August check in

How is your year going so far? I had planned my mid year review post for early July but somehow I never got to it because life was lifing. Here it is now.

I was very intentional at the beginning of the year when I was setting my goals. I looked at what I wanted to bring over from 2023 into the new year, the new goals I wanted to introduce and the goals I wanted to remove. Yes some of my goals are 2-3 year goals and yes I remove some goals or modify them as things change or as I get new information that I did not have at the time of setting my goal. My goals are not cast in stone. As needed I modify them.

I write my goals in 6 different categories which are career, business, social/family, physical, financial and spiritual. To avoid overwhelming myself, I keep a maximum of 2 goals for each category. Some categories will have one goal and I try not to exceed a total of 10 goals. Do you use categories when setting your goals?

I have made great progress on most of the categories. The one thing I did differently this year was adding all the action steps I needed to take against each goal. Writing your goals is a great first step. The next most important step is to clearly articulate the steps you will need to take to achieve that goal.  Here is an example of how this could look like if you are planning a holiday at the end of the year and needed to save for it.  Step 1-  deciding on your destination.

Step 2 – researching cost of travel, accommodation, meals and activities.

Step 3 –  setting up the monthly allocation in your budget and transferring that amount into a dedicated savings account every month. Who doesn’t want to enjoy a holiday debt free? I say cheers to that!

There are other goals that I haven’t made any progress on at all and that is okay. I am not beating myself about it. I am evaluating if my timelines were realistic in the first place and what I need to do differently for the rest of the year. If you find yourself not having made any progress on what you wanted to achieve  don’t beat yourself up. Start small, maybe with one goal that you can achieve in 3 to 4 months. Each step you take towards achieving your goal is motivation to keep going.