When July 4th comes along, the red, white and blue wreaths on your doors look faded from the sun and the first six months of 2024 have been clocked, it’s time to pause for a career and life purpose check-in.
Summer celebrations are a perfect mental midway point to pause and recognize what is possible in the back half of 2024. The remaining 180 days in 2024 provide a marker for your annual goals to be reframed against the backdrop of the first part of the year. If you are unmotivated of late, re-centering your intentions from your point of view, rather than a boss or family member, can reinforce how much control you have to reach your career objectives.
On our way to summer vacations, we tick off the pantry calendar, waiting for our reprieve. Task lists go on pause, giving our nervous systems time to reset. Overwhelm can quickly return after the fireworks turn to ash and the rest of the year looms ahead unless you stop to assess what is working well. The summer heat and long days allow a lingering you don’t often embody in the cool chill of January resolutions.
Start with What is Working Well
Vacations, including long weekends, are the breaks the mind needs to reach your career and personal goals. Zoom out on your day-to-day roles and responsibilities, grab a notebook to jot down what is important to you for the year, and consider what is working well and how you want to feel. Glancing at your accomplishments through the lens of tasks and emotional well-being can be easily carried into the last half of this year.
Purpose-Driven Reality Check
Motivation isn’t helpful if your priorities have shifted so much that there is a Grand Canyon-sized gap between what is realistic and what is not. Assess if you can truly reach the goals or work-life resolutions you determined to be important on January 1st. If there is a sudden priority shift due to a life circumstance or other important needs at home, dial back the goal without eliminating it to find a balance between the goal and reality.
How to Know if You Need a Purpose Shift
Yearly milestones are dictated by existing processes and traditions—cue those July 4th firework finales. Not every project will align with a year-end or mid-year assessment. Flex your self-assessment muscle with an Energy Map for a full week this summer. Analyze your energy throughout the day and weeks. What is giving or zapping your energy? Consider who you are with, what you are doing and what time of day is your best or worst. The themes that are present in this quick daily exercise will help you shift toward what can create positive momentum for 2024.
Lean into Your Calendar
If you set up meetings, appointments and check-ins for everyone but yourself, it’s time to lean into your purpose by creating a weekly touch base for you and you alone. With half of the year left, take control and schedule one-on-one self-assessments for yourself. Create a thoughtful agenda to review what is easy to accomplish this week, what needs to be done over a month, and how you can stay aligned with your true North Star. Looking at shorter periods of time rather than a six-month window can reduce drift away from what you truly want.
If your intentions still feel far away, utilize these purpose inquiries to guide you:
- Can you reach the goals or resolutions you set for yourself and your work life on January 1st?
- What is realistic for you to complete at work and home in the last half of the year?
- Who created your work goals? What would you like to add or subtract from these?
- What have you accomplished that you need to take (more) credit for?
- Do you need support in order to hit these work goals?
- When do you need to communicate your goals at work?
When your purpose is clear, you know why you are working towards a career goal. That “why” will drive your motivation to the end of the year with a new vigor.
