If you’re further ahead or behind on your goals than you thought you would be by now, it’s time to perform a mid year goals check in so that you can reflect on what’s working, adjust what isn’t, make sure you’re focusing on the important things, and achieve the results you want. This step by step guide will outline exactly how to do a mid year goals check in so that you can achieve your goals.

I absolutely love setting goals.

I’ll 100% admit that I like setting goals more than I like working toward them. Planning out my year is pretty much the highlight of January…

If we’re getting really honest here, I have a tendency to set absolutely ridiculous goals. (Even as an executive coach, it’s so much easier to tell other people to make their goals achievable than it is to do it yourself 😂)

When I first started my business 5 years ago, I expected to have a 4-figure month from day one. But with a full time job, 2 kids, and only 1 hour to devote to my side hustle each day, it was definitely not achievable.

This is how I discovered that doing a mid year check in on my goals was important.

Creating the space to reflect at a high level on where your year is headed allows you to reassess what’s important, pivot where needed, and shoot higher or lower depending on your progress to date.

If you’re anything like me, and you tend to overshoot, a mid year goals check in is your chance to reflect on what’s really possible and rebuild your strategy to achieve it effectively.

Why should I do a mid year goals check in?

When we set goals in the beginning of the year, 12 months is a pretty common timeline to look out at. However, a lot can happen during those 12 months.

If we don’t pause to reassess with a mid year goals check in, we risk feeling overwhelmed with our unrealistic expectations, or underutilizing our potential because we aren’t pushing ourselves for more.

What is a mid year goals check in?

A mid year check-in is a great opportunity to assess how far you’ve come toward your goals and redefine the path forward.

If you’ve been making way more progress than you expected, it’s a fantastic point in time to reevaluate where you will be in another 6 months and set your sights higher.

If you’ve fallen off track, for whatever reason, it’s a great time to reset and make the last 6 months the best 6 months.

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How do I do a mid year goals check in?

A mid year check in is a fairly simple process that you can do in an hour or two. Having an effective process to follow, like the one I outline in this article, will help you get the most out of this period of reflection and realignment.

There are 4 key components to any successful mid year goals check in process:

reviewing why you set the goals in the first place,
comparing where you wanted to be at this time with where you actually are today,
reflecting on what is and isn’t working, and
resetting the bar for the next 6 months

To make it even easier, I am sharing the exact process I use for MYSELF and my coaching clients with you today! The Mid Year Business Review is an in-depth workbook that dives deep into each area of goal setting so that you can become crystal clear on where you are, and make an actionable plan for where you want to be! Download it for FREE below!

Step One: Remember Your WHY

Having a crystal clear understanding of your big WHY is something I touch on a lot throughout my coaching and my blog. Our WHY is what motivates us to do the hard work today so that we can experience an abundant future tomorrow.

Related post: How To Find Your Purpose In Life

If you follow an effective goal setting process, you would have firmly established the *real* reasons you’re setting out on this personal growth journey, specific to each goal. If you don’t have a firm grasp of why you’re doing what you’re doing, now is the time to dig deep and get a solid understanding of what’s driving you to reach for more.

10 years from now

As you begin your mid year check in, take 5 minutes to visualize your life 10 years from now.

Become fully aware of everything you picture in your life in 10 years. Notice how you feel, what you see, what you hear, who is with you, and what it is like. Paint yourself the picture of your best life. Then take a few minutes to sit with that image and allow the feelings of gratitude and joy wash over you.

Taking the time to visualize your ideal future anchors the dream into your body with emotions. This allows you to call on this vision when you’re feeling a lack of motivation to do your work.

Scientific studies have shown that the brain can’t always differentiate between what we see in our minds and reality, making visualization a powerful technique for creating the reality of your dreams.

This picture of your most phenomenal life 10 years from now is part of what’s driving you to put in the work today. And it isn’t something that you should only remind yourself of every 6 months (at least).

I take the time to visualize my best life every single morning, and write down my goals as if they’ve already happened, so that I can always be focused on what matters and make real progress toward my dream life with ease. If you don’t already do this, incorporating it into your morning routine can create the kind of focus and motivation you have been missing!

1-3 years from now

Looking out 10 years from now is powerful. But you only get there one year at a time, one day at a time, one minute at a time even. So, with the powerful feelings you just summoned still inside you, it’s time to get clear on what your life looks like 1-3 years from now.*

*The time frame depends on the kind of goals you are working on. Losing weight would likely have a shorter time frame than starting and scaling a business. Define the time frame that works for your specific situation, using 1-3 years as a rough guide.

The goals you’re working on right now should directly tie into the life you want to live 1-3 years from now, which indirectly affect your most ambitious dreams 10 years from now.

Depending on the areas in which you set goals, write out in crystal clear detail exactly what that specific area of your life looks and feels like in 1-3 years.

Getting this level of clarity allows you to ensure you’re working on the right things this year to position yourself to achieve these mid term goals in 1-3 years, and create the success you desire 10 years from now.

Step Two: Reflect on this year’s goals

Understanding how far you got and where you stalled is an important part of unlocking what is and isn’t working so that you can change your approach as needed going forward.

What have you accomplished?

Look back through your calendar, your Trello board, your bullet journal, and note all of the things that you completed. If you’ve never made a Done List, start one now.

Regardless of how much didn’t get done, I want you to obsess over all of the little wins! Every single one of these is bringing you a little bit closer to your goal, and that is worth celebrating! Celebrate your progress, no matter how incremental, as this creates the joy you need to continue on your path.

Also, take a good look at your key metrics. What were you tracking/measuring and were the numbers heading in the right direction?

Maybe you didn’t hit your weight loss goal, but were you trending down? Maybe you didn’t hit your revenue goals, but were you trending up?

What do the numbers tell you about your progress this year? Numbers are much more objective when providing feedback than the emotional rollercoaster that we call a brain. If you haven’t taken the time to define or track your key metrics, make sure you do so going forward.

Related Post: 10 Tips to Stay on Top of Your Goals

Where did you lose momentum?

Where did you plan to be at this point in the year? Where did you fall off track? List the critical actions that are still important to generate the results you want.

What goals are still important to you? What did you try and discover didn’t hold real meaning/value for you?

Taking the time to reflect at this level of detail allows you to notice self sabotaging patterns of behavior. Perhaps you always give up at a certain step. Perhaps there is a certain type of activity that you’ve procrastinated over and over again. Understanding where you tend to lose momentum gives you the inside scoop so that you can tackle that challenge head on going forward.

Step Three: Reflect on what is and isn’t working

Taking the time to step back and reflect on how you’re approaching your goal will give insight to areas that you may want to tweak. We sometimes make things more difficult than they need to be. Instead of working harder, think about how you could be working smarter.

Focus

Are you working on too many things at once? How could you simplify your goals so that you’re focused on making a breakthrough in one area rather than failing to see momentum in many areas?

While it is possible to maintain several areas of your life at the same time, it is rather difficult to create a breakthrough in more than one. One of the first things I do with my clients when they begin results coaching with me is to define their breakthrough area for the next 3 months. This helps create the kind of results everybody is looking for.

What do you need to let go of in order to make your most important goals a success?

Streamline

Are you feeling scattered? How can you create a repeatable process to help you achieve your goals?

When my clients come to me, they feel all over the place starting their own businesses. One of the first things we do together is create their business calendar, which identifies the days of the week they’re working toward their business, the exact times, but also, what type of work they’re achieving in that slot. 2 hours on Monday morning may be writing time. 1.5 hours on Wednesday night may be technical changes to website time. Sundays could be purely rest days.

Having a system in place to pinpoint the kind of work you’ll be doing and when you’ll be doing it allows you to focus on one task at a time, with the confidence that everything else that needs to get done will get done throughout the week.

Optimize

Where are you spending your time? Are you putting effort into results producing activities or are you squandering the days on busy work?

Looking back through your calendar, or doing a time audit over the next few days, can help you understand where there is room to improve your schedule so that you can achieve your goals more effectively.

Strategy

Do you have the right strategy in place for achieving your goal?

If you’re hoping to increase revenue from new clients, but you spend all of your time designing and developing offers for your existing clients, your strategy is not aligned with your vision.

If you’re hoping to build muscle, but all of your workouts are cardio-centered, you will end up lean instead of jacked.

Strategy is my superpower. I’ve been working with businesses and people since 2015, helping them strategize the most effective ways to achieve their most important goals. If you struggle with this, reach out .

Ask yourself:

What is my objective?
What are the key results that will bring me closer to that objective?
What are the key actions I need to take to make those key results a reality?

Taking time to think strategically about your goals is essential to seeing success.

If you’re finding this mid year goals check in advice valuable, download our Mid-Year Business Review for CEOs, you’ll get over 30 thoughtful prompts to help you reevaluate the goals you made at the beginning of the year, so that you can refocus and finish this year strong! And the best part, it’s free (for now)!

We’d love to have you become part of the hundreds of people changing their lives with us one goal at a time!

Metrics

Are you tracking the right numbers? In order to do a successful mid year goals check in we need to look at metrics on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis drive our actions, at least subconsciously. Have you developed a set of leading and lagging indicators that give you visibility as to whether you are on the right track or not?

Lagging indicators are the metrics of your end goal. For example revenue, weight, grades.

Leading indicators are the metrics that reflect the key drivers of the end goal. For example # hours spent on sales calls, # days you went to the gym, % textbook you read.

Pinpointing the leading indicators of your lagging metrics will help you focus on the right activities and see your progress along the way so that you can pivot as needed.

Mindset

Are you in the right emotional state for achieving your goals?

Attacking areas of improvement from a place of scarcity creates little results. This looks like negative self talk “I’m not good enough to run a business; I hate my fat body; I am dumb and will never get this degree.”

Embracing areas of improvement from a place of abundance and gratitude creates exceptional results. This means truly believing that you are worthy just as you are, and that you can create any kind of result you desire in your life. The self talk is resourceful, sounding more like “I’m learning how to run a business, it is fun, and I am excited for my success; I am so grateful for the things my body can do and am excited to treat it well so that it can do even more; I work hard in class and I am excited to learn and get my degree.”

Are you celebrating your wins or only focusing on what’s left to do? Remember to obsess over the tiniest achievements along the way, for that great big accomplishment you’re craving is a result of tiny wins produced over and over again.

Fighting for goals from a negative emotional state isn’t a journey any of us enjoy. Work on managing your mind so that you can live the kind of life that lights you up.

Self Care

How do you feel now that you’ve been working toward your goals for 6 months? Are you burnt out? Are you rejuvenated?

Whenever we are making changes in our lives, it is important to remember to take care of ourselves.

If you are starting a business, you must remember that you are not your business. You are a person living a life.
If you are a stay at home mom, you must remember that you are not just their mom. You are your own human too.
If you are on a weight loss journey, you must remember that you are not the number of calories you ate today. You are a human being.

You must take care of yourself if you want to continue showing up as the best version of you.

If you feel this area has been lacking over the past few months, how can you incorporate more self care and better boundaries with your goals over the next 6 months?

Accountability

Are you being held accountable to your goals? How can you leverage the community around you to make it easier to choose the right thing over the easy thing?

Having someone hold us to a higher standard and make sure we follow through on what we said we’d do is a very important factor in our success. That’s why people pay thousands of dollars each year for life and business coaches. The results you want to see in your life often depend on the people holding you to them.

Hiring an a ccountability coach is one option. Joining forces with your friends is another. Finding a group (whether online or in person) is a third.

What action can you take to increase your accountability levels this month?

Step Four: Reset

Based on your progress up to this point, how can you readjust your goal to push yourself while still feeling confident in your ability to succeed?

If you’ve done less than you expected, resetting your expectations about where you’ll be 6 months from now is important. It allows you to work toward an achievable goal and to celebrate when you get there, instead of feeling overwhelmed and then defeated.

If you’re farther ahead than you intended, realizing how much farther you’ll be 6 months from now is a great boost in motivation. And it ensures that you aren’t falling short of your potential by letting the next few months slide because you kicked off the year so well.

If you feel you might benefit from a results coach walking through this process with you, schedule your first (complimentary) session with me today!

BOOK a COACHING CALL TODAY

How To Reset Your Goals

Determine your modified objective
Revisit your why (and update if needed)
Review your timeline
Identify the 3-5 key results that must occur in order for you to achieve your objective
Decide the key actions that are going to get you to each key result.
Working backwards in this way allows you to ensure that your actions are tied to results producing activities instead of busy work.
Review your calendar and tweak your weekly routine to ensure you have the capacity to achieve these goals.
Where do you need to spend more time? Where can you spend less time? Set up a system that works for you.
See what else is currently on your plate that isn’t serving you in pursuit of your goals.
How can you minimize, eliminate, automate, or delegate it?

Finally, be proud that you have come this far. You are out here actively working on improving yourself and that is the hard stuff that will take you far in life. The only thing that will stop you from succeeding in your goal is giving up. So pivot as needed and keep working toward those things that matter most to you.

You can readjust your goal all you want, but you cannot give up on yourself.

“Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.”
BILL GATES

A mid year goals check in allows you to reflect on what is and isn’t working in your approach and to reassess how far you’ll be in another 6 months.

It’s a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the wins you’ve had so far this year, and to reset your expectations going forward.

Checking in with yourself and your goals allows you to make sure you’re working toward things that are still important to you.

I hope this process gives you a framework to use as you do your own mid year goals check in, so that you can run confidently in the direction of your dreams.

And if you’d like to be supported in the pursuit of your goals, I can help you define your vision, create the strategy, manage your mind, and stay accountable to creating your dream life. Book a discovery call to learn more about my coaching process and see if we would be the perfect fit.

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What’s the one goal you’re going to double down on in the next 6 months as a result of this reflection? Let us know in the comments below so that this community can hold you accountable.

How To Do A Mid Year Goals Check IN19 min read

Why should I do a mid year goals check in?

What is a mid year goals check in?

How do I do a mid year goals check in?