You blinked, didn’t you?
One second it is January 2018 with an empty canvas ahead of you to paint your 2018 masterpiece! The next second you are staring at Q3 fast approaching and have only 6-months to achieve that masterpiece!
Do not hit the panic button. Pause, breathe, and immediately block out at least three 4-hour chunks of time in June to review, reflect, and recalibrate for the back half of the year.
Review (blocked time #1):
First up, time to review status. Review, without a filter, all of your what’s and the how’s. Try to avoid subjective commentary and just get down the facts.
- What were your goals at the outset?
- How are you tracking against those?
- How’s the business doing?
- How are YOU doing?
Reflect (blocked time #2):
Revisit your review notes. With a fresh eye does everything seem accurate? Did you miss anything? Time to reflect. You better be rested for this blocked time. This critical time chunk is when you unpack all the why’s, why not’s, and how comes.
- Why have you been successful at certain goals? How did you do it?
- Why have you not been successful? How come? What were the roadblocks? You? Others? Internal or external forces?
- And don’t forget to reflect on any successes at this stage too! Get celebration time on the calendar, whatever “celebration” means to you! Maybe start with some bubbly?
Recalibrate (blocked time #3):
Revisit your reflect notes. Does anything else come to mind? Are you being honest with yourself? Remember: garbage in, garbage out! Next up, recalibrate. This critical time chunk is dedicated to recalibrating any goals for the remainder of 2018.
- Do any need to be dropped all together (due to change of relevancy? Or change of landscape?)
- Do you need to redefine any?
- Do you need to get help to get stalled goals moving?
One last task, if you don’t already have dedicated monthly goal review time blocked… do it now. Ideally, I’d suggest weekly review time and then a serious chunk of time at the start of Q4.
July is the new January …your canvas is waiting!