Mid-Month Check In
As important as it is to set goals, it’s also important to check in on how they’re going. Insert Mid-Month Check-In!
A Mid-month check-in is a check-in exercise to gauge how your month is going before the month is over.
Mid-month check-ins are great because it allows you to stay grounded, and it prevents you from losing track of time. If you check in at the mid-month point, you have an opportunity to celebrate how far you have come with your goals and/or identify any challenges that have come up, as well as create a plan that will allow you to pivot.
The time to do this is at the mid-month point. Usually, that’s around day 14, 15, or 16 of the month. I like to do it on the weekends when I have a bit more time to really dive deep and be focused. I like to keep the check-in exercise to 15 - 30 minutes. But of course, you can do the check-in for a shorter amount of time or longer.
I will use the below prompts and questions to guide myself through the check-in.
PROMPT: REVIEW YOUR MONTHLY GOALS
Review your monthly goals.
Which goals have you made progress with thus far? Which goals (if any) have you accomplished so far?
QUESTION: WHAT’S WORKING? WHAT’S NOT?
Identify why you have accomplished the goals that you have.
Was it because you were excited to do it?
Was there an emotion driving you forward?
Did you break down the goal into achievable steps?
Identify why you haven’t made progress with that goal.
Is there something holding you back? If it is because the goal seems really daunting, what is the smallest step forward you can take to move that goal slightly closer to completion?
Is it because you aren’t prioritizing that goal? What can you do differently in your life to make it possible for you to make progress on your goal?
Take a look at the goals you did accomplish, is there a common reason as to why you accomplished those goal(s)? Is there a way you can incorporate that reason into this goal you are struggling with?
If you find the goal is no longer something you wish to accomplish (which is fine) decide to scrap it in a non-judgmental way.
Judgment and shame do not need to be a part of this process. Goals are meant to change. Sometimes you create goals that you think are what you want, until you start to work on it and discover that the goal isn’t actually related at all to where you want to be.
PIVOT PLAN
You will then create a “Pivot plan” centered around how you answered the above questions. I like to keep it simple and shift the language of how I synthesized the goal at the start of the month.
Example:
Initial Goal: Walk Every Morning
Challenge - Things always come up in the morning. Sometimes I can do the walk but not always.
Challenge reason - Not able to prioritize this walk due to time constraints.
Example Pivot Plan:
The goal may be too vague. Make it more specific and time-based.
New Goal: After I take the dog out for the first potty run in the morning, I will go on a 5-minute walk to the pond and back each morning.
Since we identified this goal as having the issue of not being a priority and not having time to do the new goal. We will try and figure out what we can do to get more time.
TIME: Try going to sleep 10 minutes earlier and waking up 10 minutes earlier. This way the new habit we are trying to form will not impact our normal morning routine (time-wise).
FINISH OFF THE MONTH STRONG
Now that you have figured out the challenges and created a pivot plan, you are on your way to finishing off your month strong or at the very least with a better understanding of how you want the rest of your month to go.
