How To Do A Mid-Year Check In

What is a Mid-Year Check in? It is simply a way to keep on top of your goals. Do you remember those New Year’s Resolutions you made? Well, in order to create the life you want, you have to stay focused on those goals. Checking in with yourself in the middle of the year, is how you measure where you are with your goals.

“One more reason as to why we lose focus is the fact that we are not really aware of our priorities.”

James Nelson

How to do Mid-Year Goal Check In

Checking in with yourself, and reviewing all the goals you wrote down that you desired to achieve this year is where we start. I typed my list up and hung in right over my desk, so that I can view it every day as a reminder that those goals aren’t going to make themselves come to fruition.

A mid-year goal check in is a 4-step process, and much easier than an end of year planner audit. Why is it easier? Because you’ve already done the hard work of determining your goals, so all you have to do is review your goals and process where you are with them.

1. Review your list of goals you set for yourself in the beginning of the year. Go through one by one and out them into categories. (See my example in the table below.)
2. Check off goals you have accomplished. Give yourself a high five!
3. Cross out goals that may no longer apply to you. Write in anything you have accomplished that you did not intend for.
4. Make a plan to get your unmet desired goals achieved.

Reviewing Your Goal List For Your Mid-Year Check In

Everything for me starts with a list! Three lists actually:

• I write down the things that I have accomplished on a sheet of notebook paper. (I have a separate notebook just for goals). Seeing a list of items that I have actually accomplished is a confidence booster. I need to see progress. That’s the intention of it. We can create shame for ourselves seeing how far we haven’t come, so we need to create positive momentum, and also view how far we have come. I will also write in this column things I accomplished that I didn’t intend for, such as becoming a Board Member for a non-profit.
• I write down the goals that no longer apply to my current focus.
• Lastly, I write down goals that I still need to accomplish. This is the area of focus for a mid-year check in on your goals. Determining what you still want to work on and accomplish in the remaining 6 months of the year gives you direction and motivation.

Determining What To Work On After You Have Done A Mid-Year Check In

This depends on how you group your goals. I have grouped my goals together by months and quarters of the year, and I now am grouping all my goals together by categories. This looks like, personal development, health, finance, relationships, career, materialistic, adventure, and yes, I even make goals for my daughter.

I can’t check off every box in my health goal category because those are daily choices: drinking water, drinking my morning smoothie, and running and strength training. But, I can make sure they still apply to my life, and make a schedule for myself if I have fallen behind (which happens). This is why reviewing your goal list often is also important!

For me, some items I still want to accomplish are already planned and later in the year, mostly trips, day events, and other celebratory events. Other goals are monthly goals, like visiting my grandma, reading personal development books, writing blog posts, working on my cookbook, etc. I won’t check them off yet, because I need to keep the intention to make time for them each and every month.

Make a Short and Long Term Goal List

You make like to keep your goal list much simpler, and have a short term and long term goal list. If you are new to goal setting I would recommend that. You can clearly see what needs to get done this year or less (short term goals) or what takes a year or longer (long term goals.)

I have tracked my goals this way when I first started because any long term goals seemed very unattainable. Now that I have been focused on goal setting for 3 years, I can mix and match goals and understand that pieces of monthly goals (like budgeting to save for vacation or pay off a debt) yield to a long term goal (Going to the Grand Canyon.)

My Personal Mid-Year Check In

Accomplished	No Longer Applies	Still Working On
Ran A Marathon	Quit Retail Job	Writing Cookbook
Organized Office	Yoga	Write 4 blog posts/month
Went to a Concert	Attend Cooking Conference	Visit Grandma Monthly
Took a trip somewhere new (Banner Elk)	Weekly Meditation	Annual Riverbanks Zoo
Drink water & Smoothie daily	Food Blog	Destination Half Marathon Trip
Read 1 personal development book (Atomic Habits)		Network with local female entrepreneurs
Sleep 7-8 hrs & Morning Routine 5am		Save for 2 Vacays in 2023
Weekly Budget and Savings Goal		Read 2 additional P.D. books
Purchased Home Decor Items		Run 3 days a week

As you can see, I’ve gotten rid of some things that don’t apply any longer that I thought I could do at the beginning of the year. Apparently, I thought I would start yoga and a weekly meditation. I would love to do that. But, I haven’t thought once about either of those things this entire year, so it doesn’t apply to me any longer. I also went on a huge spiral about my food blog, and I made a decision to not go that route, so it also no longer applies.

What I am working towards that I need to make an actual plan for is my running schedule and when I am going to read two additional personal development books, (my goal was 3 this year.) I plan a zoo trip in May, but this May was jammed packed and that didn’t happen. So it is on top of my mind to do that day trip as soon as an opportunity arises. Long term savings goals, yield weekly budget time. I do need to hone in on a blog schedule. I did great in April with it, got off track in May, and so far for June, I have 2 written, this being my 3rd.

It’s Your Turn to Do a Mid-Year Check In on Your Goals!

Now that you have a peek into my personal goals, take a look at yours, and determine what areas of your life you still need to plan for, and remove what no longer applies. It is ok to remove goals that aren’t relative to you anymore. Evaluate, adjust, and focus on what is relative to your desired goals. If certain ideas didn’t work out, well, cross them out, and narrow your focus on what is working for you.

There’s 6 months left in the year, plenty of time to make traction. Do not get to January 2023 and had made zero traction, and no progress on any goal. If the goal is important to you, you have to make a plan and time for it, otherwise your goals will not ever get accomplished. I didn’t run a marathon by hoping and wishing it would happen. It took 3 solid years of preparing, training, and making a plan to run it.

Sending love and light to all.