Did you know that today is Second Half of the Year Day?! I didn’t even know it existed. I was searching for some inspiration for my podcast, and thought I’d check out one of those, ‘What’s on today’ type calendars, and came across it.
Now when you think about it being the second half of the year already, you might be feeling amazing about all that you’ve achieved, or you might be sent into a panic where you realise you haven’t hit the goals you’d set yourself. Never fear, it’s like having a brand new year to play with some new goals.
In this post, I’m going to share 5 top tips to help you maximise the rest of this year. As we all know, it’s definitely been a
strange one so far. Let’s make the rest of 2020 count.
1. Review
In order to move forward, you need to review where you are now. Okay, so this can feel uncomfortable if you haven’t done so well, but give yourself a break and know that this is just a snapshot of where you’re at right now.
You can choose to do things differently going forward. Once you’ve reviewed your progress, celebrate. No matter what the outcome was, celebrate that you had a go, and/or celebrate your achievements so far.
Then consider – What would you like to create next?
2. Commit or Re-Commit?
How did the review go? Maybe some of your goals got sidelined. That’s okay, life happens.
If you constantly find you’re missing the targets you’ve set yourself, then it’s time to review that list of goals and be brutally honest. You need to decide how important they are to you, and if you still want to commit to them.
If you do, then great, it’s time to re-commit. If not, what goals would you like to commit to instead?
3. Get absolute clarity on the right goals
Sometimes, the reason we don’t hit our goals is because they aren’t the right ones, or we haven’t broken them down into achievable blocks, so we don’t make as much progress as we’d have liked.
It’s important that you know what goals you want to achieve, and the action steps you need to take to achieve them. I encourage my clients to set 3 juicy goals over a 90-day period. Three goals only mean you can get into meaty projects, without the overwhelm.
4. Work in 90-day or 12-week blocks
When we set goals, we often make them for the full year. Another approach is to split the year into 4, and work within 90-day or 12-week blocks, with review weeks built in to reflect and adapt.
A strategy my hubby taught me a few years ago is the PDCA model – Plan, Do, Check, Act. You create the plan, you do the actions of the plan, you check the results, and then you act on that data. The acting on the data element is critical if you want to grow your business, as it means you aren’t wasting time on unnecessary tasks. This PDCA works brilliantly with the shorter time blocks.
Working in 90-day blocks, or 12-weeks, whichever you prefer, is a great way to really focus on your goals. Most solopreneurs have millions of ideas. This method allows you to focus on the most important ones to create results, and then park the rest for the next block(s). It’s been a game-changer for me in my business.
5. Adopt radical focus
We say we’re focused, but how true is that for you really? Do you find yourself constantly checking your emails, responding to client queries, or generally drifting as you go through your day?
I read a one-liner about radical focus just recently, and I don’t even remember where now, however the message of ‘radical’ really stuck in my mind. If you want to achieve your goal, you have to have that singleminded focus on the task in hand. Apparently, it takes 24 minutes for you to get back to where you were after an interruption.
When you practice radical focus, it’s incredible the amount you can achieve. I’m sorry to say, it means you have to shut down all of those browsers, your email, and your WhatsApp to make it happen, but because you do that, you will be much more likely to achieve your juicy goals.
Here’s a quick reminder of those 5 top tips for making the rest of 2020 a success:
1. Review
2. Commit or Re-Commit?
3. Get absolute clarity on the right goals
4. Work in 90-day or 12-week blocks
5. Adopt radical focus
What will you do next to make 2020 your most successful year yet?!