How’s your year so far? Tools for your DIY mid-year review

How’s your year so far? Yes, we really are almost halfway there. So, time to stop, think, take stock of how we got to here, what we’ve achieved, where we’re on/off course and steps to achieve our goals.

My advice: find a quiet time and place to work through these coaching questions to guide your thoughts. If you can, find someone with whom you feel comfortable discussing your responses. Why? Because sometimes we can be too hard on ourselves, and sometimes we can cut ourselves too much slack. So a wise friend can help us see things clearly. Why not share this post with them and set a date for catching up together?

Here goes:

1. What are your goals for this year? Dig ‘em up, you may have forgotten!
2. On a scale of 1 – 10, where 1 is ‘barely got started’ and 10 is ‘I’ve done it! ’, how much progress have you made towards achieving each goal?
3. Where you’ve scored 6 or higher, what skills and resources have helped you?
4. Where you’ve scored 6 or higher, how has your progress benefitted you – and others?
5. Where you’ve scored 5 or less, what’s important to you about each of these goals? (If you now find you’re answering ‘not much’, then notice how you feel.)
6. For each goal where you’ve scored 5 or less, what will you lose if you don’t reach it? What will you gain if you do?
7. Looking back over your answers this far, what are you proud of?
8. What do you want to change?
9. How will you adapt to get closer to achieving your goals?
10. What’s your plan now?

Struggling to think ahead? Check out this great TED talk from Dan Gilbert, ‘The psychology of your future self’, where Dan shows us how mistaken we often are about the extent to which we will change over time. My take-out is it’s good to have a mix of short- and long-term goals.

Psychology Today has heaps of resources to help you, including this career motivation test.

Let me know how you get on.

You may also find this post useful: True or False? Summer’s a great time to boost your career prospects.

Dawn is the author of ‘How to be Zoomly at work’, available on Amazon.