Mid-Year Check In: Goals

“Na Na Na Na You Say It’s Your Birthday!”

Bucket Lists & Creating a Work Life that Supports ALL Your Goals

June is a perfect time to take time to look over whatever you intended for the new year in January, and check in, evaluate (and possibly re-evaluate) your goals.  June also happens to be my birthday month, a brand new personal year for me! So I do this every year.

Do you work on your birthday?  I firmly believe in no work on my birthday!  In fact, if & when I ever have employees, it’s paid birthdays off all the way! It’s one of my ongoing “goals” I guess you could say, or perhaps a detail of HOW I reach my ever present goal of work/life balance.

It’s the only holiday that’s personal to ME, and I like to celebrate it. I used to do something I’d never done before but always wanted to do (or something I loved to do but rarely did) on my birthday, an adventure!  Before that got hard to keep up, I went whitewater rafting one year, Yellowstone another, and back to a Six Flags Theme Park for the first time in 10  years.  Now I usually just take time completely OFF and do something locally that I just love to do, and don’t to do nearly enough. I don’t cook, I don’t do email, I only do whatever I really WANT to do. I highly suggest this if you don’t already have a ‘birthday ritual’!


This year I took myself to the beach for the first time in wayyyyy to long…
or, I went to Jurassic Park, maybe??

   


The first two adventures above were “Bucket List” items I got to check off in my 20’s, but this was long before that popular movie coined that term & made it commonplace.  I’m pretty sure back when I started this list that I’d read this same idea suggested in some “find your passion” or “live a life you love” type of book. I like(d) the notion of  keeping a “life list” of goals & experiences, large & small to inspire me. It was also suggested that writing things down would help them come to fruition through the power of intention.  So I did, and it does!

I also think my birthday, my own personal ‘new year’ is a good time to check on, check off, and add new inspirations. It’s handy that for me, this is in June, at the 6 month mark of the year, too!

But YOU can do this, too, in June, and/or, on YOUR birthday, as may best suit your needs.

Mid-Year Check-in: 

How are you doing on your professional goals (learn a new job skill?  ask for a raise?  find a job you actually like?)….have you accomplished these?  Are you working steadily towards them?  

If so, give yourself some well deserved congratulations! We rarely take the time to celebrate, and give ourselves credit, for what we’ve already accomplished before we start adding more new goals to the list. But “owning” our achievements is IMPORTANT, for many reasons, including the sense of accomplishment and boost to our confidence that we can continue to do so.

Also – for professionals goals met – remember to ADD THESE TO YOUR RESUME (or to the ongoing list you keep of these milestones so you don’t forget about them when it IS time to update your resume!)

Also make sure your boss and/or anyone else at work that would benefit from knowing (and/or, would benefit YOU for them to know about your new experience, skills, business connections/projects, etc.) knows about them, too. Don’t hide your achievements!

While there are only one or two career/work related goals on my “Bucket List”, having and reaching professional ‘want to’s’ help you achieve those other “before I die I wanna” dreams, too.  Whether it’s the salary you earn that will allow you to pay for that swim with the dolphins experience, or how choosing to be a teacher gives you time off to volunteer building houses with Habitat for Humanity in El Salvador for 6 weeks in the summer, or, (fill in your OWN ‘want to/Bucket List dream(s) here!), our chosen work is an integral part of crafting and enacting our larger life list, and purpose.

If you have the dream to one day write a novel (whether for publication, or just to do it), is there some aspect of your job that can support that dream?  Would taking an editing or writing class for work, and/or offering to write articles for the company newsletter help you gain skills and experience that would support your Bucket List novelist goal?

A friend had a simple desire on her list to learn to knit.  She saw a co-worker knitting in the breakroom, struck up a conversation, and now gets to check that want off her list!  She also made a new work friend, and we all know how important those are to workplace happiness, let alone opening up your professional contacts and network.  Taking steps towards anything that interests you always leads to something good!

Connect to your goals, personal and professional, and those that can help you reach them.

And celebrate each day as if you are living from your list, as if it’s your (or someone’s!) birthday (which of course, it is!)