Half the Year Gone: Your Honest Mid-Year Goals Review

Focused planning creates a strategic roadmap for the months ahead.

The first week of July arrives faster than I expect every year. I had plans and goals with every intention of getting them done months ago. Some just haven’t materialized. Some just don’t make sense anymore based on circumstances or some changes along the way. That is okay. Things change. That is why we pause to reassess and update. That is all part of a healthy goal process.

Leaders who handle this best are the ones who don't pretend things are going exactly as planned when they aren't. They do the honest mid-year review and use what they find to make the second half of the year more focused than the first half was. So let's do that now. If you wrote down goals in December or January, pull them out. If you didn't write them down, think about what you've actually been working toward since January and whether those things are still the right priorities for the next six months.

Talking about goals is nothing new. I believe they are a critical element of anyone’s success. They don’t always need to be as formal as some make it out to be, but having a system that works for you to keep track of what you’d like to achieve will make a difference. Here are a few previous articles you may find helpful as we hit the halfway point. Then, we’ll discuss the process of assessing and updating.

In Halfway Through the Year: Refocusing Goals and Optimizing Time, the conversation focused on updated and restructuring goals that may no longer make sense. In The Power of Progress: A Proactive Leadership Approach, I emphasized not missing the progress you have made even if you have not fully achieved the final outcome. This is a great message for goals at the midpoint, but also for any project at any time. Progress is a valuable tool, especially when balanced appropriately with staying honed in on the desired outcome. I reshaped some tips on things you can do right now for your goals in, 4 Things To Do Right Now To Ensure You Achieve Your Goals This Year. Each of these helps to support updating your goals.

Now, let’s dive a little deeper into the critical element of assessing your goals.

We use the midway point of a year, much like we do the beginning of the year, as a common milepost that feels natural to everyone. Months, quarters, halftime are all simply mile markers that most people recognize. They are still arbitrary moments in time. You can always assess, change, update, delete, add, or abandon any of your goals at any time. How you assess your goals can be an essential factor in determining what your next steps may be.

Goal recap

Begin by listing out each of your goals (or projects) to recap and see all of them together. How many do you have? Are they captured the right way in words that make sense? Can you clearly explain what each of them are? Are they still relevant? You can use the SMART or SMARTER framework to interview your goals. Are they so specific you know exactly what it is you are looking to accomplish with just a glance? Are you measuring them? If so, note what you’ve tracked so far. Are they attainable? You have more data now to know more about whether that is a possible outcome. Does the goal remain risky, meaning it is challenging you to reach to new heights. In many versions of SMART goals, this ‘R’ will represent ‘relevant’, and I believe this is also an excellent question to ask at this stage. And finally, how is the timing? What are the dates and times, and do they still make sense?

If you are using the SMARTER framework, add in the evaluation process you are using and determine if that is working for you effectively. In some sense, the midpoint check in is a detailed version of your evaluation step. And the last ‘R’ is for reacting, which is what you are doing through this exercise, so this ties in nicely here.

Define success

I recommend two perspectives during this stage. First, did you clearly define success at the beginning? Are you aiming for the correct finish line? This needs to be crystal clear, especially at this stage of the year. Second, is that finish line still the one to be aiming for? Time has passed, things have changed, it may require a course correction now that you can see things more clearly than you could six months ago. I think this is where many goals come off the tracks. We have lost sight of the original finish line, or things have changed so much since we established the goals, that we simply abandon what we set out to accomplish. It is quiet quitting for goals. Recognize that now and make the updates you need to make them relevant for you, or at least acknowledge that you are letting them go. Two weeks notice not required.

Lessons Learned

Assessing should equal learning. If you are dedicating the time to do a full-scale assessment, you will get plenty of data to use in this step and the next two. What are the takeaways you have so far from this goal or project? Capture those so not only can you refer to them as you continue to progress throughout the year, but so you can see how they may change over time. You will likely find several valuable nuggets that you can immediately apply to the final step of this process.

Improvement Areas

As with the step above, using what you’ve learned from your activities and results so far will reveal opportunities to improve. This could be in the process you are using, eliminating steps to improve time management and productivity. New resources or tools may be available now that you can use to make improvements. Perhaps those were not available when you began, and you can incorporate now to help make your goal achievement even easier. Be open and honest with yourself. You stand to benefit much more if you remain open to areas that can use improvement. Fixing things is not an admission of failure, and failure is not a bad thing, unless you quit trying afterward.

Celebrate progress

Progress matters. It is not the destination per se, but it is a critical element of the journey. Do not miss looking for the signs of progress you have made. Chances are, when digging into what you have done in the previous months, there will be multiple small wins you can point to that show exactly how far you have come. We are all a work in progress. Take time to acknowledge and enjoy the wins you already have.

Reset your action steps

Now, use your learnings, your improvement areas, and the progress you’ve made to update the next steps and actions you’ll take in the coming days, weeks, and months ahead. This can include different things. As I mentioned in Halfway Through the Year, one I particularly like is updating your time blocking and ideal schedule. This really allows you to apply the pieces from above and capture it into your routines, habits, schedule, and calendar. Since that will usually help drive everything we do, making an impact there can go a long way.

The mid-year mark is just a moment in time. What you do in the next week with what you found here matters more than anything that happened in the first half of the year. These are your goals. This is your assessment. The benefits, while they may touch others, are first and foremost yours. Making the time to assess your goals and projects can be a tremendous accelerator for what you hope to achieve this year. It can also be a fresh start, a chance to cut the chaff, and concentrate on what will matter most in the coming months. It will be December before we know it, and the planning process will renew, but don’t let that timeline distract from the time we have now to make an impact for ourselves.

What does your midyear assessment process look like?

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