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As time seems to speed up with every passing year, it’s crucial to pause, take stock of where we are, and reflect on everything we’ve done so far. Whether you set specific goals or follow your intuition, doing a mid-year review helps you ensure you’re on the right path. Today, I want to share my personal mid-year review process with you. I also created a template that you can use to follow along.
Why a Mid-Year Review is Important
First, let’s talk about why a mid-year review is so crucial. Life can get busy, and it’s easy to lose sight of our goals and the progress we’ve made. By pausing to reflect, we can realign our actions with our intentions and make necessary adjustments. This helps us stay intentional and avoid drifting aimlessly.
The Structure of My Mid-Year Review
When I do a mid-year review, I like to think about my life in broad, big buckets. We’ve all seen the wheel of life template with various areas of our lives, but I prefer to keep it simple. Here are the three main buckets I use:
- Money and Work: This includes everything related to my business and finances, both personal and professional.
- Personal Life: This encompasses my home, friends, family, hobbies, pets, and anything else in my personal life.
- Wellbeing: This covers my mental, physical, and emotional health. This is my most important bucket because if I’m not well, I can’t participate in or enjoy the other aspects of my life.
Step 1: Reflect on the Past Six Months
Reflection is the first step in my mid-year review. It’s about looking back on what I’ve done, experienced, and accomplished. This isn’t just about productivity or wins; it’s also about acknowledging the highs and lows, both big and small.
Before writing this blog post, I took some time to reflect on the first half of the year. Here’s a glimpse into my personal reflection list:
- January: Moved all our furniture out due to a dishwasher leak that destroyed our floors. We stayed in Palm Springs while the repairs were done, which was a nice winter escape.
- February: Moved back into our newly repaired home and adopted Chloe, our foster pug.
- March: Sadly, we lost our 15-year-old minpin, Snickers. It was a tough time, but I’m grateful for the years we had with him.
- April: My husband sold his company, marking the end of a very intense period for us. It was a huge relief and allowed us to exhale and recuperate.
- May: Took a short trip to Mexico with a friend, which was a lovely break.
- June: We went on a bucket-list sailing trip in the Caribbean, celebrating my husband’s milestone and our birthdays. After that, I visited friends and family in Toronto, which I hadn’t done in almost five years.
- In addition to these events, I’ve managed to work out consistently, get enough sleep, journal regularly, and maintain my breathing meditations. Professionally, I’ve released 26 podcast episodes, 26 editions of the Sunday Setup Newsletter, and about 24 YouTube videos. My YouTube channel has grown to nearly 85,000 subscribers, and my podcast has over 400,000 downloads.
Step 2: Revisit Your Goals
Once you’ve reflected on the past six months, it’s time to revisit your goals. Pull out the goals you set at the beginning of the year (or set some new ones if you didn’t) and see how you’re tracking. If you’re not on track, approach this with curiosity rather than shame. Ask yourself why: Are the goals still relevant? Are they still important? Have your priorities changed?
Remove anything that no longer makes sense or that you’re no longer invested in. Add new goals if needed, or adjust existing ones. Make sure your goals feel good and align with the life you want to live.
Step 3: Align Your Goals with Your Priorities
After revisiting your goals, take some time to dream and scheme about what’s most important in the second half of the year. This is more about future self visioning and less about structured thinking. Think about where you want to spend your time, who you want to spend it with, and what will make you feel good. Where do you want to be at the end of the year?
For me, one of my main priorities is a new program I’m developing for my business. It’s still in the idea phase, and I’m letting it develop organically. This approach allows my creative mind to work its magic without the pressure of a strict timeline.
Another priority is continuing to refine and improve my YouTube channel, podcast, and Sunday Set Up newsletter. These are my main communication channels with my audience, and I want to serve better without adding more to my plate.
Take some time to jot down what you visualized for yourself. Once you have it in writing, go back to your goals and ask yourself this VERY important question….
Does the vision I have for the next six months align with the goals I’ve set for myself this year?
Might seem like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how often they are misaligned. This is a sign that your heart and your head (ego) aren’t working for the same outcome.
Step 4: Create a Plan and Set Milestones
Once you’ve aligned your goals with your priorities, it’s time to plan how you’ll achieve them. I plan my life on a monthly and weekly basis, but I set milestones to guide me. These milestones help me stay on track and allow me to course-correct if needed.
For example, if I have certain revenue numbers I want to hit or specific projects I want to complete, I’ll break these down into monthly and weekly tasks. This makes it easier to manage and ensures that I’m consistently working towards my larger goals.
Step 5: Resparkalize Your Habits
Maintaining good habits is crucial, but they can get boring over time. To keep things fresh, I “resparkalize” my routines. This means finding ways to infuse them with more dopamine, making them more enjoyable and sustainable. For example, if my workout routine is getting stale, I might try a new class or change up my playlist.
I hope this guide has inspired you to do your own mid-year review process. If you have any questions or want to share your experiences, feel free to reach out. And if you’re not already on the Sunday Setup list, be sure to sign up—I’ll leave the link in the show notes.
Thank you for being here, and I look forward to continuing this journey with you. Have a great week and talk to you soon!
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