• Marlo Lyons is a career coach focusing on professional transitions and executive training.
• She told Business Insider the holiday season is the perfect time to reassess your career path.
• Lyons says reflecting now on your goals and boundaries and celebrating your wins can start 2025 on the right foot.

After a year of crushing layoffs and a cool labor market, career coach Marlo Lyons knows job seekers are downright exhausted.

Lyons said the tech and automotive industries have slowed hiring, and there are fewer entry-level jobs available due to advances in automation. However, she sees the end of 2024 as an opportunity for people to reassess their career paths to start 2025 on the right foot.

Here are her top tips for jumpstarting your career in 2025 with a few easy steps before the end of the year.

Reset your mindset

The holiday period is an ideal time to reflect on the past year, Lyons said. Consider — and write down — what went well, what challenges you faced, what you learned, and identify any limiting beliefs that you may have about what you can and can't achieve in the next year.

Do the things that work for you to take stock, she said. Some people like to journal, some meditate, and others choose self-development activities like attending workshops or seminars. Still, Lyons said it's important to take the time to mindfully set your goals and write them down "because people don't write them down, then they wonder why they didn't achieve them."

She recommended identifying what you hope to accomplish each quarter and setting an action plan to help you achieve your goals, breaking your goals into small steps, and celebrating your progress as you go.

Also important is to find your why: Why are you motivated to accomplish this goal? Because without your "why," you have nothing to anchor your goals to, she said.

Set boundaries to reach your goals

Once you know your goals and your reasons for achieving them, Lyons said the best way to accomplish them is to set boundaries and a daily schedule ahead of time.

"Because if you don't set boundaries, your goal becomes the last thing on the priority list," Lyons said.

Write down your ideal daily schedule, and then do your best to stick to it — even if your plans get derailed, practicing adhering to your dream routine gets you in the habit of doing it all the time.

Block off your calendar now for important events. If you want to take a walk every day at lunch, take a moment now to block your calendar so meetings don't creep in. If you want to save time for career coaching or other self-development, prioritize it by blocking it off.

"And get rid of the negative thoughts if you don't achieve it all in one day, or you don't do it the whole week, because boundaries are also mental boundaries with yourself," Lyons said.

Reconnect with your network

The holiday season is the perfect excuse to refresh your connections with your network, Lyons said.

"Whether you're looking to advance your career, grow your business, or just maintain meaningful relationships, you need to have a strong network," Lyons said. "You can deepen those bonds with people through casual conversation, but also in the new year, it's a great time to wish somebody a happy new year you haven't spoken to a while and ask to reconnect."

Your network is where you get job offers, develop partnerships, and start collaborations, Lyons said. And since the beginning of the year begins slow for many companies, the holiday season is a great opportunity to catch up with people you may have lost touch with over the years.

With a tight job market and HR professionals increasingly relying on artificial intelligence to weed out candidates, Lyons said there's an increasing advantage in having a personal referral when you're looking for a new job.

"With those relationships, candidates are going to really stand out and bring unique value," Lyons said.

• Netflix's hit drama "Virgin River" released its latest batch of episodes in December 2024.
• The streamer announced in October that a seventh season had been greenlit.
• Here's what we know about season seven of the show.

Warning: Spoilers ahead for the season six finale of "Virgin River."

The latest season of Netflix's romantic drama "Virgin River" saw nurse practitioner Melinda Monroe (Alexandra Breckenridge) and restaurateur Jack Sheridan (Martin Henderson) finally walk down the aisle together.

It was a long time coming for the couple, who have faced no end of ups and downs since their meet-cute in the show's first season.

Elsewhere, Lizzie (Sarah Dugdale) and Denny (Kai Bradbury) prepared for the arrival of their baby, while Hope (Annette O'Toole) and Doc (Tim Matheson) faced a new threat.

The new episodes also used flashbacks to introduce viewers to younger versions of Mel's parents, Sarah (Jessica Rothe) and Everett (Callum Kerr), giving a glimpse at how their own love story unfolded. The characters are set to be the focus of an upcoming spinoff series.

As for what's next for Mel, Jack, and the rest of the residents of the fictional Northern Californian town, keep reading for everything we know so far about season seven.

'Virgin River' was renewed for season 7 before season 6 aired

The cast of "Virgin River" announced the show's renewal on the series' official Instagram in October.

"Good news, Virgin River is confirmed to come back for Season 7! More love, drama, and small-town charm coming your way. You're very welcome," the caption read.

The series is now Netflix's longest-running original scripted series. The comedy dramas "Orange Is the New Black" and "Grace and Frankie," both ran for seven seasons before ending in 2019 and 2022, respectively.

'Virgin River' season 7 will explore Jack and Mel's 'honeymoon phase'

Speaking to Netflix fan site Tudum, showrunner Patrick Sean Smith teased what fans could expect from the coming season.

"I think we've only just begun to see Mel and Jack function as a married couple, which is exciting," he said, adding that season seven would likely "explore the honeymoon phase for them as they're building their lives on the farm, which can come with its own obstacles."

For those wondering whether those obstacles may include splitting the couple up again, Smith said that wasn't on the cards.

"I can't imagine creating a scenario where you think Mel and Jack are going to break up," he said. "It forces you to dig a little bit deeper into, well, what other issues can they have in their relationship? Especially when you want to keep it through the romance lens. I think Alex and Martin play all of those [moments so well], it's just resting on emotional stakes as opposed to will they, won't they."

There is no release date for season 7 just yet

With season six released earlier this month, it's unlikely that fans will see season seven drop on Netflix any time soon.

In fact, season seven hasn't even begun filming yet. The cast and crew are scheduled to return to set in British Columbia in the Spring of 2025, Smith said, per Deadline.

The show may go on

Netflix hasn't officially confirmed an eighth season, but Smith said that there were "no plans" for the show to end anytime soon.

"No plans to wrap up the series anytime soon, and as long as people keep coming back for it, we're proud and happy to keep telling these stories," he told Deadline in December.

We surveyed pro wrestling insiders for answers on identifying the top stars and biggest moments of the year in WWE, AEW and other top promotions.

The Meta Quest line of AR and VR headsets appear to be popular Christmas gifts this year, as the Meta Horizon companion soars to the top of the iPhone App Store in the US region, and around the world. The uplift in demand is likely driven by the release of the , a cheap-but-capable $299 model.

The Amazon Alexa app also rose in the Top Free app charts, as Echo speakers continue to be popular gift ideas. AirPods and were also likely to be one of the most unwrapped gifts this Christmas, but the App Store does not give us any insights into the popularity of Apple’s own products …

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Mikal Bridges spent much of this Knicks season before the holidays — too much, probably — as the “but.” As in, yes, the new-look Knicks are shaping up to be a legit contender with an unreal offense and a defense that’s creeping into the top half of the league, and yes, the Karl-Anthony Towns trade...

Some consider gift cards not the most personal of gifts, but I say that's not the case. They allow you to get exactly what you want with no confusion, and (typically) both gifter and giftee walk away happy. But maybe you received a few gift cards for the holidays and are stumped on what to buy with them — Engadget can help. Here, we've gathered some of our favorite gadgets and services of the year that are all worthy ways to spend your gift card money, from wireless mice to coffee gear to gaming controllers.

Check out the rest of our gift ideas here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/how-to-spend-your-100-gift-card-after-christmas-130036223.html?src=rss

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© Engadget

Social media platform Bluesky has launched Trending Topics into beta, the company announced in a post on its platform. The new feature is one of the most-requested by users and matches a function that has been on rival Threads for around nine months, and on X (Twitter at the time) since at least 2017. 

The Trending section shows the top viral content on the platform, with topics like "Christmas," "Nosferatu" and "Wikipedia" (thanks to Elon Musk) currently on top. It can be found by clicking on search in both the desktop version and mobile apps, or you can disable it altogether in the settings, TechCrunch noted. Any words that you have muted won't appear in Trending topics either.

Bluesky recently hit a big milestone with 25 million users, many of whom recently fled X following the US elections. Though still relatively small compared to Threads and X, users have remarked on the high levels of engagement along with the lack of bots and harassment compared to Elon Musk's platform. Other highly requested features still not implemented include bookmarks, editing, verification badges and private posts. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/bluesky-launches-a-trending-topics-feature-in-search-140049208.html?src=rss

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© Steve Dent for Engadget

Samsung’s celebrated flagship soundbar does just enough to beat out the rest of its Dolby Atmos competitors.

It started, like so many overwrought home optimization projects, during the pandemic.

My wife and I, like many people stuck inside, were ordering takeout more frequently. We wanted to support local restaurants, reduce the dish load, and live a little. It became clear early on that app-based delivery services like DoorDash and Uber Eats were not the best way to support local businesses. If a restaurant had its own ordering site or a preferred service, we wanted to use that—or even, heaven forfend, call the place.

The secondary issue was that we kept ordering from the same places, and we wanted to mix it up. Sometimes we'd want to pick something up nearby. Sometimes we wanted to avoid an entire category ("Too many carbs this week, no pasta") or try the newest places we knew about, or maybe a forgotten classic. Or just give me three places randomly, creative constraints, please—it's Friday.

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This Bluetooth speaker’s design is a breath of fresh air, but Bose skimped on some features that are usually standard at this price.

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