We’re halfway through the year already!
Halfway through the story we thought we’d be living by now.
Whether you made ambitious plans back in January, or intentionally avoided setting any goals at all, mid-year is a powerful time to pause.
Check in and realign. To make sure you’re not sprinting in the wrong direction or standing still because you’re scared to move.
Why mid-year matters more than we think
There’s something special about midpoints.
In psychology, there’s a concept called the Fresh Start Effect (popularized by researcher Katherine Milkman) and spoken about in Dan Pink’s book When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing (Amazon affiliate link).
It’s the idea that certain temporal landmarks – new years, birthdays, Mondays, even the start of a new month – give us a feeling of psychological distance from our past selves. And that fresh psychological distance gives us motivation to make changes.
Mid-year, then, is like a second New Year.
Instead of guessing what you might want, you’ve got six months of lived experience to look at:
- What energised you?
- What drained you?
- What dreams quietly dissolved?
- What new possibilities crept in?
Your (gentle) Mid-Year Check-In
Here’s a framework I like to use. It’s simple, but powerful – especially if you give yourself space to really reflect.
You can journal these, or just pause and let them sink in.
1. What’s working that I want to keep doing?
Often, we skip straight to “what needs fixing.”
But it’s much better to think about what’s going well first even if it’s small.
Maybe you’ve been walking more. Maybe you’ve been saying no more. Maybe you’ve simply survived a season you didn’t think you’d get through. That counts.
For me, I’m proud of making progress on my YouTube channel even if it’s slower than I’d planned for. I’m proud of gaining confidence playing my ukulele in front of other people so my nan and my cousin could sing along with me.
2. What’s draining me that I can stop or shift?
Look at where your energy leaks.
Are there habits, commitments, or mindsets that felt aligned in January but feel off now?
In January I was solely focused on making videos, and kept trying to make 2 a week. But the pressure to just get them made is taking energy away from what matters more – building something that can help people in a more meaningful way. So I’m going to make the video making process easier to free up time for building other things that can help people.
3. What do I want the second half of this year to feel like?
Most of us set goals based on what we want to do, not how we want to feel.
But feelings, more than outcomes, are what happens when we start taking action towards our goals. We get the feelings whether we hit our goal or not.
Do you want to feel grounded? Inspired? Capable? Connected?
Choose the feeling first – and then ask, “What actions support that feeling?”
I want the second half of my year to feel easier and light.
To make that happen I’m looking at a way to create videos that takes less time. It means filming them in one take as though they are live. It will mean letting go of perfectionist tendencies wanting to retake things! I’ll need to level up my public speaking and talking and drawing simultaneously, but it will save me so much time and will be sustainable long term.
If you’re off track, you’re not alone
Maybe the year hasn’t gone to plan. Perhaps life threw you some curve balls. Or maybe you decided to throw yourself some curveballs (like we have with choosing to sell the house!)
Maybe you’ve changed. What seemed important in January perhaps isn’t so important now.
Part of fulfillment is letting go of your old version of success that no longer fits.
You don’t have to “catch up.” You just have to realign.
And then finally—this.
If there’s something you’ve been putting off…
Something important that keeps getting shoved down the to-do list, or ignored because it feels uncomfortable or risky or too big…
It might be time to ask yourself:
What am I afraid of?
Because underneath avoidance is almost always fear.
- Fear of failure.
- Fear of judgment.
- Fear that we’ll get our hopes up and it still won’t work out.
- Fear that success might change us or our relationships.
- Fear of choosing the wrong thing (so we choose nothing at all).
So try this:
Complete this sentence:
“This fear stands between me and _____, and I care more about that than being comfortable.”
You don’t have to be fearless.
You just have to care more about what matters than you care about staying safe.
For me, this is my fear of looking stupid, drawing badly and making mistakes on camera.
This fear stands between me and making videos in an easier and faster way so I can help more people. And I care more about that than being uncomfortable.
One last thing
If this newsletter stirred something in you, try not to let it slip away into the next tab or the next scroll.
Maybe spend 5 minutes today reflecting on those three questions.
Maybe even copy them into your notes app or journal:
- What’s working?
- What’s draining me?
- How do I want to feel?
And then complete that sentence about fear. Try not to judge yourself.
“This fear stands between me and _____, and I care more about that than being comfortable.”
Direction isn’t something we find once and stick to – it’s something we rechoose, over and over.
Here’s to a second half of 2025 that feels intentional.
Emily xx