Your midyear check-in

Recently I began a practice of emailing clients between sessions to check-in on their progress. While we're on the phone together, we make great headway toward the goal they have for themselves -- building a life and career that is personally fulfilling and financially rewarding. We break their goal into manageable steps for them to take in the week or two until our next call.

Then they hangup, and real life happens.

Even if clients have dutifully taken notes, and posted reminders on their computer screens and refrigerator doors, they can forget what we talked about while immersed in their day jobs and family commitments.

So I send them a little note to let them know that I'm thinking about them even when we aren't on the phone together.

Consider this your Midyear Check-in. Even if we haven't spoken in a while, I'm still believing in the goals you set for yourself.

We are officially halfway through 2014, so it's a good time to look back at what you wanted, where you are now, and what the rest of the year gets to look like. It could be that the intention you set back in January still works for you, and you just need a reminder to stay on track. Alternatively, a lot could have happened since then that requires a new perspective.

Either way, this is the time to decide. Take the next couple minutes to check in with yourself.

1) Go back to January.

If you set an intention or resolutions, get them out. Look at the words you used to describe who you wanted to be, and how you wanted to feel as this year unfolded.

If you didn't write anything down in January, do that thinking now. Picture what your life was like then, and compare it to where you are now.

2) Ask yourself:

  • How have you succeeded already? Always celebrate first! Give yourself credit for getting things done even if you didn't remember that you did.

  • Do these goals mean something different to you with the passage of time?

  • What do you still want to make happen from your original list?

  • Is there anything you new you want to achieve by December?

3) Look ahead.

Write something on each month of your calendar for the rest of the year: July, August, September, October, November, December. What will you do each of those months to keep you in touch with your goal?

Maybe there is a special quote that will remind you in July, or a question that gets you to think bigger in September. Whatever it is, put it on your calendar. Even better, make it pop up as a friendly alarm on a specific day each month.

"Hello Beautiful! You're making this big dream happen, keep going!"

This is an opportunity to remind yourself how much you believe in what you want. You deserve it.

It's also a chance to break your goals into six manageable chunks. What you're doing each month toward making it happen. In July, you're taking a mental break on vacation so you can come back refreshed and ready. In September, you're sending out a proposal to the company you've always wanted to work with.

You get the idea.

Now get going!