Every year I post some New Year’s resolutions. I haven’t got around to doing this year’s yet, but I will do. But, I also review last year’s resolutions as a form of reflection on my life and practice. So, that is what I’m going to do in this post.
I posted my New Year’s resolutions on the 2nd January last year. If you want to read them in full they are here. But, essentially I made seven resolutions, so I will go through them and report back.
- Stay well. I have largely done this physically. I have managed to cut down on drinking and keep the exercise up (I’ve run two half marathons this year, which is new for me). I probably could improve on what I eat, so watch this space for next year. I’ve also had a decent go at improving my work-life balance, although I have continued to be terrible at non-work reading, so that is another area to work on.
- Have a good time all the time. This was basically a reminder to myself to not get caught up in pointless institutional or sectoral politics or to spend my time beating myself up over not being more successful. I think that I’ve pretty much managed to do this. I’ve made the most of the opportunities that I have had at work and also successfully developed a broader non-work life (playing more music, seeing friends, running more). So I’m going to give this one a tick.
- Write some books. I’ve done well on this one as well. This year I published Online Research with Rachel Buchanan and The Career Development Handbook with Rosie Alexander and Gill Frigerio. I’m really pleased with both and have got a couple of good ideas for my next projects.
- Influence the policy of the next government. I’ve been doing my best and it does look like the Labour government will improve career guidance provision, but I’m not sure that I (or the various individuals and groups that I’m working with) have really got a good purchase on this yet. We will have to see how this develops over the next year.
- Scream every time someone tells me that there is ‘no money’. Yep, did this. Tried to include scepticism about so-called ‘fiscal realism’ in various talks and presentations that I did. Yet, despite the fact that the government itself has changed the rules, I can’t help feeling that most people feel that the UK (which is the sixth largest economy in the world, with a GDP of $3.5 trillion in 2024) is too poor to afford nice things like career guidance. Expect the screaming to continue in 2025.
- Get ‘green guidance’ off the ground. The sense that career guidance has something to contribute to the global climate crisis is one that has been in the air since the 1990s (especially thanks to Peter Plant). But, last year I felt that it still hadn’t become mainstreamed into practice. I feel that this is still true, but we have made some big strides in 2024. The NICEC conference on sustainability, the special issue of the NICEC journal and the Exploring Green Guidance project have all been useful steps forwards. Even better, there also seems to be lots going on that I have had nothing to do with. It feels that green guidance is steadily making its way to the mainstream.
- Remember Ronald Sultana. This one was both the easiest and the hardest. I rarely go through a day without thinking about Ronald, but obviously remembering him formally was very difficult emotionally. There were lots of activities organised by lots of people in which we came together and remembered him. The NICEC network meeting in which we discussed his legacy and Rie, Manwel and I’s article in the NICEC journal were important markers. We will continue to remember him.
So, those were my resolutions and that was my year. I did pretty well in following through this year I think. So, now it is time to look forwards again.