Does the thought of conducting a midyear review of business goals leave you feeling less than inspired?
This can especially be the case if you haven’t yet reached your goals or are trailing far behind them.
Instead of simply reviewing goals and making adjustments, what if you gave yourself a personalized professional reason for recommitting to those goals?
You’ve already got six months of experience under your belt.
Why not use that valuable real-work experience to your advantage?
Here’s a practical approach you can use to make your midyear review both memorable and productive.
How to Review Your Midyear Progress with Business Goals
Ask yourself what you won’t ever do again in your business
You’ve had a glorious six whole months to experiment, dabble, research, act, and respond to situations in your business. And you’ve probably had some setbacks.
Carefully think about this for a moment. What missteps have you made or experiences have you had that have left an indelible mark in your memory?
The idea here is to get really raw. Knowing what you know now, what arrangements, situations, attitudes, and scenarios will you no longer tolerate in your business?
This can be anything and everything, from poor client relationships and wobbly operational tools to shoddy meeting protocols.
Identify three key takeaways from that experience
You most likely went through some sort of discomfort over the past several months.
But exactly why was the experience so abhorrent? Don’t be afraid to dig deep to uncover the source(s) of your discontent.
Was there an aspect of this experience that wasn’t within your direct control?
Perhaps there was an action you took that you now regret?
Or maybe there was an action you wish you had taken months ago?
Now that you’ve taken a moment to reflect upon things, it’s time to review your past experiences in relation to your goals.
How can these past experiences help advance your goals? What valuable lessons can you apply toward reinforcing your goals?
For instance, let’s say your goal was to select a productivity tool for your business.
Perhaps you picked a tool at random, or relied on a tip from an acquaintance, and didn’t select the right tool for your needs.
You’d most likely want to change your approach toward your making such choices.
Rewrite your goals with a reframed approach
Take a look at your existing goals. Taking your past experiences into account, how can you rewrite a better goal guideline for yourself?
More likely than not, your approach either will be a complete 180-degree shift or a slight adjustment to your initial plans.
From the example above, you might decide that, in order to reach your goal of finding a suitable productivity tool, you’ll catalog your business’s needs, conduct thoughtful research, and carefully evaluate a tool.
If you’d like, you can turn your goals into a statement, something like: “I learned these [three valuable lessons] this first half of the year, and I’m choosing to apply these [three rewritten actions] for the rest of the year to help me reach my goals.”
Now that you’ve taken the time to review your past experiences, you can take targeted action toward reaching your goals for the year.
Learn How to Improve Your Productivity
The world of work is filled with tasks; that’s why it’s so important to be able to do your work efficiently and effectively.
If you want clarity around being more productive in your business or life, book a free 30-minute video strategy session with me today.
This article previously appeared on Inc.com.
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