I’m currently in the Algarve region of Portugal on a family vacation. It was an ordeal getting here because our connecting flight from Toronto to Lisbon was canceled, one of our bags was lost (thanks a lot, Air Canada), and the total trip from San Francisco took over 40 hours. But now that the bag has been delivered and we’ve had a few nights of decent sleep, I’ve been able to really relax and detach. I’ve also had jet lag, finding myself wide awake at 3 am a couple of times. This gave me the chance to engage in long conversations with my husband while the kids were asleep and do a lot of musing. So I thought it would be a fun exercise to do a midyear self-reflection as we approach the end of June.

This was inspired in part by the #IAmRemarkable movement and workshops that a couple of women at Google started back in 2016. If you have struggled with self-promotion and talking about your own accomplishments, I highly recommend this very powerful experience. It started in a women-only workshop (Stretch) for confidence-building and career development that I have facilitated many times, so I have personally witnessed the I Am Remarkable exercise over and over.

Before you start, try to find a quiet spot where you can do your self-reflection. You may want to write it down, or you could also do this together with a trusted friend, family member, mentor, or coach. 

Looking Back

Accomplishments

Think back on everything that you’ve done and experienced in the past six months, or whatever time period you choose. List out as many of your accomplishments, personal, or professional, that you can think of. They can be big or small, and all that matters is that they are significant to you. In the #IAmRemarkable workshops, each participant stands up and reads their entire list of accomplishments aloud, starting each sentence with the phrase, “I am remarkable because…” It’s very uncomfortable at first, but empowering. So you get extra credit if you share your accomplishments like this with at least one other person. Don’t worry about whether other people will think or fall into the comparison trap. This is about you expressing your achievements.  I'll share a couple of my own as examples; yours may be completely different in nature. 

I am remarkable because I completed all the requirements to get my coaching certification from ICF. I am remarkable because I got strong enough this year in my home workouts to do chest presses with 40 pound dumbbells and shoulder presses with 25 pound dumbbells. I am remarkable because I consistently published an article on this blog every week this year, and 27 total since I started at the end of 2022.

Resilience

Next, write down all the tough things you have endured or survived. It’s likely that the first half of your year hasn’t been all rosy. We all go through difficulties and it’s important to acknowledge the struggles in life because they helped make you who you are today. Again, it doesn’t matter if anyone else would find these things difficult.

My company laid off 12K employees in January, and it was a shock to find out that so many of my co-workers had been let go unceremoniously. We had a couple of family emergencies that were very stressful and I had to unexpectedly adapt my daily routine and schedule to the circumstances.

Other Noteworthy Stuff

To wrap up the retrospective part of your self-reflection, feel free to add anything else that happened such as significant events, something you are proud of that doesn’t fit the previous two categories, or new things that you tried or experienced.

I took a spent grain bread making class with my husband at a local brewery. I visited Portugal for the first time and tried lots of new foods like the ubiquitous Pastel de nata and drinks like Rose Port wine. 

Looking Ahead

Goals & Aspirations 

Now that you've had a chance to reflect on what's happened in the first half of the year, it’s time to set goals for what you want to do in the second half. These can be brand new, or a continuation of something you started earlier. Perhaps you revisit your Life Wheel for inspiration.

My yoga goal is to be able to get into forearm balance (pincha mayurasana) away from the wall. 

Changes & Pivots

What in your life would you like to change or do differently? This includes modifying any goals that you had previously set that may no longer serve their original purpose. In our goal-driven culture, we sometimes focus so hard on achieving our goals that we lose sight of why we wanted to do it in the first place. This fixation on attainment can overshadow the impact or end result that we really were originally going for. Sometimes as you work towards a goal you will gain some knowledge that puts this into question. It's important to pay attention to those things and periodically reassess whether it’s really the right goal. I tend to have high self-discipline, so I need to watch out for this.

I will be less rigid with myself about waking up super early and working out every morning so I can practice being lazy at times and get more sleep and recovery time. I realized on this vacation that since the beginning of the pandemic, getting up before the kids woke up was my way of coping with the stress from uncertainty, underlying fear, and the drastic changes to daily routines that we all faced. I rarely had a day when I didn’t do some kind of workout. Now that we are shifting to a different kind of normalcy, I can let go of that and focus on the ongoing health benefits without being so extreme.

Anticipating challenges

This is the "risk management" part of your reflection. What are some obvious things that could get in the way of your goals? What could you do to minimize the likelihood or impact of these obstacles? If they happen, how will you respond so you're not thrown completely off track? Don’t spend too much time on this as it could morph into excessive worrying. Because I know myself and have a pretty high tolerance for risk, I skipped this part.

So what came up for you? If you did this exercise and are feeling brave, share one of your accomplishments in the comments!