We’re just over halfway through the year. It’s that time when I carry out my own mid-year stock-take and sometimes support clients with theirs, too. Carving out a little space to reflect on what’s happened so far, and consider what’s coming up for the rest of the year can help to spark new thinking and ideas. And it can often give you the opportunity to start looking ahead to next year too.
This isn’t just about reviewing your business goals or performance, although this is important; it’s a chance to take an honest, objective and fully-rounded perpective as a human being. How have you shown up this year?
Here are three tips that might help you do this…
Image: athree23, Pixabay
Find some time to focus…
You need just 30 minutes, with a pen and paper or your tablet/laptop to ask yourself where you’re at. These five questions can help to shape this work.
What were my goals? (If you didn’t set any, what were you aiming to achieve this year?
What’s gone well against those goals?
What didn’t go to plan? Where did I get side-tracked?
What have I learned from all this?
What do I want to celebrate and how will I do that?
What could shift?
Now you have these observations, it’s time to think about what you want to be different.
This is an opportunity to think about what’s working for you – and what’s not - and what you want to be different for the rest of the year. Be ambitious but don’t be unrealistic or put too much pressure on yourself. Think about…
Where do you put your focus and time – and so your energy? This year, I’ve been using a tracker that helps me see what I’ve been up to and where that’s helping against my goals. As part of my own mid-year review, I’ve considered if activities I’ve been spending time and energy on, have helped me achieve my objectives. My resources – my time, energy, finances and my impact on the planet – are precious. Looking at things through that lens, has helped me to think differently about what I’m doing for the rest of the year.
Don’t be afraid to make space for experimenting – but set clear objectives and take stock once you’ve tried it.
Make more space… if you constantly find yourself chasing your tail and feeling like you don’t have enough time, where can you give yourself some thinking space and so feel less frazzled? This is especially important for anyone in a leadership role – thinking time is essential. So, what could go? Look at your calendar so far this year - what could you have skipped or given to someone else to do?
What matters most?
I’ve had a few ‘life’ things that have happened this year that have taken me off course (including a bout of Covid…) and it’s been a BIG reminder of what’s really important. In a ‘busy busy’ world, there’s a temptation to try to do everything, right now and keep ourselves completely occupied and to measure our self-worth through our work.
But taking a different approach and switching off is essential. This isn’t just to optimise our work outputs but to make sure that the time we get to spend with people who really matter to us is as focused as possible. That means you won’t be answering calls, looking at emails or checking your phone every few minutes. You just won’t get that time with people again.
But it’s not just you that will benefit from this. You will be setting an example and the tone for your team, and I’ll be (very) surprised if you don’t find that people feel more refreshed and have new ideas and approaches by the time you’re all back together.
This is all about switching off and slowing down to speed up. Pausing to reset and think about what’s important to you and how you’re going to show up for yourself, your friends and family and your team for the rest of the year, will make a big difference.
One last thing. This is NOT an opportunity to beat yourself up about what you haven’t done. We are not perfect. We’re all learning. Nothing is set in stone.
I’d love to hear how you get on and if you need any accountability or support to get your plan sorted for the rest of this year, let me know. I have a few slots available in August and September so get in touch if you want to find out more.