Feel like you’re stuck in a career rut? Now is the perfect time to change things up and grow your career throughout the next year. You may be fearful of change but there is no growth without it. Here’s how to fully embrace change and make it work for you.

Figure Out What To Change

The first step to career growth is figuring out your weaknesses. A great way to do this is to do a self-evaluation or use the results from your performance review as a jumping-off point. You can also consult technology news to discover trends and figure out which way the market is heading. Additionally, even if you’re not in the job market right now, you should look up job ads for positions you’d love to have in the future and see what kind of experience they’re requiring right now. While some of those technologies are bound to change down the road or from company to company, you’ll have a clearer picture of what you need to become an expert in before getting your dream job.

Make Incremental Changes and Clear Goal

No, you’re not going to jump from junior developer to CTO overnight by making a few big changes. Instead, you’ll need to focus on the long game. Maybe your big goal involves getting that coveted CTO position or jumping from .Net to Mobile development. That’s great! Having a clear goal and clear direction will help you get what you want in your career. If you aren’t sure what you’re aiming for, take some time for self-reflection and research so that you have one or more large, clear career goals you can aim for. Now that you have a clear goal, break it down into actionable tasks. Dividing your main goal into incremental changes you can start making daily, weekly or monthly will help you grow your career throughout the year with only small amounts of effort.

Notice How The Changes You Make Are Affecting Your Career

Keeping yourself motivated to make these changes may not always be easy. If you need a way to hold yourself accountable, keep a career journal, visual representations of your goal at your desk where you’ll see them every day and keep track of how the changes you’re making are affecting your career. You won’t see results overnight necessarily, but in a year’s time or more you’ll be able to look back and see exactly how the changes you made propelled your career forward. This will keep you motivated to keep changing, improving, and welcoming career growth.

Afraid of change? Don’t be! Change is the vehicle that drives your career into amazing new places. In this industry when you resist change you’ll fall behind innovative trends, lack the drive to push you into higher level roles and eventually you won’t have the desired skillset that IT employers are looking for. Start making changes now and head in the other direction, the best direction, the direction of career growth.