The Mid-Year Check-In: Reflect, Recalibrate, Recommit

Are you moving through the year on autopilot, or making the most of your intentions? Take a purposeful pause with us with this guided mid-year check-in designed to help you reflect on the year’s journey so far, realign your goals, and reset your intentions for a thriving second half of the year.

In this episode of Practicing Connection, Jessica and Coral invite listeners to hit “pause” and for a thoughtful mid-year check-in. Coral shares a reflection practice inspired by an annual vision board process—perfect for anyone looking to move beyond task lists to a deeper sense of goal alignment and intention.

Whether your year is flying by or has thrown a few curveballs, this episode offers space and prompts for you to take stock of what’s working, explore where you want to pivot, and set meaningful intentions for what’s ahead. Grab a notebook and give yourself the gift of reflection!

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Transcript

JESSICA BECKENDORF: [00:00:00] Hi everyone. Thanks for listening to the Practicing Connection Podcast. I'm Jessica, my co-host Coral is here as well. Coral, how are you?

CORAL OWEN: Hey Jessica, I'm great. Just coming off birthday week celebrations, which has been fun. Really not like a huge to-do sort of birthday person, but it was actually really fun. The family and I did a tiramisu tour. It's my favorite dessert, so they took me on a tiramisu tour over the course of about a week or so of a few favorite spots in our local area.

And I have to say, it might have been my tastiest birthday yet.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: That is awesome. Over the course of a week. I thought you went all in one day when I first heard about your tiramisu tour!

CORAL OWEN: No, no, no, no! We did like, it was probably four or five stops over the course of like seven or eight days.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Oh, that's awesome. And Tiramisu is also one of my all-time faves. But I don't know, have you ever [00:01:00] tried avocado?

CORAL OWEN: Yes, yes. I actually lived in Italy for several years, so anything Italy just sings to my heart and my stomach.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Well, that has become one of my very favorites, avocado, but not very many people offer it. Not very many places offer it.

CORAL OWEN: Yeah, I haven't seen it much here.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Yeah, and happy birthday to you.

CORAL OWEN: Thank you.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: I think this is such a great idea. My birthday's actually just around the corner and it was actually recently that I realized that we both have summer birthdays. I might have to copy a version of this idea. 

CORAL OWEN: What would you do?

JESSICA BECKENDORF: I was thinking maybe like a cheese tour would be fun or something. We have a lot of like cheese places around here that I could go to.

CORAL OWEN: A cheese tour sounds delightful.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Yeah. I like the idea too. I was just trying to think how would I do it all in one day? Because like each cheese place is like 30 minutes to an hour away from each other, but over the course of a week, totally doable.

CORAL OWEN: That is the most Wisconsin birthday tour ever.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: That's kind of what I was [00:02:00] thinking too. I'm like, how am I gonna do something Wisconsin based? I did not wanna do an old fashioned tour. Cause that would've taken a lot.

CORAL OWEN: Dangerous very quickly.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: So, anyway.

CORAL OWEN: Well, so I actually, there is one thing I actually do do each year, and that's a mid-year check-in. And so today our practice is actually going to be a very similar walkthrough, to just mark that halfway mark on the calendar year and just check in with ourselves,

JESSICA BECKENDORF: How convenient that the midyear check-in happens right around your birthday.

CORAL OWEN: Right?!

- break -

JESSICA BECKENDORF: So, let's learn more about this mid-year check-in. With all of the attention that I pay to productivity and practices that kind of help align me with my goals, it's kind of odd, and I was reflecting on this a little bit when you first talked about doing this episode,

[00:03:00] it's actually kind of odd that I don't do mid-year check-ins. I used to do quarterly check-ins, but they were more task oriented than anything else. So Coral, tell us a little more about the practice you'll be sharing and why you chose it.

CORAL OWEN: Sure thing. So this specific practice is actually adapted from an annual vision board session I lead for a women's group at the end of December each year that walks through a series of prompts inviting us to create space. I.E. let go, create a priority and then create intention. And this mid-year check-in is an opportunity to pause, reflect, and take stock of where we're at and you know, kind of compare to where we thought we wanted to be at the start of the year.

You can do this check-in regarding any or all areas of your life, whether it be personal, professional, or beyond. And that's kind of the long and short of it.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: One of the things I love about this is that doing this mid-year kind of gives you permission to let go of a goal that you maybe had at the beginning of the year that you've decided not to pursue. So this sounds absolutely lovely. [00:04:00] Let's go through the practice.

CORAL OWEN: Absolutely. And Jess, it's almost like you had a sneak preview, so this definitely, for all of our listeners, this may be an episode where you wish to find a quiet block of time so that you can have time and space to pause, reflect. Perhaps write a little bit or think a little bit extra. And please do feel free to go through this at whatever speed makes sense to you or even re-listen to certain segments if you need more time to consider those certain elements.

Or, you know, just circle back to things. So yeah, let's get down to it. So first off, we're just gonna kind of set the scene so, you know, take a breath, and I think the biggest thing to have a successful process here, whether mid-year check-in or if you do this also at the beginning of the year: this is not about judgments, especially because we're gonna take a look back on, you know, intentions or goals or anything that you may have said at the beginning of the year. 

It's not about judgment, it's just about [00:05:00] having awareness and alignment about where we're currently at. And so to just set the stage, you know, ask yourself, “How do I feel in this moment as I begin to check in?”

And I think this is really important because if you're feeling a bit ruffled or unsettled, you may wish to find or circle back to this at time and space where you're feeling a bit more centered so that you have a bit more authentic, reflection, and awareness of your responses and how you're truly feeling about these certain things.

So, if you're feeling, you know, relatively centered, then we'll step forward into space number two, and that is reviewing the year so far.

So I'd like to invite you to reflect back on the intentions, goals, or themes that you set at the start of the year. And don't worry if you didn't write anything down, if you didn't have this sort of practice to kick your year off. Just call to mind what felt important back then, and we'll just go through these prompts, one by one.

And again, don't hesitate to [00:06:00] pause if you need extra time to write. ‘Cause you'll be going through these in your own real time. So first off, what intentions or goals did I start the year with? In what areas of life have I made meaningful progress? 

Thirdly, where have I surprised myself?

Number four, what challenges have I navigated? And number five, what have I learned about myself in the process for space number three? 

We're going to step forward into the now and take a present pulse, if you will. So we're gonna zoom into the present moment and ground into how things are actually going: emotionally, mentally, physically, practically.

There are four questions in this series. First off, what feels aligned or energized to me right now? Number two, what is feeling a bit off, draining or misaligned? 

The third point for consideration is, where am I craving more support [00:07:00] or structure? And number four to round this segment out is, what do I want more of in the second half of the year?

So space number four, now that we've looked backwards retrospectively into the first half of the year, we've taken stock of where we're currently at, how we're feeling, and where we're situated. Now it's time to reset and or recommit. And so space number four, now that you've looked back and checked in, made some intentional decisions about what to carry forward or to shift or pivot on.

We've got four additional questions, and so number one is what goals or intentions still feel meaningful to me? Number two, what might I need to let go of or pivot away from? Thirdly, what is one small shift that I could make this month to support where I would like to go? And number four, and I love this one, who or what [00:08:00] can support me in the second half of the year?

And then finally, for space number five, we're gonna close it with a grounding element. And so it's simple as wrapping this up with a sentence or a phrase that sums up your reflection. It could be an intention, a commitment, or a word for the next season, the next six months. And that's it.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: I love this. It's really interesting, the closing piece, the statement or the phrase or the word. It's really been interesting to me in the past when I've done, even though I said I haven't done midyear check-ins, I have done exercises like this before, and that word - like I've even boiled it right down to a word - can be so powerful for the next you know, however many months. 

And honestly, sometimes my word hasn't changed for quite a long time, but I'd still keep reflecting on it. So anyway, thank you so much for guiding us through that.

CORAL OWEN: My pleasure. And it's so funny that you mentioned the [00:09:00] word, so I, we've talked about the big calendar that I have on my wall, and at the top is written my word for the year. And I really feel like that closing with a word or a phrase or whatever, you know, that summation is, that really kind of boils down what your intention is.

It really does anchor how you move through your actions or your days, what habits you pick up, what habits you let go of, how you are framing your thoughts. And it really is just a great filter that you can use in a lot of different spaces, and situations. So I'm glad that you brought that up.

Thanks, Jess.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Awesome. Well, that's it for this episode. Thanks so much for joining us. If you enjoyed this episode, click the share button in your podcast app and share it with a friend, or drop us a line at practicingconnection@oneop.org. We'll be back next week with a new episode. 

Until then, keep practicing.

[00:10:00]

CREDITS: The Practicing Connection Podcast is a production of One-Off and is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, US Department of Agriculture and the Office of Military Family Readiness Policy, US Department of Defense under award number 2 0 2 3 4 8 7 74 3 3.