my experiences but by my conversations with industry leaders, senior coaches who train CEOs, and people with way more experience than I have. |
Every email you receive is written by me, not a ghostwriter. I'm here, on the other end, reading your replies. |
Until next time, |
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Rohan @ Resume Worded |
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What'd you think of today's edition? |
👍 I loved it. |
🤔 Pretty average, step it up. |
🤢 You didn't bring enough value. |
Here's a recent review — thank you Yash! |
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P. S. To make sure your career never goes off the rails, don't miss my future emails. A simple way to make sure you get each email is: |
If you're using Gmail, hit the 3 dots at the top-right corner, and choose Move to -> Primary. Or drag this email to Primary if you're on your computer. If you're using Apple Mail, tap on our email address at the top of this email (next to "From:" on mobile) and click "Add to VIPs.".
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