The second half of the year is almost here. At the beginning of the year, there’s a push to plan for the new year. Goal-setting becomes the buzzword and everyone is keyed up trying to wrap up the year in order to kickstart the new one powerfully.
Your intention was to start the year off with a bang. You made all the necessary plans to ensure that this was going to be the year that you made big changes and saw big results.
However, research has shown that most people either forget about or give up on their New Year’s resolutions by February.
Does this sound familiar?
Falling off your resolutions bandwagon doesn’t have to be a bad thing. The reality is that life gets in the way even as you work on your goals. It’s easy to get caught up with the grind and lose focus.
Even if you’re one of the many who are not on track at this point, there’s still plenty of time to pull out a big win. You definitely don’t have to wait until next year to try again. The first of the year is just another day. Today is just as good a day as any to start again.
With the right strategies, the second half of the year can make this one of the most amazing years of your life!
Try these techniques to stay with or get back on track with your resolutions.
6 Tips to Make the Second Half of the Year Count
1. Set aside time for your mid-year review
Mid-year reviews are common in the corporate world. Employees both look forward and dread them. Some business owners also make time for their business reviews. Unfortunately, most people don’t take the time to conduct personal mid-year reviews.
If you’re an entrepreneur, you can combine this review with your personal one. If you’re employed, then you have to carve out extra time for your personal review.
Either way, the first step is to book this time in your calendar. I normally book it at the beginning of the year so that I don’t forget and fill up my schedule for June.
The time you take depends on your availability. It can be an afternoon, full day, or weekend. It’s best if you can get away from your regular life and go somewhere quiet – away from phones, gadgets, social media and interruptions.
Your preparations for the review will include:
- Finding a suitable place for the review process. This should preferably be away from your home or office.
- Collecting all the information you have on your goals for this year.
- Putting together your writing (or drawing) materials.
- Informing people that you’ll be unavailable on that afternoon, day or weekend.
- Ensuring that you have a number that important people can call if there’s an emergency. Make sure these people know what constitutes an emergency so that you avoid unnecessary interruptions.
2. Evaluate results based on your goals
Look back at the goals you set at the beginning of the year then gather data on what you have done so far this year. Don’t just look for physical data, also evaluate your behaviour regarding those goals.
Think about:
- How are you acting in ways that are supportive of those goals? For example, if you’re trying to shed off weight, are you choosing your foods wisely? Are you exercising?
- How are you acting in ways that are counter to your goals?
- In what ways are you basing your decisions on your goals?
- How often do you plan your days, weeks and months with your goals in mind?
Finally, look at your #1 goal for the year and ask yourself:
- Where am I today? What have I achieved vis a vis my goal?
- What resources do I have to work with?
- Where do I want to be by the end of the year? (you may have to recalibrate your goal)
- How long is it going to take to reach this goal based on my progress and the resources available?
- What do I need to do to get there?
How far or close are you to achieving your goal(s)? What needs to change so that you can make the second half of the year count?
2. Be honest with yourself
If you’re not doing well, why are you failing? When did you start getting off track? What is the reason for your lack of progress? What could you have done better?
For example, if you’re working on losing weight, are you improving your nutrition and exercising? Or have you fallen victim to the many MLM gimmicks that turn you into a spammer as you try to recruit friends and relatives?
If you’re doing well, what improvements can you make in the second half of the year?
Finally, looking at your #1 goal for the year, do you still want to achieve this goal? It’s fine if you don’t, which means that it’s time for a new goal!
3. Recalibrate your plan
Make changes in your plan so that you hit your goals by the end of the year. You can make a new plan if you’re struggling to achieve the current one. There’s no sense in spending time and effort on a plan that’s not working for you.
As you plan, you need to move away from generalities and quantify what success looks like. For example, if you’re a coach:
- What are your recalibrated goals for the rest of the year?
- How do you want to engage with prospects and clients?
- What marketing tactics do you need to focus on (quantify them)?
- How many more coaching clients do you need to work with during the second half of the year?
- How many more course or short program sales do you want to make?
- What changes do you need to make in your business management practices?
- Do you need to grow your team? If yes, by how many people and in what areas?
If you’re ahead of schedule, that’s great! Evaluate your goals and see if you can make an even better plan.
Once you have a new plan in place, set milestones and review your progress toward those milestones at regular intervals.
4. Plan for potential obstacles
One of the reasons why people fail to achieve their goals is because they don’t predict potential obstacles. At this point of the year, it’s important to evaluate the obstacles you’ve already faced and identify new ones you’re likely to encounter.
Here are some potential and often unseen obstacles:
- The third quarter of the year: This is a big challenge if you have international employees or clients because many of them go on holiday at this time. Any key decisions that need to made for this quarter should be made earlier. Also, follow up quickly on prospective customers before they come back from holiday with the dreaded words, “I/We don’t have any money to work with you.”
- Complacency: This can set in easily if you’re already on track with your goals. It gets worse if the complacency is at the team level! To counter this, identify any opportunities that you can quickly move into and take advantage of them now. This means that you should have completed your SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) Analysis.
- The lure of the status quo: Maybe you haven’t achieved your goals, but things are OK. If your goals are going to rock the boat, you may find yourself delaying or procrastinating. The same case applies to other people who are part of your goal achievement. Family members, employees and colleagues can also resist passively or actively if they don’t want to change the status quo.
- Lag time: Have some of your goals been overtaken by time or events? Working on goals whose lag time is up is an uphill task that will have poor or no results.
- Busyness: Many people start their days and weeks in running mode. You sit at your desk at the beginning of the day and before you know it, the day is over. You start the week or month motivated. Before you know it, the week or month is over. You need to take control of your time otherwise the second half of the year will go by. Before you know it, it will be January with the start of a New Year and you still have a list of unachieved goals!
Identify potential obstacles and create a plan in place to deal with them if they arise. Obstacles are less intimidating if you anticipate them and already have a strategy for dealing with them.
5. Create an action plan for the 3rd quarter
90 days is good enough time for you to create momentum while maintaining focus. This means that you won’t be tempted to procrastinate on your goals. It’s also easier to break your main goals for the year into 90-day chunks that you work on each quarter.
The best thing about using this process is that it gives you clarity about what you need to do and when. Check out this article where I outline how you can achieve your goals effectively by using 90-day goal setting.
As you create your action plan for the 3rd quarter, also keep in mind the following:
- What knowledge and/or skills do you need to acquire?
- Whose help do you need?
- What personality traits and attitudes do you need to possess?
- What habits and behaviours do you need to change or drop?
Include these in your plan so that you don’t lose out on your overall personal development.
Finally, remember to re-evaluate on a regular basis. Avoid letting yourself lapse this time around. Schedule a time to sit down and evaluate your progress. Do this nightly, weekly and monthly for your main goals.
This evaluation and recalibration will help you identify and sort out problems before they escalate. You’ll also be able to identify opportunities early.
6. Get into the second half as if it’s the first half of the year
The first time I heard this tip I shook my head because I didn’t think it was possible to do so. Today, I’m a convert!
The best analogy for this is the game of football which has two halves. If the team is not doing well in the first half, coaches and players regroup and evaluate what’s going wrong. They get back to the field for the second half with renewed energy AND a new strategy for winning the game.
In the second half, the team does not focus on the results of the first half of the game. Their focus is on their goal, which is to win the game.
This is the same case for any sport. You’ll notice that sportspeople across the board use half-time to recalibrate and re-strategize.
Why not do the same with your goals? Shift your focus and see just how far you can go in the second half of the year!
Don’t Give Up
If your goal is even remotely reasonable, you’ll eventually succeed if you work at it. On the other hand, failure is guaranteed if you give up.
It’s common for people to give up or forget about their New Year’s resolutions by the time February 1st rolls around. Even if you fall in that category this year, there’s no reason to lose hope.
The second half of the year is a great time to evaluate, recalibrate and restart on your goals. Every day is a good day to start taking your life seriously and commit to making real progress.
Your success this year begins with you. Give yourself the privilege of a reset and start again. Use what you’ve learned in the first half of the year to make a more effective plan going forward then act on your plan.
(Image credit: Pexels)
Need Some Extra Help With Your Goals?
I’ve been helping professional and businesswomen achieve their personal, professional and business goals while reducing the time they spend working.
Over the years, I’ve created a system that works not just for my clients, but also for me. What I love best about this system is that you can quickly tweak and adapt it to suit the challenges you’re facing on the ground.
Don’t struggle with your goals this year. Book a Goal Setting Strategy Session and let me help you:
- Get CLARITY about what to focus on.
- Create a CUSTOMIZED goal setting, implementation and tracking system that works for you (no more copy-paste).
- Get MOTIVATED to work on your goals, no matter the challenges encountered.
- KICK-OFF the next month, quarter, or year powerfully.
- Hold your hand for 30 days as you IMPLEMENT your plan.
- Tweak and REFINE your system after testing it for 30 days.
You don’t have to struggle with your goals anymore. You too can have a BREAKTHROUGH this year!
Click here to request for more information about the Goal Setting Strategy Session.
