The Healthcare Traveler Guide to New Year's Resolutions
It’s the start of a new year, and that means it’s time to set your New Year’s resolutions. If you’re a healthcare traveler, staying motivated while on assignment might seem impossible. But just because you are on the road doesn’t mean letting go of your goals! Here’s some advice on how to set and keep your New Year’s resolutions for busy travel nurses and healthcare travelers.
Setting and Keeping Resolutions
One of the keys to success is determining goals and resolutions that mean something to you. Common resolution themes include fitness, organization, and managing finances better, but curating resolutions around your needs, wants, and interests is the key to success. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box and create resolutions as unique as you and your lifestyle.
Healthcare Travel-Specific Resolutions
Consider resolutions that align with your unique lifestyle as a healthcare traveler. Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Try new cuisine in each location you visit
- Support a local business on every assignment
- Explore a new hiking trail or outdoor adventure unique to your location
- Visit a local history museum
Get SMART
Another key to successfully keeping your resolutions is to break them down into small, achievable milestones. To help make each goal more manageable, consider the SMART approach. SMART goals help you better define parameters based on the SMART acronym, which stands for:
Specific: Being specific about your goal helps make it effective (e.g., what are you going to accomplish and what steps are needed to do it?).
Measurable: Making your goal measurable will help keep you on track to achievement (e.g., how much, how often, how long, etc).
Achievable: Here’s where you get honest about your goal. Your goal should be realistic for you, based on your time, skills, and resources you have available to help you reach it. Reflect on if your goal can be realistically accomplished or if you need to set a different, more realistic goal.
Relevant: This step helps you reflect on why you are setting this goal and ensures you are setting it for the right reasons (i.e., because you want it!).
Time-Bound: Setting a deadline to achieve your goal is helpful, but your deadline should be achievable, too. Remember: these are your resolutions, so the deadlines are entirely up to you.
Anti-Resolutions (A.K.A. Your To-Don’t List)
If resolutions aren’t really your thing, consider creating “anti-resolution” or a to-don’t list. Instead of a list of goals you want to achieve, anti-resolutions are about identifying habits or behaviors that hinder your personal and professional growth. Think of them as a mental shift to a standard resolution. For example, instead of resolving to work out more, keep your home clean, and eat healthier, add “stop skipping workouts, don’t leave dishes in the sink, and no more drive-through food stops” to your to-don’t list.
Create a Bucket List
You’ve probably heard about bucket lists and may even have one. Since bucket lists are usually achievements or experiences you want to do before you “kick the bucket,” they aren’t resolutions per se. However, a new year is a great time to consider your long-term goals and those things you absolutely must do in your lifetime.
Here are some things to consider when creating or revising your bucket list:
- What places do you want to travel to (and how can travel healthcare help you visit all of them)?
- What experiences do you want to have (like running a marathon, seeing your favorite musician live, learning a new language, taking a cooking class, etc)?
- Do you have any career goals you want to accomplish before you retire?
And don’t forget to preserve your travel memories! Check out our blog for tips on documenting travel experiences so you can look back on everything you’ve experienced.
Don’t Forget Your Healthcare Travel Goals
Revisit Your Initial Motivation
A new year is a great time to reflect on why you became a healthcare traveler. Maybe you desired adventure, professional growth, networking, or the opportunity to explore new cultures and communities. Whatever your reason for taking that first travel assignment, now is the time to revisit that and remind yourself why you love healthcare travel.
Decide Where You Want to Take Assignments
This is also a great time of year to think about where you want to travel on assignment in the upcoming year. Think about destinations you’ve always wanted to explore or types of facilities or communities you have never worked in.
Find Your Travel Assignments for the New Year
Once you’ve determined travel assignment goals and resolutions for the upcoming year, reach out to your recruiter to share your goals with them. They can help you check off your travel goals, bucket lists, professional aspirations, and other New Year resolutions by finding travel assignments that align with your needs and desires.
Here’s to a year filled with personal and professional growth, memorable experiences, and a fulfilling healthcare travel journey!
Ready to embark on your next travel healthcare assignment? Check out TNAA’s available jobs to get started.
