Happy Tuesday!

I’ll be honest: This is the first time I’m doing a Mid-Year Review.

In previous years, I only reviewed my yearly goals in December.

As a result, I’d get a rude shock when I discover things like...

• Poor progress on goals
• Subconscious re-definition of values
• Misalignment of pursuits with those new definitions

all at one go.

To prevent another rude shock, I did my mid-year review last week, structuring it into 5 components:

1. 10-Year Vision & 2023 Goals
2. Things I stopped doing and why
3. Wins in all areas of life
4. Oopsies in all areas of life
5. Summary of next steps

🗺️ 10-Year Vision & 2023 Goals

First, I re-connected with the summary of my 10-Year Vision.

The summary is a paragraph depicting my “Perfect Day” in 2033, for all areas of life.

As I re-read the paragraph:

🧠 I visualize the Perfect Day I’d written about.

🔍 I pay attention to how I feel during the visualization.

• Does the Perfect Day still inspire and motivate me?
• Did any detail feel “off” or misaligned?
• Did any detail feel unachievable?

For things that felt “off”, I dug deeper into why the sense of misalignment existed.

For things that felt unachievable, I re-evaluated my beliefs about them, categorizing them into “limiting beliefs” or “genuine constraints”.

• For limiting beliefs, I rephrased them into empowering ones.
• For genuine constraints, I made a note to myself to research how I can satisfy them.

Then, I repeat this visualization and reflection with my 2023 Goals.

It’s 100% okay if you don’t feel like pursuing an item in your 10-year vision/yearly goal anymore.

Just ensure that you’re ditching it because of its misalignment with who you are, not because of your limiting beliefs or the resistance you face.

🛑 Things I stopped doing and why

I use this section to justify:

• Why I ditched/will ditch an item in my 10-Year Vision/2023 Goals
• Why I deprioritized/will deprioritize an item in my 2023 Goals to next year

Again, I look for clues of

• misalignment
• limiting beliefs
• genuine constraints

and reflect on them to ensure that

1. I’m doing the best I can, and
2. I’m minimizing regrets

For items that I still want to pursue this year, but failed to make good progress on, I park them under the “Oopsies” section.

🏅Wins in all areas of life

I organize my life into 4 main categories:

• Health (physical and mental)
• Wealth (finances and career)
• Relationships (social, familial, and romantic)
• Growth (intellectual, spiritual, and the first 3 categories)

Like my weekly reflection prompt, I ask myself these questions for every area:

• What did I achieve?
• What strategies worked to create the achievement?

I include the win even if it isn’t part of my 2023 Goals or 10-Year Vision.

Example: If I managed to keep my life together despite going through romantic turbulence (that was unplanned), I would:

• Write down “keeping my life together” as a win
• Take note of the strategies I used to “keep my life together”

😅 Oopsies in all areas of life

Mistakes happen all the time. You will go off-course at some point.

Focus on righting the ship frequently to stay on-course.

Similar to my weekly reflection prompt, I ask myself these questions for every area:

• What didn’t go so well?
• How can I do better?

I include the oopsie even if it isn’t related to my 2023 Goals or 10-Year Vision.

Example: My migraine attack in late February was not related to any of my health goals. I wrote it down as an oopsie, taking note that:

• I was in a stressful period of the semester, but didn’t make time for myself (e.g. I skipped journalling)
• I did not pay attention to my body in the days before the migraine attack

As for how I can do better:

• Schedule and prioritize me-time over academics
• Learn how to recognize and process my emotions and physical symptoms

If you’re curious about my Weekly Reflection Template, subscribe below! You’ll receive it in the Welcome Email and the email footer of all newsletter issues.

📝 Summary of next steps

Looking through my wins and oopsies, I write down:

• The general vibes and progress I had for the first half of 2023
• The vibes and progress I want for the rest of 2023
• The 3-5 actions I can take for the next 6 months

What’s next?

Taking action, of course!

• I crafted a rough plan for each of the actions I wrote down
• I started implementing one of those actions the very next day

Now, it’s your turn to do the Mid-Year Review!

I’m curious to know what you’re working on. Feel free to DM me on LinkedIn and say hi!

Also: I never thought I would hit issue #20, let alone issue #26 (today!)

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for joining me on this journey.