Do a Mid-Year Check In With Your Goals

If QVC and Hallmark can do Christmas in July, we can too. Rather than waiting until the end of the year to review goals, this is a good time to do a mid-year check-up. Pull out that list of goals you set earlier in the year and your calendar for details on how you spent your time. Your photographs can also spark memories of January – June life highlights.

I started this year by documenting my “North Star.” The North Star is the anchor of the northern sky. It is a sky marker that helps those who follow it determine direction toward a purposeful destination. For many Christians it is the star that was the miraculous sign from God that foretold of Christ's coming to the earth.

To discover my North Star, I did an exercise I commonly use in my classes. Imagine that you’re near the end of your life and are being celebrated with friends and family. You stand up to share with them the five accomplishments you are most proud of, including whom you’ve become. 

The important rule in this activity is that everything you write must be within your control. If you’re quick to say, “I’m most proud of my children”, that would need to be modified to say, “I was a good listener as a parent”, because that is the action you control. 

With some quiet, uninterrupted time, my answer came quickly: Be the Best Daughter of God I Can Be. I want to continually align my thoughts and actions with my deepest values and beliefs. With this destination in mind, I added details as to how I want to become this person, and from this list came my 2021 goals.

The journey toward our North Star isn’t direct and sure. It’s messy, with lots of meandering, wandering, and winding. We lose our way, and wonder if its worth continuing. But if we remember to look up often and see our North Star, we can recommit and reorient. 

Stephen R. Covey shares this about the value of a North Star or a personal mission statement: 

“Think about taking a trip on an airplane. Before taking off, the pilot has a very clear destination in mind, which hopefully coincides with yours, and a flight plan to get there. The plane takes off at the appointed hour toward that predetermined destination. But in fact, the plane is off course at least 90 percent of the time. Weather conditions, turbulence, and other factors cause it to get off track. However, feedback is given to the pilot constantly, who then makes course corrections and keeps coming back to the exact flight plan, bringing the plane back on course. And often, the plane arrives at the destination on time. It’s amazing. Think of it. Leaving on time, arriving on time, but off course 90 percent of the time. If you can create this image of an airplane, a destination, and a flight plan in your mind, then you understand the purpose of a personal mission statement. It is the picture of where you want to end up—that is, your destination is the values you want to live your life by. Even if you are off course much or most of the time but still hang on to your sense of hope and your vision, you will eventually arrive at your destination. You will arrive at your destination and usually on time. That’s the whole point—we just get back on course.”

Covey’s insight gives me great hope because I’m off course so much of the time! The crucial key is paying attention to constant feedback and making small, consistent corrections. For me, this is the definition of daily repentance and the joy it can bring. Russell M. Nelson states: Nothing is more liberating, more ennobling, or more crucial to our individual progression than is a regular, daily focus on repentance. Repentance is not an event; it is a process. It is the key to happiness and peace of mind.”

Do This

Sometime this month, take time to look up and reorient yourself with your North Star. With your journal in hand, assess the direction you’re heading. Are you closer, further away, or about the same distance from your destination than you were in January If you continue doing what you’ve been doing in the last six months, where will you be in December? What adjustments need to be made for the next leg of your journey?

While July is a great time to do a goal check-up, you may want to schedule other monthly or weekly times. It’s easier to make small course corrections than big ones. 

Summary

Without a destination, a flight plan, and consistent course corrections, it doesn’t really matter where you want to go. You’ll end up where you’re going.