Can you believe we are already half way through the year? It is the perfect time to check in with yourself – celebrate your accomplishments thus far and get back on track if you’ve been distracted. Here are four powerful coaching questions to ask as you head into the second half of this year:
- What accomplishment are you most proud of so far this year?
Resist the temptation to breeze by your milestones without acknowledging what it took for you to achieve them. You’ve likely done a lot in six months, whether it’s personally or professionally. Whether a shift in your thinking or the completion of a major goal, take a moment and ponder this question: What are you most proud of in the last six months?
- What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned so far this year?
The most valuable part of aiming for and reaching a goal is who you become in the process. You learn lessons you would not learn otherwise. And those lessons sharpen you for future endeavors. As your wisdom grows, so does your ability to set and reach meaningful goals.
- What is the most meaningful milestone you could accomplish by the end of this year?
I word it that way for a very specific reason because there are lots of goals that we can set, but it’s important to understand the goal that will be most meaningful and gratifying to you. That’s often quite different from the one that you quickly write down on New Year’s Day. If you really dig deep and say, ‘if I could accomplish just one thing the remainder of this year, one that would hold the most meaning for me, what would it be’? Whatever it is, get clarity about why it matters so much to you. The deeper the meaning, the more likely you are to persevere on the path to reaching it. So ask yourself: Why is it so meaningful to you? What will it mean to you to be able to accomplish that particular milestone?
- What would make it easier for you to reach that milestone?
The reason that most people don’t reach their goals is because they have not set themselves up for success. If reaching the goal is cumbersome – if there are scheduling conflicts, things that really make it hard to be consistent, for example – you’ll decrease your chances of getting to the goal unless you remove or reduce the effect of those obstacles. So ask yourself: What can I move out of the way? Who can I invite into the process? Or what can I drop from my schedule that would free up some space, energy and time?
