Is Your Check Engine Light On?

Ready for a Mid-Year Check Up

It’s September! Can you believe it? Where does the time go? The good news – we still have four months on the 2019 clock. This is the perfect time to pause, take a check point and reset the clock if necessary.

We service our vehicles, so they’ll be there for us. I recommend we do the same for us. So, how are you doing? Are you on track? Experiencing some breakdowns?

Taking time to conduct a checkup now will give you more clarity, motivation and confidence, with less stress and overwhelm to continue to create results powerfully throughout the remainder of the year.

7 Powerful Mid-Year Check Up Tools

Tool #1: Review, Reflect and Acknowledge Success Regularly.

Successful people live in the “gap” and that focus is stressful. Our constant focus and drive to grow and excel can cause us to overlook our progress towards our goals and leave us feeling unsuccessful when we have actually accomplished a lot. Take some time now to review the year so far and reflect on all that has been accomplished. For example, what’s one thing you are proud of? How will you acknowledge and celebrate that success? What’s one mistake you’ve made and lesson you’ve learned? How will you leverage that wisdom moving forward? Acknowledging your success to date and creating opportunities to celebrate your success ongoingly will sustain your motivation and momentum!

So, what about the areas where you are not where you want to be yet – the breakdowns? Remember, a breakdown is just the “gap” between where you are and where you want to be, an indication there has been insufficient action to fulfill on your promise. There’s no story, no ego, no value judgments, no hit to your self-esteem. It’s just what’s so, there are actions missing. When experiencing a breakdown, be gentle on yourself and stay in action by committing to the next right action to take!

Tool #2: Complete incompletions to clear the path to create and perform the rest of the year!

Tolerating incomplete “stuff” is a major source of distraction that zaps our energy and contributes to overwhelm. They take up psychic real estate and let you continue to beat yourself up. Left unchecked they get in the way of the important things that need to be done. To create space for creating new possibilities, conversations and actions, practice getting complete regularly.

• Get Real About Incomplete Items. What you said you would do; what others asked you to do; what you expect, need or want to do; what others expect, need or want you to do.
• Incomplete Items Inventory. To deal with it and get straight about completion, make a list of everything not complete, write it all down on paper, and plan to get complete: do it now, schedule it to be done, or get straight, agree to not do it and call it complete.

Tool #3: Recommit to where you want to go to improve decision making and accomplishment.

Now that you have acknowledged your success to date and removed any incompletions distracting you, it’s time to create your updated plan for the reminder of the year.

Standing in the future fulfilled, it’s December 31, 2019, what have you created? It’s a done deal, already happened. What have you accomplished? Make sure to connect with what really matters, what you are committed to having in the world – your life’s intentions, i.e. living a healthy lifestyle, having a successful career, being a loving family member and friend, etc.  This will clarify your choices and accelerate your decision making. Then make your decisions from who you are “being” and where you are going rather than where you are currently.

From here, unfold the milestones, actions, and promised results from the future to the present. What Top 3 results will you have produced in September, October and November that will set you up for success in December? Remember, the Universe is an intention fulfilling machine. Be careful to ask for what you want vs what you don’t want.

Next, document your 90-day plan for September, October and November and keep it present. This blueprint will set your commitment compass on powerful year end for 2019 and an awesome start to 2020. Remember: “failing to plan, is a plan to fail!”

Tool #4: Include “whole life” goals in your annual plan to set the foundation for fulfillment.

Make sure your plans include goals from all areas of your life. When we focus on one area at the expense of another, we are not addressing an important source of fulfillment. Although there may be a prioritization or sequence to your goals, I recommend having them all in play, meaning something from each area included in your goals. It is the only way I know to make sure an important area of your life is not overlooked. I also recommend your goals be defined by you from the inside, internally motivated, rather than driven by some outside motivation.

The areas I include are health, work, wealth, relationships, lifestyle and play.

Health is your well-being; your mind, body and spirit. You decide how to measure if you’re healthy. Work includes anything you do for pay, and don’t get paid, i.e. volunteer work, home projects, care for family members and friends, etc. Wealth includes your financial resources and addresses your financial wellbeing. Again, you decide how to measure if you’re healthy and well in this area of your life. Relationships is your emotional well-being and the relationships in your life where you express love and being loved. Are your current relationships supporting you and your life? Lifestyle is about how you are living your life.  Where do you live, work and play? Do you have time, money and location freedom (living and working where you want)? Play includes what activities bring you joy simply by doing them. Winning and achieving may be fun, they just aren’t play! For me, playing with my granddaughters, playing golf with family and friends, and going to movies all bring me joy!

Tool #5: Establish accountability strategies to ensure you stay on track when life tries to take you off course.

Taking your plans to the court is where the rubber meets the road, and where stuff will show up and get in the way! This is when resilience and persistence are called upon most.

Surrounding yourself with like-minded, supportive people who are a stand for you being bigger than you know yourself to be and support what you are creating for yourself and your life are so critical. Peak performance partners, masterminds, mentors and coaches all offer support. My coaches and masterminds have provided that support to me, especially when I doubted myself or felt like quitting.

Productivity and accountability structures like your calendar, notes, reminders, alarms, applications, etc. also help to support you. Choose the support structure that works best for you. You don’t have to make this trek alone! 

Tool #6: Maintain a strong personal foundation to support your success.

Like a house foundation avoids collapsing under stress, your personal foundation supports you living an extraordinary life. This involves your physical environment, emotional health & wellbeing, money and relationships – the Who, What and How of each person. It can be hard to reach goals when you are feeling chaos in any area of your personal foundation. To gain control and turn chaos into order, address what needs to be shored up. Once you achieve balance with the areas of your personal foundation, you can empower yourself to achieve any goal!

Tool #7: Implement daily strategies to manage mindset and self-care.

“Control of self” is the game changer and it will take conscious interventions with your mindset and selfcare every day.  Without control of self, we tend to get in our own way and block ourselves from having what we say we want.

Our brain is concerned with survival and keeping us safe. This can result in fear and scarcity conversations that cause us to shrink and play small. Not the best when you want to do something you’ve never done before. Also, 95% of brain activity beyond conscious awareness (Bruce Lipton Ph.D.) This requires us to tap into our heart, soul and instincts to listen to what’s really going on for us.

Confronting limiting beliefs, fears, and scarcity requires regular mindset strategies. Strategies might include mediation, prayer, journaling, reading. Whatever works for you to clear your mind to allow you to do your best work.

Selfcare is the other critical element of control of self. You cannot take care of anyone or anything if you are not taking care of yourself. I love Laura Gisborne’s definition and reminder of selfcare – sleep, exercise, letting go, fuel, community, asking, receiving, and ease.

Did you have an Ah-HA?

An Ah-HA is an idea that caught your attention and screams “Use me and use me now!” Write down your Ah-HAs and act on at least one in the next 24 hours. One Ah-HA can create the freedom you crave and enrich your life forever!

Remember to be patient and lighten up on yourself – have some fun! Get selfish and take care of yourself first, then take care of others! Acknowledge life is a journey, not a destination, focus on your progress each day, week, month, quarter and year.

Upcoming Living Your Extraordinary Life workshops October 15^th, November 14^th and December 10^th