Mid-Year Checkpoint: Assessing the Journey of 2023

Today is June 30th, which means the year 2023, which we ushered in six months ago, is now halfway through. Those conscious of time management, personal development, and goal setting would quietly or openly reflect on the year.

For readers, they will ask themselves, How many books have you read so far? For writers, it would be, Have you written enough in that novel you have worked on for years? For lifelong learners, Have you completed the course you enrolled in at the beginning of the year? For gym goers, it is; how many pounds have you shed, and are you fitter now than you were at the beginning of the year?

These are all valid questions, but they share one common denominator — they were all set at the beginning of the year.

In my case, I always set a goal or two at the beginning of each year. While I do a comprehensive assessment at the end of each year, I have also recently adopted the habit of a mid-year evaluation, specifically at the end of June.
In January 2023, I had two main goals set for the year. The first goal was to read more books than I did in the previous year, 2022. The second goal was to complete my third book, a novel I started five years ago but should have paid more attention to.

While January, February, and March could have been more productive, I picked up huge momentum in the last three months and am looking forward to the remaining six months of the year.

Setting goals at the beginning of each year and assessing the progress midway through or at the end of the year may only be for some. However, if you are interested in self-assessment for personal growth, goal setting and critical assessment are essential.

We know time is one of the most mysterious natural phenomena. It has uniquely interlinked phases yet is separated by boundaries that cannot be crossed back and forth once passed. For example, the past is a phase that came as a result of the present, yet we cannot go back or travel back to change it or relive it again.

The present is also a phase that exists at the moment, yet it is a stage that cannot propel us forward into the third phase, which is the future. We cannot travel to the future; we must wait for it.
Because the only phase we can control out of time’s three interlinked but irreparably separated phases is the present phase, goal setting and assessment is the only way to utilise time effectively.

If you don’t, years will come and go, the present will turn into the past, the future will turn into the present, and the passage will continue. To grow is to set goals and assess those goals at the end of the time you set for them.