Hello, beautiful! The exact midpoint of the year is coming up on July 2nd, so it seems like the right time for a midyear check-in for both you and for me. Checking in can be a powerful thing to help you assess how you’re really doing and feeling right now.

And if you like this post and it resonates with you, I’d love it if you’d share it with someone in your life who may need it too (or even better, answer the questions below with someone you love and ask them their answers as well). Thank you for clicking over to read, and let’s get to it …

How and why to do a 2022 midyear check-in (and how I’m doing midyear)

Here we are at the midpoint of 2022, and personally, I feel like time is flying. I keep thinking so many things happened “about a year ago,” when really much of that stuff happened even before the great COVID lockdown of 2020. We lost some time there while staying at home, and that’s all the more reason to make sure we’re happy with where we are right now, right here, in the middle of 2022.

There’s something satisfying about looking at the calendar year as a chance to make changes, make improvements and see new things through until the end of the year. But, as a reminder, you do not need to wait until the start of a new year (or the halfway point of a year) to try something new or make a change. You can make a change any time you want, any time of year. But for the purposes of this post, let’s work off the significance of the beginning and end of a year, with the significance of the midpoint right now.

At the beginning of 2022, I was home sick with COVID. Brady was sick too, and I was out of the gym (and it kills me to get subs for my classes), avoiding social activities and wishing I would just feel better, because I had been sick on and off with various colds and sinus issues throughout December, unfortunately. I really had no idea what 2022 had in store for me. It wasn’t the start I had hoped for, and since then, quite a few things have taken place that haven’t gone my way. But, overall, it’s mostly been a good year so far. Let’s chat about it …

How I’m doing with my 2022 goals halfway through the year

In my reader questions post a few weeks ago, I went back to look at my goals for 2022 based on a reader-submitted question, and that was definitely the impetus for this full post. Up until that reader question, I hadn’t looked back at my goals one time, which was my first mistake and was not what I had recommended to you or had normally done before. In fact, most years, I’m much better about circling back to my why and to my goals. But this year, I hadn’t. That’s strange for me. What I revealed in that midyear check-in is this:

On the professional side:

I’m on track to renew my Precision Nutrition coach and National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) personal trainer credentials. I already renewed the first and am in the process for the second. I have to do this every two years to keep my certifications up to date, so it’s part of the game, and I always learn a lot when I do it. It’ll be nice to have this complete.

I surveyed my blog readers and redesigned the blog (which I’m still loving the new look and feel, are you?), but I haven’t grown blog readership — which has remained flatlined from the start of the year. I’ve kept up with twice weekly posting and tried to create valuable content, but at times, I feel like I’m writing to crickets, when I used to hear so much feedback from you. I know the world of blogging has changed and moved to single-focus/niche video on Instagram mostly. And I’ve fought the change for so long, because I have a love of the written word. I’m not sure what this means for me in the future, but for now, I will keep writing to you, because it’s what I like to do.

I’ve had a couple of great months with Beautycounter in 2022, but I haven’t added a team member this year, which is the first year since I’ve been with Beautycounter that I haven’t expanded my team, actually (I also haven’t attempted to expand my team, so that’s probably why). I still want to do this, and I want the team member to be cool and motivated, because that makes it super fun to work together. I like that I have friends on my current Beautycounter team, and I like that I have happy customers who keep coming back, and I’m spreading the good word about clean beauty, so I will keep doing this, even if I don’t hit my goal here.

I’ve spent a lot of time preparing for my group fitness classes at Life Time, and I added two regular classes to my weekly schedule since the start of the year, and I’m up to five (one each day, Monday through Friday), I really like my schedule, because it gives me room to have the weekends off. I’ve also subbed for other people a lot and went about six or seven weeks in a row with subbing at least once a week recently, and I’ve taught two special events this year too.

At the start of the year, I made a goal to speed up my class preparation time by 15 percent, and I think that’s still a big work in progress. Truthfully, I spend far too much time on this particular part of my work, and I wish I could do it faster — but I refuse to compromise on the quality, and it’s up to me to keep creating good stuff — that takes a lot of time. As I’ve been doing it for longer and longer, it will be nice to go back to my personal archives to pull out old stuff, but I haven’t used those yet.

But to be honest, I get so much joy from teaching my classes and connecting with people in this way that I do feel the effort is worth it for me. But if I calculated the hours per the money made, it wouldn’t be good. If my feeling on this ever changes, I’ll know I need to make some modifications to my schedule and class line-up.

I’m happy with my five classes (spanning three programs), but I’ve had the itch to add an additional program at Life Time, and I’m thinking about doing that this summer, even if it means even more class preparation time. See what I mean? I do this to myself!

Overall, this bucket is doing well, and I feel like I’m growing, improving and learning all the time. Yet, as a professional, I always need to continue furthering my education, and I look forward to the IDEA World Fitness Convention in Las Vegas next month, because that’s a great opportunity for me to get inspiration and up-skilling in my craft. It’s also a place for me to get the rest of my continuing education credits to renew my NASM personal trainer certificate. And, I’m going with friends, so it’s almost like three birds with one stone.

However, even with the good, I’ve let myself get over-scheduled at times, and for a couple months I took on a very challenging freelance project that stressed me out, so I’m not doing that any longer.

Currently, I’m in talks to start another freelance project that should be a little less stressful for me and is with a super-exciting company, and I’ll fill you in if that really happens. I do think I can handle some freelance work here and there, but it needs to be right. I hadn’t set out this year to do any additional work, but any chance to write more does get me pumped up, especially once Brady is in school five mornings a week starting after Labor Day, and I have some extra working time (which I do not have right now during summer at all).

On the personal side:

I started a personal hobby and am about five months into my tennis lessons, which is something I’ve wanted to do for forever. And it’s been really good for me to have this outlet. I don’t plan to stop, even if I continue progressing quite slowly in my skills. This is one of those things that I never felt like I had the time for, but I’ve made the time, and now it’s a great part of my weekly routine. And I get so excited to put on one of my two tennis skirts for my clinics.

I’ve continued to get closer to my friend group, with all our regular get-togethers, and I’m still so grateful for my little community in my neighborhood. We have fun together! But, on the other hand, socially, we haven’t seen much of our out-of-town friends or done a lot of traveling yet this year, other than a quick overnight trip to Asheville and a trip to Atlanta to see my brother, so I hope we get more of that during the second half of the year (we had a lot of it in 2021, to make up for 2020). The good news is that while you’re reading this, we’re on a trip with our besties in Tennessee, and I have that upcoming trip to Las Vegas and one to Nashville with other good friends too.

I think I could probably do a better job with some other areas of my life though. Although I feel rested, energetic and healthy, I do think I’ve started to rely a bit more on convenience foods more regularly than I have in the past. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but I do need to get back to more whole foods for most meals, because I’m often eating prepared stuff, even if it is “healthier.”

I’ve also been trying to eat more protein over the last two months and am doing a lot better with getting at least 100 grams of protein per day — a huge improvement for me, with just very loose tracking of protein only. I’ve actually thought about working with a nutrition coach, and just did a discovery call with one recently, and I promise to report back on all of it, if I move forward with any of that, so stay tuned.

In addition, I haven’t been fitting in my own solo and personal workouts as much as I used to, because of my heavy class schedule. I don’t have many free days to do my own thing, and it’s exhausting to tack it on before or after my classes, so I keep skipping my solo sessions. It’s not the end of the world, because I get plenty of movement in order to be fit and healthy, but on principle, it would be better if I always did one solo workout just for me each week to work on what I need to work on.

And of course, I’ve struggled with some personal stuff this year too (haven’t we all, friend?). I’ve really struggled with stuff regarding our grand plans for our life. Without getting too much into it, the question about whether we will expand our family is ever present. And while I normally wouldn’t share such personal information with you before I have more clarity (I like to process before I share, or attempt to process), I just feel like being truthful, whether you get it or not. I’d like to have some certainty in the future of our family by the end of this year. I really would. Are we going to get another dog? Are we going to have another baby? Or are we perfect just as we are? I/we change my/our mind/s on all these things on a daily basis.

What feels is good is that I do know that I’m meant to be writing, I’m meant to be teaching group fitness, and I’m definitely meant to be living in Charlotte at this point in time, and I feel blessed to have those certainties. Because I haven’t always had them, and I know with all my heart they are right for me, so the rest will follow. I’m not perfect, there are plenty of things I can improve on, but in my own little way, I’m pleased with how I’m contributing to the world, even if I eat a lot of protein bars and many blog posts go by uncommented on. 🙂 

That wraps up my professional and personal midyear check-in, so let’s turn it over to you … (and yes, I’m going to do this activity too).

Questions to ask yourself for your midyear check-in

Now, let’s get to you! 

How are YOU doing? Let’s really get into it. This is a chance for you to think about where YOU are and where YOU want to be. Play along with me …

For this practice, I would definitely recommend pulling out a pen and paper and really writing things down. But if you want to type it in the notes column of your phone, that would be fine too. Words are powerful, and sometimes while writing, we uncover truths that we didn’t even know were there.

Don’t rush this, and be free with it, because there are no wrong answers, and no one is judging you at all …

• What’s one area where you have really excelled so far in 2022? How can you do more of that?
• Can you think of an event, activity, project or period of time in the first half of 2022 that made you feel truly inspired, impassioned and fired up? How can you repeat that?
• Can you think of a time, event, activity or situation that made you feel really badly in the fist half of 2022? How can you avoid letting that happen again?
• What’s one area where you really need to make some improvements in the second half of 2022? What’s the first thing you should do to make improvements there?
• What are some fun activities you want to do by the end of 2022?
• What’s one thing you want to do for your health by the end of 2022?
• If you wrote out goals for 2022, how are you tracking on those goals? Are your goals still relevant or do you need to revise them?
• How do you want to feel at the end of 2022? What can you do differently to get you to that feeling?

Think about these questions and spend time discussing them with someone important in your life, and see how it feels.

Personally, I think the midyear check-in can be very motivating and eye-opening. Sometimes we get into our routines and totally forget about the things we set out to do at the beginning of the year. Sometimes we need to change those goals altogether and pivot (and that’s totally fine), but what we have to do is continually take stock in our situation, our wants, our needs and our wellbeing. That’s why this midyear check-in matters.

I know at times this sort of stuff can seem fluffy and not worth your effort. But take it from me, writing is powerful, reflection is powerful, and it we don’t stop to think about where we are, we will never get to where we want to be.

And that’ll do it for this one on the midyear check-in!

Be well, friend! I’m currently off on my Tennessee trip and will be back on the blog with you next week. Come check out my Instagram stories and say hello!

Other posts you may like …

• Reader questions answered spring 2022
• My goals for 2022 and how to start your 2022 off right
• How to find inspiration (and why you should care)
• Three helpful mindset shifts I’ve made recently
• 10 easy, healthy and quick meals I’ve eaten recently for lunch and dinner

Questions of the day for YOU …

What’s one thing you’ve done really well so far in 2022?

What’s one thing you really want to improve on by the end of 2022?

What’s one thing you’re looking forward to in the second half of the year?