Reflecting With a Mid-Year Review

Well, y’all—it’s June. We’ve made it halfway through the year! Before we hop into any sort of blog post, I think we all deserve an enormous hug and pat on the back for that. I’m sending so many hugs to you!

But in the spirit of making it halfway through, I want to share one of my favorite practices with you: the mid-year review. Given my love for all things planning and goal-setting and living a well-designed life, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that I love reviewing plans and goals and life designs just as much.

The mid-year review is a common practice for a lot of companies. It’s an opportunity for companies and their employees to reflect on goals set at the beginning of the year, and the first six months of progress (or lack thereof). It’s also an opportunity to readjust goals and plans for the rest of the year.

It’s near impossible to anticipate the activities of an entire year at the start, so the mid-year review offers the perfect opportunity to realign as necessary, once you’re successfully six months in. And so, even though I work for myself, I like to check in, reflect, and reassess my own “well-designed life” in the middle of every year.

I like to apply this process to more than just work, too. After setting (and revisiting) a few personal New Year’s resolutions, it’s nice to check in with myself at the halfway point and see how things are going.

Personally, I like to check in using my Well-Designed Year workbook. I reflect on the first six months of the year, review the list of my heart goals, and reconnect with my core purpose—or, the overlap of my principles, my powers, and my passions.

You can do a mid-year review without the Well-Designed Year, too (though might I recommend you grab yours in 2017?). Here’s a few quick and easy tips to help you through the process:

Congratulate and Celebrate

This isn’t just about planning for the rest of the year, this is also about celebrating everything that you’ve accomplished so far—even if all you think you’ve accomplished is successfully keeping your family healthy and fed through the first half of the year.

(Ahem, that is a MAJOR accomplishment!)

Start your review by making a list of three (or more!) accomplishments from this first half of the year. Think on it, and pick the stuff that you’re really proud of. For instance, I’m really proud of the major changes we’ve made in our family diet over the past couple months.

As with any reflective process, I think it’s important to recognize and celebrate what went right. Give yourself some credit!

Consider What’s Working (and What Isn’t)

Whether you started the year with a list of big (and small) goals or not, you likely know which activities, habits, relationships, etc. have been working for you—and which haven’t. Take some time to review your New Year’s resolution lists, or start making some lists right now.

That new weekly spin class habit? That might be worth keeping. But the daily Starbucks habit? That you may want to curb. That being said, please keep in mind, that these are your lists—this is about what’s working and what isn’t working for you, and nobody else. Don’t feel like you need to cut back on Starbucks, if that’s what’s working for you!

The mid-year review process is a personal one (at least, for those of us who don’t do it with a manager in an office), so make sure you keep it that way. You’re intentionally building the life you want by doing this work, so feel free to be honest about what works best for you!

Check and Reassess Your Goals

Lastly, take a minute to review the goals you’ve set—whether you set them in January, or started jotting them down throughout this review. Are your goals (both personal and professional) still aligned with the life you want to live? With the person you want to be? With the relationships you want to build and the work you want to create?

I’ve said it before and I’ll likely say it again and again and again—goals and resolutions are great, but only when they intentionally align with how you want to feel, the person you want to be, and the life you want to live.

This mid-year review process shouldn’t just be another to-do on your list; it should be an opportunity to actively create a life that’s worth living. Make sure the goals you set in January, and the new ones you set today, are allowing you to live just that.

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The mid-year review process is not meant to make you feel bad for what you haven’t yet accomplished or what may not be going well in your life. Rather, it’s about reflecting and reevaluating, as necessary, to ensure you’re always being intentional about the way you spend your time and the goals you’re pursuing.

There’s no need to stay tied to an idea or a goal, just because you planned to pursue it once. The value of doing a mid-year review is in your ability to tweak your vision for the rest of the year, based on the information you have at hand now. It’s about flexibility and change, honest reflection and celebration.

Even if you didn’t envision the year ahead or set goals in January, you have the opportunity to do so now. It’s never too late to start intentionally designing the life you want to live!

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Have you done a mid-year review? What would you celebrate? Have you successfully accomplished any goals—or are there any you’d scrap? Share some of your mid-year review insights in the comments below!