June is here and that marks the official halfway point of 2024! As business owners, reaching this 6-month mark usually means that it’s time to conduct mid-year reviews with your employees. Mid-year reviews are a great way to check in with your team, reevaluate the goals that you set for your company, and determine whether or not you are on track to reach those goals by the end of the year. Yet mid-year reviews don’t have to be strictly business. With all this time being spent focused on the company’s progress, what time have you spent focused on progress toward your own personal goals? Now is the best time to take a moment, free yourself from distractions, and reflect on who you want to be six months from now with a personal mid-year review.

Why Should You Conduct a Personal Mid-Year Review?

Just as mid-year reviews help you evaluate your business goals, a personal mid-year review can do the same. This is an opportunity to reflect on the goals that you set for yourself at the beginning of the year, refocus on what matters most to you, and make changes to your actions or behavior as needed. Besides keeping you on track, taking this time to explore your priorities and recenter your focus can also increase your motivation and decrease any anxiety you might feel when trying to reach your goals in the next half of the year.

Take a Look at Your Goals

 Think about the goals that you set for yourself back in January and any new challenges you may have taken on since then. Now consider how much progress you’ve made on each goal – and be honest with yourself. Remember that it’s okay if you aren’t as close to accomplishing a goal as you’d like! Goal setting is an ever-changing process. As you compare where you are now to where you were six months ago, it’s common to find that your priorities have changed, and your goals will need to change with them. The biggest thing is making sure that whatever goals you choose to pursue still align with the things you’re most passionate about. If a goal no longer serves those passions or your long-term plans, then it’s okay to change course.

Take a Look at Your Accomplishments

When reviewing the progress you’ve made on each goal, first pay attention to everything you’ve accomplished. Maybe you completed a major project for your company, received a professional certification in your field, or checked a travel destination off your bucket list. Or maybe your accomplishment was something on a smaller scale, such as spending more time with family, going to the gym every week, or finishing the book you’ve been dying to read. Know that every win is important – no matter how small – and each one deserves to be celebrated! It’s not always the results that determine a win, but how happy or satisfied you feel after it’s done.

Looking over all of these accomplishments is important because it shows us what things in life we feel most proud of or which ones bring us the most joy, and therefore what we might want to focus on most in the latter half of the year. Additionally, reviewing your achievements helps determine what behaviors have worked for you over the past six months and what you can continue doing to get closer to achieving other goals.

Take a Look at Your Challenges

Now that you’ve celebrated your wins, reflect on the goals you still have left to achieve. What was stopping you? What obstacles have been thrown your way? The challenges you’ve been facing could include struggles at work, opportunities you’ve missed, passions that you’ve been abandoning, or relationships that you haven’t devoted enough time to. Again, don’t judge yourself too harshly for not accomplishing everything on your list in six months. Remember that some challenges are out of your control and for those that aren’t, you still have time to course correct.

Once you start planning your next moves for the remaining year, consider ways to overcome the challenges you’ve faced so far. If a goal is too unrealistic, find ways to make possible. If you no longer feel passionate about a goal at all, it is also okay to let it go and spend your energy on the goals that you feel more strongly about.

What Should You Do Next?

Now that you know what’s working for you and what isn’t, it’s time to narrow down or readjust your remaining goals for the next six months and start strategizing. When doing so, be sure that your goals are still SMART – specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. For each goal that you set, estimate how much time you’ll be able to dedicate to it. Is this something that can become a daily habit? Or can you dedicate a few hours weekly or monthly to making progress toward this goal?

Once you know how much time you can spend on accomplishing a goal, you can start setting deadlines and creating milestones to help break your goals into smaller, more manageable steps. Consistency is key and completing these smaller steps on the way to your end goal can help you stay motivated rather than trying to get everything done in one go. Other ways to stay motivated include rewarding yourself for each milestone you hit, tracking your progress by taking progress photos or journaling, and enlisting a close friend or family member to help keep you on track!

Summary

While many of us have experienced a mid-year review at work, it’s not a bad idea to hold one for yourself as well – especially if you’re committed to making changes by the end of the year. Change can’t start without action, and you want to make sure that the actions you’re taking are pushing you closer to your end goals. With a personal mid-year review, you’ll have a greater understanding of the goals you want to focus on, what’s left to do, and what you can start doing right away to find success in the next six months!