It’s halftime, folks! Just like the halftime chat you have with your team during a sporting event, we’re going to have a halftime chat for the year. Being that we’re upon the second half of the year, now is a wonderful time to reflect on how 2023 has been for you so far and how you’d like the rest of 2023 to be.
I learned a simple evaluation from my coach that includes reviewing the following components: what went well, what isn’t going well, how can I improve and move forward. It’s been a simple framework that I (surprisingly) often fall back to when I’m reflecting. Let’s dive in.
Celebrate Your Wins!
First question: what went well?
We like to start off evaluations by reflecting on what is going well. There is always something that has gone well. Even if it’s a silver lining. Even if it’s a lesson you had to learn the hard way. Even if it seems like a tiny win. You can find something to celebrate.
Our brains are magnificent. Our brains are protective. Our brain’s number one priority is to keep us safe, healthy, and alive. As a result, our brains have a negativity bias that we evolutionarily developed back in the “caveman” days to protect us and keep us safe. Back then, the negativity bias that something could go wrong or that something has gone wrong was helpful so that they could respond quickly to danger that may await.
In today’s world, we have less severe threats against our existence. Yet, our brain hasn’t quite adapted its natural programming. We can, however, guide our brains to seek a positivity bias. Why is it important to seek a positivity bias? When we change our thoughts and push our brains to solve for what went well, it will in turn drive our actions to continue to do well.
There is always something to celebrate even when it’s not blatantly obvious. If you have to dig a little to find a win. By beginning this exercise with finding a positive, our brain will be better primed to solve for how to take the best next steps for ourselves in a supportive way.
Acknowledge the Missteps & Mistakes
Second question: what didn’t go well?
This is not an area to beat yourself up and criticize yourself. Consider this an opportunity to look at what isn’t quite working for you and why that may be. Doing so will help you to either avoid, improve, or remove it from your life moving forward.
Even if something seemed to go smoothly and flawlessly, nobody and nothing is perfect. Even if it was a disaster and a seeming failure, acknowledge it so you can learn and grow from it. As I mentioned, our brains have a negativity bias so don’t dwell here. Simply acknowledge and analyze so you can continue to grow, avoid, and/or advance. My coach always said “what we resist, persists” so when we don’t acknowledge the flaws we risk repeating them or ruminating over them which both inhibit our forward momentum.
Identify Areas to Improve
Third question: what could be better next time?
Again, this is not an area to beat yourself up and criticize yourself over. To be critical of something is to analyze the merits and the faults, which we did in the first and second prompts. Here we want to be solution oriented. We want to begin to craft how we’d ideally handle this situation if it were to present itself again. From here we can begin effective goal setting and preparing our best next steps.
3 Simple, Yet Effective Prompts
There you have it: a simple, yet surprisingly effective evaluation framework.
What went well?
What didn’t go well?
What can I improve and how can I best move forward?
You could apply this to anything. The beauty of its simplicity is that it allows you to brainstorm and focus your next efforts.
When I look back on my first half of 2023 and evaluate it. There’s plenty that went well, plenty that didn’t go well, and plenty of areas I can improve. Overall though, even though this year hasn’t been easy, I’m proud of how I played the first half of the game and I’m ready to finish out strong.
Though it may seem at times that so much is out of our control, by honing in on what we can control we can do our best to craft and write our next chapters rather than allowing them to be written for us. Do a mid-year check in and give yourself a halftime pep talk because we are the creators of our reality and authors of our lives.