It’s time to talk about your mid-year report card. You might not want to approach the topic at all because you know that you’re nowhere near where you want to be by this point in the year, but it’s necessary. You can’t get where you want to go without looking at and assessing the situation.
I know that it seems like it was yesterday that you created your goals and mapping your way through the new territory of this year looking at what was possible for you. Now we’re at the midyear point, which is July 2nd.
This is like half time in a football game, so it’s time to review your fumbles, touchdowns, dropped passes, and diving tackles. You have to look at the good, the bad and the ugly, so that you can regroup, then move forward to win the game.
Things might be moving so fast for you right now that you might be thinking, “I don’t have time to look to see where I am.” Well, if you keep moving at that speed things will inevitably fall apart. If football coaches can look at the current situation and regroup in just 12 minutes, you can make the time to stop and assess the situation and figure out what to do. Step to the side to see how you’ve done so far. Looking back at the last 6 months what do you see? Where have you fumbled the ball or dropped passes? Which goals had you anticipated completing by this point in time? Are you on point with them? If not, you have to ask, “Why not?” Maybe you’re not allowing enough time for the tasks that need to be completed, or maybe they aren’t making it to your daily agenda. You might need to develop a few new habits or incorporate new tools to shore you up in your day-to-day activities. Be fair with your assessment and above all else, honest with yourself. Look at what’s incomplete, reassess the process and determine what to do to move forward.
Grade yourself based on your incomplete items, the resources—what you used, how you used them and whether you missed anything. Be sure to grade yourself when it comes to the good stuff too. It’s important that you celebrate your accomplishments. Those celebrations will help fuel you forward.
Once that’s done, create your plan for the rest of the game. For each of the things that you haven’t yet completed, be sure you’ve asked yourself what happened and why they’re not complete. Measure where you are based upon the milestones that you initially created and determine what you need to do to fill any existing gaps. For other projects that aren’t due to be completed yet, which milestones should have been reached by this point in the year? You’ll also want to take a look at the things that you’re going to begin working on soon. Is there anything new you want to add to the mix and are you going to be able to start on time? Use this midyear point to assess where you are, determine what’s necessary, regroup and move forward into the rest of the year focused on winning the game. Oh, and if you didn’t create that initial plan with the milestones at the beginning of the year, now is the perfect time to create it and get the ball moving.