5 Ways to Celebrate the Other Holiday This Week
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe 4th of July is this week, which is a standard holiday that several professionals are lucky enough to have off from work in order to celebrate our country’s independence. However, there’s another holiday that we often forget this time of year, which is equally important – especially to those of us who write goals annually – the half-year mark. Happy Half-New Year!
Believe it or not, 2018 is half over. It is a great time to pause, pull out our goals for the year, review them, and see how far we’ve come. It’s also a great time to reset our goals and celebrate!
Ideas on how to consider your half-new year celebration are below:
1. Pull out your January 1 list – How are you doing vs. January 1? Are your goals SMART? Write down a percentage of goals achieved and be sure to CELEBRATE them! Even if you’ve only started on them, celebrate that you began to knock down your goal(s). If you haven’t focused on some or all of them, now would be a good time to put more time and effort towards the back end of the year.
2. Match the big buckets to your bucket list – You are a whole person. Try to focus the rest of your year on domains that are important to you. Did you have a major life change during the first half of the year? For example, consider the following big buckets for items you want to accomplish: personal, health, wellness, nonprofit/volunteerism, savings, travel, training and professional? Make sure you have some goals in whatever big buckets on your list that are important to you.
3. Reset, remove and add goals – After you’ve reset your categories, what goals can you remove? Better yet, what can you add? Do a red pen markup of your January 1 goals and be sure they still fit for the back end of 2018. Then, set aside time on your calendar to make the remaining goals stick.
4. L is for learning and living – If you’re not learning, you’re dying. And, considering the world’s knowledge now doubles every 18 months, it’s time to be sure you’re learning everything you can about topics that interest you. Now is the time to plan out the rest of your training for 2018. I signed up recently for the Social Media Dames Unconference on 8/3/18 in Carmel. There are so many other great places to learn online and even in Indiana beyond colleges and universities—the Indianapolis Art Center, The Indianapolis Public Library or your local library, Barter School Indy, or Eleven Fifty Academy–just to name a few. Find some interests, block some time, and take some classes. Not just for work, either – for fun!
5. Vacate – Last year, Americans left 705 million vacation days on the table. Not taking one’s vacation leads to anxiety, decreased productivity, a lack of creativity, deceased numbers of jobs (crushing economic development), and potentially—individual burnout. Check and see how many vacation days you have remaining with your employer at the midyear point, or check with your friends and family if you work for yourself, and plan the rest of the year’s days off now. Planning a vacation in advance actually enhances your happiness. Why not plan it out at the half way point?
If you celebrate the OTHER major holiday happening this week with the 5 steps above, you’ll be sure to make the back half of your 2018 the best half-year yet. Cheers, and happy holidays!
Erin Albert is the co-founder of Social Media Dames Unconference along with Amy Stark. Erin’s opinions in this article are hers alone.