It’s more than halfway through the year, and as I do most years, I recently did my mid-year review. I looked back at the goals I set at the start of the year and measured how I was getting on with each of them.
Rather than taking you through each goals one by one, and catching you up with them, I thought I’d share the simple questions I run through when I do my quarterly reviews.
I pour myself a nice cup of tea, sit down with my journal, and ask myself the following:
What did I actually say I wanted to do?
If you set intentions in the new year (or in the spring, which seems to be increasingly common), the first step is to actually find wherever you wrote those down and re-read them. What did I actually say I wanted to do, again?
Running through them, there will be some that I can check off as done (so satisfying), and many more that I haven’t completed yet.
It’s been 6 months or so since I set my 2021 goals. Of those that aren’t tick-off-able yet, there are some that are still on my radar, I just haven’t got around to them yet, and some of them I’d completely forgotten about.
Do those goals still matter?
For the goals that I haven’t made any progress on yet, the next question I ask myself is: is this goal still relevant?
For example, one of my goals was to take a course on Greek mythology. This came about after reading a novel (this one*) set in Ancient Greece. I LOVE this period in history, and toward the end of last year thought I should start studying it.
But the truth is – I don’t want to take a course in this. I actually just want to read more fiction set in this period. And I’ve been doing just that (highly recommend this book*, and I’m about to start reading this one*). I’m also going to get this kids’ book* to read with my children (and to learn more about the mythologies myself).
That goal mattered to January 2021 me. July 2021 me has definitely moved on. That’s why doing a mid-year review is so important. If your goals aren’t important anymore, you can review them and change them, and still have loads of time to make them happen.
What are my priorities right now?
I don’t like to focus on loads of things at the same time, so I find it helpful to think about which goals are the priority right now?
In January, my priority was doing everything I could to get our house sold (and that got ticked off the list a couple of weeks ago, hurrah!). I needed to find a good therapist and commit to regular sessions (done!). I wanted to be more picky about working with clients who really aligned with my values (done!).
Those things were really important to me, so those are the goals I focused in on in the start of the year.
Now, I’m heading into a really busy summer season, where there will be a lot of juggling between kids at camp or with my parents, and my work responsibilities.
The goal I’m now focusing on is ring fencing off time for myself every week. I looked at my calendar and realised that I had zero days that were not either kids at home or working.
Being a single parent means that if I don’t have time properly booked in for myself, with adequate childcare, I just don’t get any. There is no ‘can you look after the kids for an hour while I go to the shops?’. As an introvert, I REALLY struggle if I don’t have enough time on my own, so that is an absolute priority for me for me right now.
Are there any new goals I’d like to add to the list?
Once you’ve binned some goals and clarified what your priorities are, there might be new goals that come to the surface. If they feel right, and I have a clear reason why they’re important to me, I add them to the list.
During this year’s mid-year review, there weren’t any new goals to add, just some updates to existing ones. Some other years, however, I’ve added a few additional things to the list. Last year, I didn’t set any concrete goals at all, but in the mid-year review, I found that I did have some things I wanted to work on.
Can I make it easier to do this?
For any goals that are now on the list, I try to break them down.
What are the steps that need to be done to make that goal become a reality by the end of the year? Is there a tiny step I can take (ideally in the next couple of days) to get me started?
One of my goals in 2021 was around my income, and I have fallen massively short of it so far this year. I’m definitely in a better place right now (mostly due to selling my house!), but I haven’t earned nearly as much as I would have liked to by now.
Something I noticed was that I’d got out of the habit of sharing my work with people. So, my small step is to start doing that again. Talk about the work I have coming up. Remember to share my newsletter before it goes out. Tell people regularly how they can work with me.
I wrote a tiny content plan on a scrap of paper, that I can repeat every single week. It took 5 minutes, and it implementing it feels easy and doable. Plus, the first time I shared one of my testimonials (one of the super simple things I’m doing each week), I got an enquiry. So it instantly made me feel like this was a small step worth taking.
Check in on your word of the year
One bonus point: If you set a ‘word’ for the year, it’s time to check in on that, too. Does it still make sense? Have you drifted away from it, and want to get back to it? My word for 2021 was ‘ease’ which makes me laugh out loud, because this year has *not* been easy. But it is a feeling I really want to have more of in my life, so it was a good reminder for me that Ease is what I’m aiming for!
Then I’ve got to do the work
For me, planning and goal setting is fun. But that can also mean that it turns into a bit of a procrastination exercise.
The only reason goal setting works for me is because I also figure out how I’m going to make that goal into something achievable. How do I get from A to B?
The goals I set are not always easy to acheive. And there are some I think I’ll be very lucky to get even close to this year. But having them in place, and remembering to look back at them, helps me to move in the direction I want to be headed in.
Do you do a mid-year review? What’s your process like? Do you set new year goals and then ignore them until the next January? I’d love to hear about what you do when it comes to goal-setting in life and in your work. Leave a comment below (Remember when people used to leave comments? I miss that!), or drop me a message over on Instagram.
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