Half-Year Check-In

For my readers in the United States, Happy Independence Day! For those elsewhere, Happy Monday! To all, welcome to today’s blog. More importantly, welcome to the official second half of 2022. We’ve made it this far. It’s time to assess where we are by doing a half year check-in. Perhaps this year is going swimmingly for you, and perhaps it is time to readjust and get back on the wagon.

If you are interested in my own journey, go to the end of the exercise, where you will find some very open and honest reflections of my own first half 2022.

Revisiting goals for the year

Step 1: Word and Vision for 2022

It is time to go back to your original vision for 2022. Bring to mind your word of the year, and the associated focus areas and goals.

Many things, unexpected or otherwise can happen in 6 months! Does your word still fit you? Has anything drastically changed this year where you need to update your focus areas? Are there parts of your life you neglected to include from the beginning, which you’d like to add in now?

Step 2: Focus area deep dive

Now that you’ve determined, at a high-level if your word of the year still fits, and if your focus areas are aligned. It is time to go deeper into each area. If you could rank them, what would you say would be the top area, which you feel the best about? And, of course in rank order, all the way to the one that isn’t progressing as well. Once you’ve done this, would you choose to start putting your energy into a different one, or are you happy of what is coming out number one? Do you need to rebalance any of the areas?

Step 3: Reevaluate your Intentions and Goals

Once you have completed your focus area rank order, now it is time to go into your intentions and goals. Perhaps for 2022 you set the intention toward making your body healthier, and the associated goal is to cook at home 4 times a week. Are the goals you’ve set getting you to the intention behind it? Are there goals you need to re-create or start fresh because they just aren’t getting you to where you need to be?

How do you feel about the intentions you originally set? Are they aligning well with you you want to become before the ball drops on midnight January 1, 2023? Are your goals and intentions even realistic?

Step 4: Daily Habits

In 2021, I made a post about daily habit tracking. I am happy to report the habit of habit tracking really serves me well. I hope you’ve at least written down the daily habits you’d like to incorporate into your year, so that you can meet your goals and therefore make progress on your intentions and focus areas. If you aren’t tracking your daily habits because you are scared of all the 0’s that will add up, please adjust your habits to something manageable.

These can be as simple as ‘stay hydrated’, or ‘read for 10 minutes’. The more simple, straight forward and manageable they are, the more likely you will do them.

And, I assure you, if you start the daily habits TODAY of the person you want to become in even 2 months, you WILL feel better about yourself. I talk more about my struggles earlier in the year with this in my personal half year assessment below. I encourage you to start tracking your habits today!

If you already have been tracking your habits – awesome! I hope you can see your 1% improvement in the areas on your tracker, and thus see yourself transforming into the person you wanted to become this year right before your eyes! Give yourself credit!

My half-year assessment

MY WORD OF THE YEAR: BOLD.

This word has been a challenge for me. Over the years I had become a shell of myself for many reasons. Mostly, I liked the quieter, less intense version of myself; however I knew there was room for growth. There were areas in my life, especially in my day-job where I had lost sight of my own value. When I selected my word for 2022, I did so thoughtfully and carefully. I didn’t want something ‘easy’. Instead, I wanted to look myself in the eyes and conquer the limiting beliefs I had let take over. Those limiting beliefs specifically surrounded my self-worth, my ability, my intelligence and my experience.

This is hard to admit, and as I edit this post, it is hard to read back. Over the years, I had let these limiting beliefs grow in my mind like a chia pet. Looking back, I see how unhealthy my thoughts were, and worse, how I was operating out of fear and so easily manipulated. It saddens me to this day.

Funny… not funny though, how something new, and empowering can come from so much destruction, self imposed or otherwise. As I was reflecting in December 2021, I knew I had to make big changes in my life. And this is where the selection of the word ‘BOLD’ was born.

The changes I knew I had to make surrounded my inner self-talk. My showing up for myself everyday through self-encouragement, healthy habits, self-discipline and self-appreciation. I knew I had to shine a light into the dark parts of my mind and start pulling out the things I knew were inside me; but hiding out of fear.

FOCUS AREAS:

If you read my original post about my word of the year, you will know that I added a 5th focus area for 2022, “Relationships”. I did this because 2020 and 2021 were harsh with long periods of isolation, and only the very beginnings of reunions. Not only that, but I wanted to be much more intentional about connecting with people, regardless if I’d be seeing them in person or not. I am so glad I added this, especially because it opened my world up to getting to know people I’d known only in a professional capacity much better. In addition, I intentionally prioritized getting to know people on a deeper level over other things. It, so far, has made my life much richer and more enjoyable.

Let’s go through each focus area with a bit more detail, also I’ve force ranked them, as I’ve instructed you to do in the steps above.

The deets

1. Career & Side Hustle
   • Career: The first 6 months of 2022 have proven to have brought with it changes galore with my day-job. After 7 years, I finally had an amazing manager who was supportive and caring. Someone who I could look up to and easily talk to. Although this was the case, many factors lead to me needing to make a change. A BOLD change. After all those years, I knew I had sacrificed WAY too much of myself, my own needs, even my health at times. This was a lesson that took me much too long to learn. I am thankful I finally did and that I made a change for the better.
   • Side Hustle: As you may have noticed, I took a different approach with my blog this year. I did some studying at the very beginning of the year and approached this as more of a business instead of just a hobby. I don’t want to speak too too soon, because I’d like a full year under my belt before I claim success, but so far so good!
2. Relationships: As I discussed a bit above, I am so thankful I added this to my focus areas list! It has led to much deeper connections, specifically me being more open. And much more fun. In addition, I’ve learned so much about people who I’d known for many years. Not to mention making previous acquaintances into life long friends and more. Previous to 2022, I was very good at meeting new people, and building my network, but those connections weren’t overly deep aside from close friends near by in NC, internet friends I’ve never met and the occasional work person turned confidant. Now, I can say my relationships are more like a flourishing garden, with lots of warm breezes, giggles and deep conversations.
3. Healthy Body: Welp, I debated whether to put this as number 3 or number 4. This year started off rough for me, being sick for almost two full weeks straight but testing negative for COVID. My step count went from an average of 12,000 to 5,000 really quick. I kept up with some other activities but had to slow down considerably right off the bat. Once I was well again, I of course started traveling for work which greatly distracts from this goal. I did however, continue to eat extremely healthy, and move my body. When Spring came around I started getting outside a ton more and actually getting in proper shape again! Therefore I listed this at number 3.
4. Mindfulness & Personal Growth: So, I almost took this off my list because it isn’t really fair to force rank it. I want to be honest with you all. Whilst these two topics are the literal inspiration behind this blog, I struggle. However, I always, always get right back to it. There is a particular day I remember in January where I couldn’t get my mind to stop wondering. I went back and read one of my own blog posts and it helped me. Eventually I know my mental chatter will calm down and align with my visions for the future, until then I will consciously manage it!
5. Activities & Hobbies: Going into the year, I had so many hopes for activities and hobbies. Some of which I’ve accomplished and many more I’d like to enjoy. I ranked this last because in general, I was prioritizing my health and career over the extra stuff. Instead of doing something everyday to work toward my singing goals, or even practicing dance, I often found myself working on self-development or more career related activities. Something I’d like to change on the back half of the year.

INTENTIONS W/ MEASURABLE GOALS:

Below is the list of my intentions for 2022. While I am hitting on all of these, I’d say some of them are shaping up to be different than originally intended. For example, ‘learning new things’. This year I learned ballroom dance, but I also learned a lot about balancing the known and unknown and making a leap. So, the original meanings may have shifted or now include something more, but still my intentions are very much in line. At the end of this year, I want to be able to look at myself in the mirror and be happy with the life I lived from January to December 2022.

• Live a balanced life
• Be present in every moment
• Continuously work on myself
• Give myself grace
• Enjoy life everyday
• Learning new things

DAILY HABITS:

My daily habits are so important to me. In January because of being ill, there were many 0’s instead of check marks because I simply wasn’t making progress on hobbies or working out. I did not let this discourage me, but I was honest in my tracker. Knowing I’d be here now looking back at the other moments and see progress was made! This goes to one of my intentions to give myself grace.  As February came and went and travel starting picking back up again, my daily habits became even more important. 

The one’s I consistently include month to month are typically:

• Meditation
• Journaling
• 8 hours of sleep
• Intermittent Fasting
• Moving the body (yoga, walking, lifting)
• Enjoying life
• Activity or Hobby (1/day)
• Connection