Happy New Year!! I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays and spent oodles of quality time with family and friends. But now it’s time to stop all the eating and drinking, and get focused on the New Year.

One of my resolutions this year is to be a more consistent communicator, and send out valuable, useful, and relevant content every week. It’s going to be “Woman UP! Wednesday” every Wednesday, and I hope you’ll apply the information to your own lives and careers, make comments, and share it with your world.

Hopefully by now the fog has lifted and you’re ready to make 2016 the best year ever!!

Here are 16 tips to help kick-start your career and start this year off with a bang.

1. Review 2015
   Take stock of last year and identify all the highs and lows. Celebrate your accomplishments and come up with a game plan to address your “areas of improvement”.
2. Start a Brag Book
   So you don’t have to rely on your memory, start a Brag Book or a success journal and keep track of all your accomplishments, achievements, and successes on a weekly basis.
3. Express Gratitude
   No one achieves any level of success alone. If you haven’t done so already, now is the time to reach out to those who have helped you and say thank you.
4. Update Your Resume
   Take the time to transform your resume into a true success story and update it with all your accomplishments from 2015.  It’s always better to build it before you need it. Be proactive, not passive, when it comes to your professional resume.
5. Clean Up
   Not only is this the time to clean out the clutter on your desk and get organized, but the same holds true for your inbox. Minimize the hundreds of emails by making a decision, delegating, or deleting that information.
6. Increase Your Skill Set
   Add some new tools to your toolbox and master a new skill. Not only will new skills keep your mind sharp, but it will keep you current, relevant, and marketable.
7. Expand Your Network
   Networking has always been, and will always be, the number one way to not only find a new job, but to take your career to the next level. It’s time to look up from your desk, look around, and figure out who you need to meet and which relationships your need to cultivate.
8. Find a Mentor, Be a Mentor
   Statistics don’t lie, and the evidence is overwhelming that a mentor is critical to professional success. If you don’t have one, find one, and also recognize the value in being a mentor for someone else.
9. Join Professional Associations
   It’s not enough to just know the people in your office, get involved and engaged with your local professional associations. It’s a great way to increase your professional visibility, become more aware of what’s going on in your industry, and get acquainted with the key players within your field.
10. Become a Leader
    Whether it’s initiating a new women’s group within your organization, sitting on a board, or running for president of a professional committee, becoming a leader and developing effective leadership skills is a terrific way to take your career to the next level.
11. Volunteer
    Not only is volunteering in your community a positive way to spend your time, it’s also an effective way to expand your network and increase your visibility. You’ll rub elbows with other business and community leaders. It’s also a marketable quality when searching for a job and a way to differentiate you from other candidates.
12. Build a Brand
    Perception is reality, and how you’re perceived makes an enormous impact on your career…positively and negatively. Think carefully about how you want others to think of you and experience you. Proactively building a professional brand and reputation that accurately reflects who you are and what you do is critical for career success.
13. Do Your Homework
    Professions, industries, and organizations are changing at a rapid rate. It’s important to stay up-to-the-minute on the latest trends, opinions, and movements in the marketplace. Make sure you’re educated and informed about what’s coming down the pipeline. You never want to be the last to know. Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to your career.
14. Monitor Your Online Presence
    Social media has become part of our social lexicon and it is here to stay. The big question:  is your online presence helping you or hurting you? Not only are your friends and family following your online activity on Facebook and LinkedIn, but so are prospective hiring managers and current supervisors. If you want your career to stay on track, build time into your daily routine to manage and sanitize your online presence.
15. Recognize the Power of a Positive Attitude
    Instead of being “Debbie-downer”, give yourself a boost of energy with positive thinking and a jolt of joy by expressing gratitude and appreciation. People are attracted to and want to be around positive people. If you want to get noticed, recognized, and promoted, then it could be time for an attitude adjustment.
16. Write Out Your Goals for 2016
    Whether you want to call it goal-setting or creating a business plan, being crystal clear about what you’re trying to achieve, and how you’re going to achieve it, is the best way to set yourself up for professional success. Next week, I’ll walk you through the 5 Steps for Goal-Setting Success.

Start the New Year off on the right foot, with the right action plan, and with the right mindset, and you’ll be amazed with the results you can achieve in 2016.