Happy Tuesday!
I’ll be honest: This is the first time I’m doing a Mid-Year Review.
In previous years, I only reviewed my yearly goals in December.
As a result, I’d get a rude shock when I discover things like...
Poor progress on goals
Subconscious re-definition of values
Misalignment of pursuits with those new definitions
all at one go.
To prevent another rude shock, I did my mid-year review last week, structuring it into 5 components:
10-Year Vision & 2023 Goals
Things I stopped doing and why
Wins in all areas of life
Oopsies in all areas of life
Summary of next steps
🗺️ 10-Year Vision & 2023 Goals
First, I re-connected with the summary of my 10-Year Vision.
The summary is a paragraph depicting my “Perfect Day” in 2033, for all areas of life.
As I re-read the paragraph:
🧠 I visualize the Perfect Day I’d written about.
🔍 I pay attention to how I feel during the visualization.
Does the Perfect Day still inspire and motivate me?
Did any detail feel “off” or misaligned?
Did any detail feel unachievable?
For things that felt “off”, I dug deeper into why the sense of misalignment existed.
For things that felt unachievable, I re-evaluated my beliefs about them, categorizing them into “limiting beliefs” or “genuine constraints”.
For limiting beliefs, I rephrased them into empowering ones.
For genuine constraints, I made a note to myself to research how I can satisfy them.
Then, I repeat this visualization and reflection with my 2023 Goals.
It’s 100% okay if you don’t feel like pursuing an item in your 10-year vision/yearly goal anymore.
Just ensure that you’re ditching it because of its misalignment with who you are, not because of your limiting beliefs or the resistance you face.
🛑 Things I stopped doing and why
I use this section to justify:
Why I ditched/will ditch an item in my 10-Year Vision/2023 Goals
Why I deprioritized/will deprioritize an item in my 2023 Goals to next year
Again, I look for clues of
misalignment
limiting beliefs
genuine constraints
and reflect on them to ensure that
I’m doing the best I can, and
I’m minimizing regrets
For items that I still want to pursue this year, but failed to make good progress on, I park them under the “Oopsies” section.
🏅Wins in all areas of life
I organize my life into 4 main categories:
Health (physical and mental)
Wealth (finances and career)
Relationships (social, familial, and romantic)
Growth (intellectual, spiritual, and the first 3 categories)
Like my weekly reflection prompt, I ask myself these questions for every area:
What did I achieve?
What strategies worked to create the achievement?
I include the win even if it isn’t part of my 2023 Goals or 10-Year Vision.
Example: If I managed to keep my life together despite going through romantic turbulence (that was unplanned), I would:
Write down “keeping my life together” as a win
Take note of the strategies I used to “keep my life together”
😅 Oopsies in all areas of life
Mistakes happen all the time. You will go off-course at some point.
Focus on righting the ship frequently to stay on-course.
Similar to my weekly reflection prompt, I ask myself these questions for every area:
What didn’t go so well?
How can I do better?
I include the oopsie even if it isn’t related to my 2023 Goals or 10-Year Vision.
Example: My migraine attack in late February was not related to any of my health goals. I wrote it down as an oopsie, taking note that:
I was in a stressful period of the semester, but didn’t make time for myself (e.g. I skipped journalling)
I did not pay attention to my body in the days before the migraine attack
As for how I can do better:
Schedule and prioritize me-time over academics
Learn how to recognize and process my emotions and physical symptoms
📝 Summary of next steps
Looking through my wins and oopsies, I write down:
The general vibes and progress I had for the first half of 2023
The vibes and progress I want for the rest of 2023
The 3-5 actions I can take for the next 6 months
What’s next?
Taking action, of course!
I crafted a rough plan for each of the actions I wrote down
I started implementing one of those actions the very next day
Now, it’s your turn to do the Mid-Year Review!
I’m curious to know what you’re working on. Feel free to leave a comment or reply via email.
Also: I never thought I would hit issue #20, let alone issue #26 (today!)
From the bottom of my heart, thank you for joining me on this journey.