​It’s that time of the year again, when we reflect on what we’ve achieved, and recontract with ourselves about our hopes and dreams for the year ahead. This internal contemplation is no doubt spurred by the holiday season, a break from the go-go-go of the rest of the year, offering time to think and evaluate. Our goals often include things like fitness or weight targets, reading or sleeping more, spending more time with family or achieving more balance, being friendlier or more positive, or giving up bad habits.

Social media is awash with suggestions about how to stick to our resolutions like: 

• connecting with the purpose behind your resolution, including how it defines the kind of person you’d like to be
• visualising how you’ll feel when you’ve accomplished your objective
• reminding yourself often of your intention e.g. writing your resolution down every day
• taking tiny steps regularly towards your overarching goal
• committing to others, including publicly, which helps with accountability
• finding at least one other person to work towards the goal with you e.g. a fitness training partner, or a book club
• setting regular targets and rewards for yourself, so you can celebrate progress
• embedding your activities into your routine e.g. a set time each day and diary reminders
• making inactivity more difficult e.g. getting a dog so that you must walk each day
• appreciating potential barriers upfront, and planning now to overcome them before they happen​

Others recognise that the sources of resolutions aren’t necessarily healthy themselves, including envy or pride. For example, Frances Mensah Williams, author and editor/publisher, gives this advice: “Forget about being perfect in 2018 and settle for being your own fabulous self”. She sets out three ideas in her LinkedIn article:

• Realism: not feeling pressurised to chase an ideal state
• Acceptance: acknowledging where we are and the good things we’ve done
• Gratitude: thankfulness for the things we already have

The short-term nature of resolutions (and how tough it is to stick with them) got me thinking about the long-term instead. How do we set, progress towards, measure and achieve multi-decade goals? Our 5 decade-long careers are one example of this. Are there any approaches which can help us to picture these in our minds?

The 4.5 minute video below is an extract of an interview with Indra Nooyi, Chairperson and Chief Executive of PepsiCo. She has been CEO since 2006 (after joining PepsiCo in 1994 and becoming CFO in 2001). 

The interview is facilitated by Daniel Roth from LinkedIn, and offers Indra's career advice for those who aspire to the C-suite. She sets out five 'building blocks' that she feels help ambitious people to get there.

1) Doing your current job very well
2) Developing a specific skill you're known for, especially within your organisation: competence/capability
3) Having the courage to defend what you stand for: ideals and values
4) Communicating effectively: need to be able to "get [people] to go places they never thought they needed to get to"
5) Following your business compass: "your ethics are so important"

She also speaks about her 'hip pocket skill' she cultivated over her career: making simple the complex. A 'hip pocket skill' is something useful that helps you to stand out as not many people in your team or field excel at it.