How to Reflect and Realign Your Goals

A few years ago, I felt stuck. Despite working hard, progress felt sluggish. Then someone asked me: “When was the last time you reflected on what’s working and what’s not?” I froze. Reflection wasn’t part of my routine—I was too busy “doing.” That moment changed everything. I started carving out time each month to pause and reflect. The results? Clarity, growth, and a renewed sense of direction. Here’s the simple process I follow: 1. Celebrate wins. ↳Big or small, list what you’ve achieved. ↳Progress often hides in the little victories. 2. Identify challenges. ↳What didn’t go as planned? ↳Be honest but constructive. 3. Extract lessons. ↳Ask yourself: What worked? ↳What didn’t? ↳What can I improve? 4. Adjust your goals. ↳Refine your next steps based on your insights. Reflection isn’t about looking back with regret, It’s about learning to move forward smarter. It’s like cleaning the windshield before hitting the road again. PS. How often do you take time to reflect on your goals? #PersonalGrowth #Reflection #BusinessCoach

Mid-year check-in - Where do you stand with your 2024 goals?   We're a little over halfway through the year.   How are you progressing with the goals you set at the start of 2024?   I'm doing mid-year check-ins with my clients right now, and it's been an eye-opener for many.    If you haven’t done this yet, don’t worry.    August is a perfect time to reassess and realign.   I keep close tabs on my clients and know where they’re at.    But even if they have ten goals, we focus on a couple of key areas.    We take a deep dive, looking under the covers:   “Hey, this is where you said you wanted to be by the end of the year. If you had to rate your progress toward that goal, what’s your rating—10%, 20%, 100%?”   Then, we assess.   One client had a goal to accomplish by the end of the summer.    We discovered he wasn’t on track.    He didn’t start early enough and wasn’t focusing enough on it, so we reassessed and devised a winning game plan.    Similarly, organizations need to look at their progress over the past six months.   If we measure progress on the main goals for the year, are we on track or off track?    What actions do we need to take to achieve our goals?   Or do we need to pivot because other priorities have arisen throughout the year?   Taking a fresh look and doing a gut check allows us to get into action for what might be off or missing and realign our actions.   So, take a moment to reassess your goals.    Where are you, and what steps will you take to ensure you reach them by the year-end?   Let’s ensure you’re not just setting goals but actually achieving them.   What's your progress?    Share in the comments below!   #executivecoaching #executivesandmanagement #leadership #management #managementconsulting

We’re flipping the page from H1 and H2 — what I consider a “mini New Years”. It’s the perfect time to check in on your goals and how you’re tracking against them. I believe strongly in the power of radical prioritization, which is why I love quarterly goal setting. I start each quarter with: "Here are the 3 things we're gonna do and absolutely nail." AND "Here are the 3 things that are equally shiny and interesting...but we're NOT going do them right now for the sake of focus." Sure, the quarter may be an arbitrary date on the calendar. But it changes the way we do planning. The overall strategy doesn't change. We have a long-term strategy we're driving towards. But what you prioritize in any given quarter will shift. ✅ It's a great time to pop our heads up. We've been in execution mode against our current goals. Now we reassess and ask: - What did we learn from last quarter? - What did we accomplish? - What didn't we accomplish that we hoped to? - How is our view on the business different now? - How does that guide what we prioritize next? Some things will carry over. Some will be new priorities we had on the back burner. I like using the calendar as a forcing function. To be really clear about what you're doing... And equally important: what you're NOT going to do. The best businesses practice something called "dolphining." 🐬 You jump above the water for the bird's eye view. That's when you set strategy and think about overall goals. Then you dive under the water to execute the details. The key is coming in and out of the water over time. Pop your head up regularly to think about overall strategy. Then dive back down to execute with focus.

Stop trying to keep it all in your head. It doesn't work. Ever tried recalling your breakfast from six days ago?   Tricky, isn't it?   Now, picture being an entrepreneur tasked with recalling every minor detail from the past quarter. An almost impossible feat, right? That's why I can't stress enough the critical yet often overlooked power of regular business reviews. My Review Rythmn: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly. A lot, some say. But what is more costly is not working on the right things and being overwhelmed. I went from firefighter reactive mode to proactive, working "on" my business when I solidified the review habit. Doing it alone is hard, Squad is easier. Some of my members' Aha moments after monthly review: • A member found that constant interruptions were killing productivity. • Another realized they were at full capacity, a clear sign it was time to expand the team. •  Some had to swallow the bitter pill of having liabilities instead of assets in their team, emphasizing the importance of careful hiring and training.   •  One realized their promising marketing strategy was underperforming, leading to a strategy rethink. If they didn't do their review these issues would have kept on until it setback their business or sanity. 𝗧𝗼 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁, 𝗮𝘀𝗸 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳: 1. What were my wins? 2. What lessons did I learn? 3. What should I stop doing? 4. What should I start doing? 5. What should I continue doing? 6. Did I achieve my monthly goal? Why or why not? 7. How much time am I spending working "In" versus "On" my business? Give February a thorough review. The insights you'll discover will  surprise you. DM me to join our next monthly review and goal-setting workshop this coming Wednesday, where I will show you the best format and how to be consistent with it.

Sunday reflection: Today's reflection is on.....reflection (and how I use this for planning). Sunday mornings are typically very quiet and relaxed in my home, so it's the time I've chosen to do my weekly reflection and planning. Lessons don't really come from the experience itself, but from reflection on the experience. So, as part of my weekly planning, I reflect on what went well the previous week and what could have gone better. Sometimes I journal my thoughts and sometimes I just re-read some of my past journal entries for reminders and inspiration that I can use in the present. I think critically on what I should do more of and what I should do less of or improve. From there, I set my top 1 or 2 (never more than 2, but most often only 1) priorities for the week that will give me leverage in accomplishing goals I've set for myself. I do this by thinking beyond just meeting a deadline or something like that, because that's what I'm supposed to be doing anyway. I use a whiteboard in my home office to write this priority down so it's visible, and checking it off each week is very satisfying. I've found that this weekly practice helps me continue to develop my critical thinking and strategic planning skills and really puts me in a good headspace going into the new week. It helps me to be more intentional and mindful rather than just mulling through it on autopilot. Do you have time set aside for reflection and planning? If you do, what are some of the benefits you've seen? If not, do you think it could be a valuable practice to start? #reflection #planning