Although I know firsthand that it requires a lot of extra effort on the part of the manager or supervisor, and that the feedback may not always be all that wonderful, I think I’ve always been someone who really enjoys regular performance reviews. For as long as I can remember, I’ve looked forward to report cards, parent-teacher conferences and both corporate/companywide and personal reviews on the job. It’s nice to get a reality check or alternative perspective on what’s going well and what can be improved upon. Far too often, I find for myself at least, that I can really beat myself up or minimize my successes and progress and that I catastrophize the mistakes I’ve made. Sometimes what seemed like a big contribution or a lot of my own effort wasn’t all that important to my reviewer and I’ve found that I many times need to adjust priorities. Thankfully, I’ve been privileged to work for and be taught by some pretty outstanding people who understand the value of providing clear and specific feedback regularly and therefore I usually walk away feeling encouraged and ready to get to work on whatever we have outlined as an opportunity for improvement or next step. For the past few years however I’ve been working in a freelance position without a formalized review process, plus I have a lot of personal goals and resolutions which are not directly related to my day job. Therefore, I have started to conduct my own personal mid year review.
A personal mid year review may or may not include an actual outside perspective (although I’d recommend it does), but just taking a break to stop and assess your own progress to date for 2018 is a worthwhile endeavor. Especially throughout my Happiness Project, I’ve learned the value of slowing down for some introspection and reflection. I’ve always been someone who is relatively good at building habits and keeping resolutions (I’m an Upholder so it comes naturally to me and I love doing it). But over the years, I’ve gotten much better at managing myself to ensure that I stay on track as opposed to slowly sliding away from the original intention and even more recently, I’m trying to recognize when I need to change gears and let go of a habit or project. Since we just passed the halfway mark for 2018, I decided to sit down to assess the progress I’ve made on the goals and resolutions I set at the beginning of the year and mapping out those things which still remain open on the list.
How I conducted my personal mid year review ::
- I started by consulting my original New Years Resolutions, considering my One Word Theme, and reviewing my vision board.
- I then when through each of those goals or resolutions and made notes for each, considering:
- What progress has already been made?
- What changes have occurred which might require modification to the goals or resolutions – are they even still relevant?
- What needs to happen between now and the end of the year to still achieve those items which are open – identify what the problem is, make a plan of action or decide to adjust as appropriate?
- What have I learned thus far from both my successes and struggles?
- I then shared my full review with my Trusted Advisor, Jonathan, in order to get his views on my assessment
What’s gone well: I finished my Happiness Project, I not only earned my Whole30 coaching certification (the original goal for the year), but developed my program support materials and had the opportunity to host my first group which was a extremely positive experience for both the participants and for me! I continued my own personal development by attending both the BootyBarre and advanced Reformer Pilates training courses. I’ve paid off debt and saved some of the money towards my total target for the year and I’ve made some consistent progress with the blog: rebuilding/reconfiguring the website itself (ok so mostly I outsourced to my Head of IT – Jonathan), upgraded the logo and have been consistently writing two new blog posts per week as is my goal.
What hasn’t gone well: I haven’t made any progress on my scrapbook chronicling life abroad/since being married – It’s a huge undertaking and something which I know I will appreciate once it’s done. And since I have enjoyed scrapbooking in the past, I figured I would enjoy it now. As it turns out, a big part of the experience for me is that fact that it was always something that I did with my sister. We each worked on our own pages and projects, but the opportunity to spend time together was apparently the most enjoyable aspect of the activity. I need to figure out if this is something which I am going to push myself to do anyway (plan it in, do it anyway!) or if this is something I’ll postpone until I can work on it with either Kyle or someone else. Something else that is going, but not as well as it needs to be, is saving money. We have aggressive goals in this area and I’ve been too lax still and will have to get pretty serious in order to save as much as I want to still this year.
What’s still to come: I haven’t started my Personality Project yet, but had intended to kick that off post-Happiness Project so after taking this month off to focus on reading fiction only, I’ll be digging into that. Of course, the blog and money situation will continue to be areas I focus on, I’ll host another Whole30 Group in September, and continue to work on my Pilates certifications. I have a lot of other business related areas to prepare for and work on and it’s time to get the ball rolling there.
It didn’t take very long, but conducting my own personal mid year review was a valuable experience. It was exciting to remember and reflect on what I have already crossed off the list (an occasion to savor and focus on the positive!) and it was helpful to get real about what can and can’t happen still this year given resource constraints (time, money, enthusiasm, or otherwise). I have narrowed down the full list to a few priorities and have better clarity about what I need to do PREPARE (my one word theme for 2018). Plus I did it all while taste testing these Whole30 Southwest Stuffed Avocados which are another thing I think I’ll add to my list of successes for the year to date!
Serves: 4 each
- Cooked Chicken, Shredded 2 cups
- Blackened Seasoning 1.5 TBSP (Recipe Here)
- Avocado x3 each
- Full Fat Coconut Milk .25 cup (60 ml)
- Cilantro/Coriander, Minced 2 TBSP
- Juice of 1 Lime
- Preheat the oven to 400 F / 204 C
- In a large bowl shred the chicken finely and then mix with the blackened seasoning to coat evenly
- Halve the avocados, remove the stone/pits, and then scope a small portion out of the center to make the "bowl" portion bigger. Add the scooped avocado to the chicken and combine
- Then stuff the avocado with the chicken mixture and place on baking sheet. Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes
- Meanwhile, in a blender combine the coconut milk, cilantro, and lime, pulsing a few times to incorporate.
- Then remove the avocados from the oven and drizzle the coconut sauce over the top and enjoy!
