Well, the year is about half over already. How are those New Year’s resolutions going? How about the goals you created for your business? My guess is that things are not exactly where you planned them to be at this point. Don’t worry, I am not here to make you feel guilty about that. In fact, just the opposite. Let’s uncover how much progress you have made.

If you are like most people, myself included, you have very little awareness of your accomplishments and progress. We tend to focus on the things that we didn’t do or that didn’t go well. We think that is the way to move forward and get more done. However, there is a different way forward that leads to better results.

If you want to get your mind in a good place to reassess your goals for the rest of the year, here are a few things that really help.

1. Reflect on what has been accomplished. This step is critical! Don’t move forward unless you do this first. It will be the fuel that sustains you when things get hard. If we feel we are not making any progress forward, the chances of continuing on are extremely low. This won’t take long to do. Take a few minutes to write down everything you can think of that you accomplished so far this year. Big and small, both matter. Then, take another few minutes to scan through your calendar and notes from the first half of the year. Why do this? You will forget a lot of what you have done if you are going from memory. I find looking at my calendar and notes often reminds me of things that happened based on seeing these clues.

2. Think about what you learned. There may have been a few things that didn’t go well in the last few months. Those are our best learning opportunities, but it is hard to see this in the midst of a mess. However, if we can think about our failures after the fact, we will very likely find valuable lessons. Think about what didn’t go well and find the wisdom you gained from it. 

3. Reassess your goals based on the current circumstances. Things change fast. There is a pretty good chance that there have been changes since you set those goals six months ago. Does your plan still make sense? Should something else be your top priority now? Sticking to goals out of stubbornness of wanting to get them done won’t help you. In fact, this can really throw you off track.

The worst thing you can do when reassessing goals is to beat yourself up for what you didn’t get done. It doesn’t matter at this point. That is in the past. What matters is what happens going forward. If you start with the right mindset your chances of success will increase dramatically.