Mid-summer check-in

We have officially used up half the year. It’s check in time. You probably read the post in January about New Year’s Resolutions and how it affects mental health. So, now it’s the time to get real with yourself. Where are you at, and where do you want to be? This isn’t to bash yourself. Don’t use this self-assessment to berate yourself for things you didn’t accomplish. Plans rarely go the way they’re supposed to. You’re probably in a different place than you planned, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t where you’re supposed to be. Sometimes we take longer than planned to learn lessons, but as long as you learn the lesson. You’re golden.

Use this as a structured way to check in. If you see your patterns, you can grow from them and get past the roadblocks they represent. Set new goals, and check back in after 6 more months have passed.

Brain Dump

Set some instrumental music on (you can find any type of music without lyrics on youtube, pick your poison), and just write. It doesn’t matter if you write long hand, type, or text, but make sure you’re comfortable. This is going to move fast once it starts moving. Just dump everything you can think of about 2021 so far. Write until you are out of things to write about. Try to stick to 2021, but if your mind insists on going elsewhere, follow the dog, don’t fight the leash.

Once you’ve completed, you can either just discard all of it and chalk it up to a good dumping experience like you would in the bathroom, or you can try to decipher what you wrote. Taking the time to do this will give you an insight to yourself that you might not have already had.

Do you know your goals?

Chances are the goals you set at the beginning of the year are written down and forgotten somewhere. It’s ok. This is pretty normal. 55% of Americans didn’t even think they had a shot of achieving their New Year’s Resolutions goals when they set them back in January. I do have to ask, though. How can you accomplish your goals when you don’t even know what they are?

One of the best ways to keep your goals right in front of you, is to track them. If you keep track of when you accomplish a micro-goal (your daily goal that gets you to your grand goal eventually), you benefit in a few ways. You can see your patterns. If you miss during a certain time of month or week, you can plan ahead. Plan to pick up that slack during a more productive or “easier” time. If you work with yourself, you have a greater chance at success, because you won’t be setting yourself up for failure. This is what radical acceptance is all about.

What stopped you from achieving your goals? Honestly?

You’ve sat with yourself a little bit at this point (or you plan to come back to this and the window will sit open on your phone for a month. Speaking from experience). If you sat with yourself enough, you should have a pretty good feel for what has been holding you back from accomplishing those achievements you saw so clearly 6 months ago.

It’s uncomfortable, believe me, I know. No one likes to admit when they fuck up, let alone figure out why. You aren’t alone. Don’t worry, you don’t have to tell anyone what the reason is, the important part is that you know. If you can get uncomfortable enough to figure out where everything went wrong and actually accept that part of you, you will unlock a Superpower called Insight. One that everyone has access to, but rarely anyone reaches out for.

This superpower gives you the ability to meet yourself in the middle. With this sight unlocked, you can now see through your obstacles and see the solution on the other side. You just have to be brave enough.

What’s important to you now?

It would not be abnormal if what was important to you back in January, doesn’t even matter to you anymore. That’s ok. You don’t have to be the same person, and having different priorities is generally a sign of growth. Keep growing and move past your self-defamation and into the realm of possibilities.

Getting your priorities straight helps by helping you:

• Manage your time more effectively

• Decision making becomes easier

• Boundaries are easier to uphold

• Set goals more efficiently.

Download your free Priorities Worksheet, now.

Set new goals

Revisit the New Year’s Resolution post about how to set goals. It goes over in detail how SMART goals work, and how they can work for you.

Remember, don’t beat yourself up, just beat your score from before.

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