Skip to content
The Career Goals We Don’t Talk About
Goal-setting is everywhere this time of year. Vision boards, professional development plans, and goal-setting templates dominate conversations. But what about the goals we don’t talk about? The ones that don’t make it into an annual review or get celebrated at networking events?
These invisible goals—like setting boundaries, finding joy, and navigating corporate politics—are just as essential as any career map or goal tracker. And yet, they rarely get the attention they deserve.
Crazy Curls & Career Confessions
Share your wildest work or hair story anonymously!
This blog will help you:
Ready to strengthen your network and head into the new year with intention? Let’s dive in.
Before you can nurture your network, you need to identify the people who’ve been instrumental in your career this year. Take a moment to think about:
Action Tip: Create a short list of the five most impactful relationships you’ve had this year. Write down one specific way each person contributed to your growth.
Gratitude is a simple yet powerful way to maintain and strengthen connections. The key is to make it personal and specific. Instead of generic “thanks for everything” messages, highlight what the person did and why it mattered to you.
How You Can Show Your Gratitude:
Action Tip: Send personalized notes via email or handwritten cards. If possible, invite them for coffee or a virtual chat to express your gratitude directly.
If you’ve fallen out of touch with key connections, year-end networking events are a great way to reconnect. These events offer a casual yet professional setting to check in with peers, mentors, and even new potential connections.
Where to Find Events:
Attending these events not only strengthens your existing network but also helps expand it, introducing you to people who can play a critical role in your professional development in 2025.
Action Tip: Before attending, prepare a short “year-in-review” story about your career progress and goals. This makes it easier to spark meaningful conversations.
While group events are great, nothing beats a personalized conversation. Use this time of year to schedule one-on-ones with your key connections to reflect on the year and discuss future opportunities.
Conversation Starters:
These conversations show genuine interest in their perspective and can strengthen your relationship.
Action Tip: Offer to treat them to coffee, lunch, or even a virtual meeting if in-person isn’t feasible.
The relationships you nurture now can continue to grow in the new year—but only if you’re intentional. A connection plan ensures you’re staying top of mind with your network, even when life gets busy.
Ideas for Your Plan:
Action Tip: Make a list of three new connections you want to establish next year and find relevant networking events or groups to build those relationships.
Your career isn’t just built on skills or accomplishments—it thrives on the relationships you cultivate. As you close out the year, take the time to reflect, express gratitude, and intentionally nurture your connections. Whether it’s reaching out to a mentor, attending a networking event on Meetup.com, or sending a thoughtful note to an advocate, these small actions can have a big impact on your professional journey.
The main benefit of this “press tour” concept is keeping my momentum going. When it comes to networking, your work is never finished. At some point, you become the person people are trying to meet—and that’s what you’re working toward. But something with such abstract benefits can be hard to get out of bed for. But when I’m tempted to bed rot after a day of work instead of putting on my networking outfit and leaving the house, I pump myself up by reopening my vision board and remembering that if I want my life to feel like a movie, I have to go on the press tour.
he key to 2025 isn’t just setting ambitious career goals—it’s building the network to help you achieve them. Let’s make it a year of connection and growth.
For more career chats, check them out here.
Crazy Curls & Career Confessions
Share your wildest work or hair story anonymously. I’ll share advice via the career chats page on how to navigate them.
Rewriting the Rules of Career Goals
Traditional SMART goals sound nice on paper, but they’re not enough. Success in corporate spaces often requires skills that don’t fit into neat templates: navigating politics, reading the room, and understanding the corporate landscape. These unspoken goals can define how far you go just as much as your workplace performance.
If your professional goals only focus on what you can achieve—like promotions, accolades, or a polished career map—you might be missing the bigger picture. Goals that elevate your whole employee experience, social capital, and ability to thrive in corporate spaces are just as critical.
The Goal of Saying No: A Mindset Shift
Learning to say no is one of the most underrated professional skills. No to projects that don’t align with your career goals, to networking events that leave you drained. No to being the “yes person” for every ask.
This isn’t about sabotaging your professional development. It’s about creating space for work goals that matter. Every “no” is an opportunity to focus on high-impact tasks, protect your peace, and bring your best to what truly counts.
Lesson: Saying no is not a weakness; it’s a strength. Protecting your bandwidth allows you to show up where it matters most and ensures you don’t burn out on work that doesn’t serve your long-term goals.
Tip: Before saying yes or no, assess the ask through three lenses: 1) Will this elevate my visibility in the organization? 2) Does this align with my career goals? 3) Will this leave me with enough capacity for high-value work? If it’s not a yes to at least two, give yourself permission to say no without guilt.
“If your professional goals only focus on what you can achieve."
You may be missing the bigger picture.
The Goal of Navigating the Corporate Landscape
Navigating corporate politics and reading the room is about understanding power dynamics, not playing manipulative games. It’s about identifying who holds influence, whose voices are trusted, and how decisions are truly made. These aren’t “soft” skills—they’re the blueprint for thriving in systems not always built for equity.
Lesson: The ability to navigate corporate dynamics isn’t a bonus skill; it’s essential for longevity and influence in any workplace. Understanding these unspoken rules helps you position yourself strategically and advocate for what you deserve.
Tip: Map out your corporate ecosystem. Who influences decisions? Who advocates for others? Who has informal power? Observe how these individuals operate in meetings, respond to challenges, and communicate. Use these observations to refine your approach, whether it’s timing your input strategically or aligning yourself with key stakeholders.
The Advice: Build Goals That Go Beyond the Surface
Joy is more than a fleeting emotion; it’s a career strategy. When you prioritize joy, you’re less likely to burn out and more likely to perform at a higher level. Joy comes from celebrating small wins, building genuine connections, and finding meaning in your work—even when the job itself isn’t perfect.
Lesson: Joy isn’t a luxury; it’s a form of resilience. Incorporating joy into your work life sustains your energy, creativity, and ability to handle challenges with clarity and grace.
Tip: Incorporate joy into your workday intentionally. Create rituals that center joy, like taking five minutes to reflect on what went well before logging off or connecting with a colleague whose energy uplifts you. Joy doesn’t just happen—it has to be cultivated.
Finding Joy: The Missing Piece in Professional Development Plans
The goals that truly transform your career aren’t always the ones you write on a goal-setting template. They’re the strategic, invisible goals that shape how you’re seen, how you feel, and how you navigate your work life.
As you create your professional development plan this year, include goals that prioritize your whole experience—your time, energy, relationships, and well-being. Success isn’t just about what you achieve—it’s about how you get there and how sustainable it feels along the way.
Check out The Career Chat Corner for tips on building confidence, achieving career goals, and thriving in your workplace experience.
Search The Blog
Optimized by Seraphinite Accelerator
