There are a hundred reasons to choose a career path. Some people love children, so they teach. I moved to Washington, DC, to improve our political system. Criminal justice majors want to keep society safe, whereas entrepreneurs like my company’s Director of Marketing aim to provide a valuable service or product to the public.

Some people like making money, of course. Others love creating art or being onstage, or climbing rocky peaks.

Whatever your career goals, it’s important that you consider yourself and others in strategic and tactical ways. How to help yourself will come in January’s New Year’s Resolution post. Today’s post honors Christmas and Hanukkah with four ways you can put others first when considering your career.

1. Having a successful career—financially, spiritually, emotionally, and otherwise—will help your future family. Thinking about how your professional choices will benefit a spouse and children is important to creating a great work-life balance from the start of your career.
2. Whether you manage people or work under the direction of others, be sure that you consider your personal and professional strengths and weaknesses. If you aren’t a great manager, consider improving leadership skills or just avoiding management positions for the time being. If you don’t work well in group settings, independence at work may be beneficial to you and your employer as you develop your interpersonal skills.

Conversely, consider your strengths. If you’re extroverted, you may want to be in sales or marketing. If you’re detail-oriented, consider accounting!

3. Acting, media, meteorology, and other career paths have a direct impact on people you may not meet. Are your career decisions honoring your values by ensuring that those who you’ll never meet will be positively influenced by your work?
4. What example will you set for those around you—colleagues, customers, new staff, etc.—through your ethics? Do your actions and words reflect excellent personal values, which others will emulate? Or will you be the person who brings them down instead of up?

Christmas and Hanukkah honor important traditions of putting others first. No matter where your career takes you, be sure to think about how you can put others first in order to have a holistically successful professional life.

Dustin Siggins is the founder of Proven Media Solutions. A 2008 graduate of Plymouth State University’s Business Honors Major with a Minor in Communications, Dustin has spent his post-Plymouth career in the Washington, D.C. area working in public policy, political journalism, and communications strategy. As a student, Dustin was involved in many student groups in several capacities, such as: Campus Crusade for Christ, Catholic Campus Ministries, founded PSU Republicans, Boxing Club, columnist/editor for The Clock, Student Senate, Vice President of the Dodgeball Club, host 91.7 WPCR Plymouth, PASS Tutor