The Mid-Year Check-In

 

Last Monday marked the official halfway point of 2024. 6 months in. 6 Months to go. In the spirit of our favorite Gen X Nightly News Public Service Announcement: 

 

“We’re halfway through the year: Do you know where your goals are?” 

 

If you’re a regular around here, you know how much I love the process of doing a mid-year check-in. Taking stock, assessing, and planning (and then doing!) And with the halfway point, brings the start of Q3. You can check out my very OG blog post about my Quarterly Retreats here, and that is a very good place to start this process. 

I know many of my listeners here are musicians, dancers, performers of some kind, or have academic jobs, and our life runs in seasons. For instance, the Bermuda Philharmonic Season runs from September to early July, and then we’re off for the summer. When I was a professional cellist, there was “The Season” from September–to mid-June, and then there was “The Summer Season” from mid-June to late August. 

It made taxes annoying because I looked at how successful (artistically and financially) my SEASON was, which didn’t align with the tax year. 

But rather than dismissing this idea of a mid-year check-in as “Not Applicable” I think everyone can benefit from this idea of assessing the last 6 months and looking ahead to the next 6 months. 

And, in fact, for those of you who are just now relaxing into their “summer season” of festivals and travel, this is maybe a perfect time to check in on how last season went for you, and what changes you might want or need to make in planning the start of next season. 

Because if you started out the season with 15 private students last September, and 1 moved away, 2 quit, and 3 graduated, you’re about to see how that all played out in your Q1 and Q2 finances, and this is the perfect time to decide that either you are very happy with fewer teaching hours, but need to raise your rates a bit, or you need to start recruiting more students for September. 

Okay, here’s how I do my Mid-Year Check-in: 

 

1. Assess

Take a look at the goals I set at the beginning of January (or back in September if that’s when you set your goals)

• Which ones have I met?
• Which ones have I made progress on?
• Of those, am I on track? Am I happy with where I am for those? 
• Or is my progress slower than I anticipated? Why? My own doing, or external factors?
• Which ones have I not even started?

 

2. Finances

Get your head out of the sand, and take a good hard look. What has come in since January 1st? For performers, or freelancers of any kind, really, I highly recommend doing a month-by-month breakdown of income and expenses so that you have a clear idea of which months are consistently good (hello, December and May!), and which ones are consistently bad (I see you, September and January!)  

So given what you have made over these last 6 months, are you in good shape to meet your financial goals for the year? For people in the Arts world, though the Summer Season is usually a helluva lotta fun, it’s also often far less lucrative. We’re paid less for festival work, and we have higher expenses–going out for dinners or drinks after every performance because you only see these friends once a year, adds up quickly when you have performances 5 nights a week! If July and August are going to be a wash for you, will you make enough in September, October, November, and December to meet your 2024 financial goals? 

If so….fantastic! But I might still think through a few of the following contingency plans in case of injury, canceled work, or global catastrophe. 

If not…it’s time to figure out some plan B’s.  I have a very popular blog post titled: “5 Ways to Generate $5000 Quickly as an Artist or Musician”, and these ideas are free to you. Do a workshop for local students in the lean month of September, or create a 1-hour performance you can shop around to different places. For non-performers, how can you take on some extra work, apply for some funding for a project, or cut expenses elsewhere? 

This, of course, depends on why you set the goals you did. If it was just out of curiosity—Can I make six figures this year? Can I hit a million?–and you feel maxed out already, then maybe you’ve answered the question and can just go about enjoying the next 6 months as planned. But if you set that financial goal so that you could afford that down payment on the house of your dreams, or to pay for your wedding, or to cover your child’s college tuition, then you probably REALLY need to meet that goal. If you’re behind, now is the time to catch up. It’s far easier to make an extra $5000 a month for 6 months than to make $30,000 in 1 month. 

 

 

3. Professional Growth

I like to divide this into 3 categories: Learned skills, knowledge gained, and relationships nurtured. 

1. Learned Skills:  What tools would you like to add to your imaginary toolbox this year? Did you want to learn to code? Learn how to build a website, learn SEO, or a craft-specific skill like using a loop pedal, or working in a new medium? So often we go day by day, week by week, month by month, without doing anything new, years can go by and you have the exact same skill set you had 20 years ago. That sounds dreadful. Let’s do something about it. 

Imagine adding 1 new highly valuable skill each year for the next 10 years. Ten years from now, you know how to code, how to build websites, use SEO, you can improvise with a loop pedal, you’ve become an excellent photographer, you can have a full conversation in Italian, an expert gardener, can re-hair violin bows, successfully apply for grants, and launch and edit a podcast. That’d be pretty cool. So start now–in this 2nd half of the year. What skill would you like to add this year? How can you start learning it today? 

 

2. Knowledge Gained: this comes in many forms, but the most obvious one is books. Reading and listening to audiobooks will increase your level of knowledge very quickly. Whether it’s about leadership and management icons, or the history of the Vikings. If you want to know something, just find a good book about it, 

You can also find great documentaries, and to a certain extent, video series like on YouTube or Master Class—though those tend to lean towards #1 above–learning new skills. 

What is something you’d like to know more about? Maybe you want to know more about the key players in the history of your industry–Heifetz, Martha Graham, Katherine Graham, or Maria Callas. Or maybe you’d like to know more about the Crimean War because whenever it comes up in a conversation you feel like an idiot for your lack of knowledge.

So again, what’s something you’d love to know more about by the end of the year? Can you grab a book off the bookshelf? Head to the local bookstore? Download it on Audible? 

 

3. Relationships Nurtured: Some people call this networking. I mean, it’s true–your Network is the people around you consider your contacts.  Friends, work colleagues, mentors, mentees, even your local fishmonger, but without nurturing the actual relationships behind the contact, it can feel awkward and fake when you suddenly email them out of the blue. And, I’ll add, it feels awkward and fake to both parties, because both parties know that it IS fake, which makes it awkward. You can divide THIS list into 3 parts as well. 

• Friends and Family: How often do you check in with your close friends and family? You probably have a few group chats going on–which is great. But what about individually? Our dear friend Bob, who died in a tragic accident 2 years ago was known to check in with each and every one of his close friends at LEAST once a week. Just a text—” How’s it going?” “wanna go out on the boat on Sunday?” “how’s the concert prep going?” it was quick. It was simple, and it always meant the world to me. Those messages mean even more to all of us now. 

 

• Close work colleagues: Yes–you see them at work almost every day. Yes, you chat all the time, but are you just hanging out at the proverbial water cooler trading snarky comments, or are you nurturing those relationships? Can you offer your unused comp ticket before they even ask for it because you know their in-laws are visiting? Can you buy their kids’ Girl Scout cookies? Can you learn more about their work goals and offer assistance in any way you can? Take your mentor out for lunch, take your mentee out for lunch. Nurture, nurture, nurture. Yes. You’re busy. We’re all busy these days. Life comes at us fast, which is exactly why it’s important to nurture these relationships. You’ll never regret it. 

 

• New contacts: I have a relatively new friend here–she hasn’t lived here very long, but she started gathering various people that she was meeting that she liked and thought were interesting and inviting us to things. Lunch at her place, a concert, a fashion show, a fundraiser, etc. There were always a few new faces, but a bunch of regulars emerged. I went to a fairly high-scale event last week and ran into all of these new friends, and it was like we were a family—there have already been several collaborations and work connections made, etc. One of them is saving my butt this weekend! My point? It doesn’t take a lot, and it doesn’t take long to create actual, genuine friendships with people who are also very helpful to have in your network. There’s nothing awkward, and nothing fake about it. 

So….back to that check-in….Make a list of the friends and family members you want to check in with daily (or weekly, or monthly… maybe even Quarterly) and check in with two of them today. Then, think about your regular work colleagues. Is there something nice you can do for one of them this week? And your new contacts. Who have you met recently that you liked? That you thought–they are kind of amazing and doing awesome things. Can you email them and invite them to something? Whether it’s your show or something you’d go to together, doesn’t matter. Just reach out. No harm, no foul. 

 

 

 

4. Habits and General Self-Assessment

How are you doing? Like, really. How are you doing? Are you sleeping enough? Eating nutritious food? Getting some fresh air and exercise? How’s your schedule feeling? Is it temporary? Or do we need to make some changes before you implode? For example, at the time I’m writing this, I’m trying to finish the last chapters of my book, I’ve got a huge, sold-out philharmonic event in 3 days, our AGM is tonight, and I need to announce the 2024-2025 season. I’m feeling maxed out, but I know it’s temporary. Next week, 2 out of 3 of those things will be crossed off and life will go back to its normal, less hectic pace. So, yes–sometimes things are just FULL-ON, but if you’re feeling like every single week is FULL-ON, you might want to take a look at paring something down.

You can’t offload practicing, showing up to rehearsals, coaching the little league team, or nursing your baby, but you CAN maybe use a meal delivery service. Ask the cleaner who comes once a week to stay an additional (paid) hour and do the ironing. The Laundry? Toss a roast chicken in while they’re there?

To steal an idea from Julia Cameron’s book, The Artists’ Way. make a list of “Ten Tiny Changes” you’d like to make. From “drink 1 more glass of water a day” to “do squats while I brush my teeth” to “bring flowers in from the garden every Monday” or “read 10 pages every night before bed.” Choose 2 things from that list and do them today. 

The last thing I would suggest is this: Think about yourself in December of this year. How do you want to feel? How do you want to feel about the previous year? Who is in your life that isn’t there today? How are your finances looking? What new skills and knowledge do you have? How strong do your relationships feel? If you’re the journaling type, you can write all this out in a “Day in the life” type entry—describing what your day is like in December 2024. If you’re not the journaling type. Keep that image in mind. Bit by bit, start moving yourself in that direction. 

Good luck, my friend. With a little forethought and a bit of finesse, 2024 can be your best year ever—no matter how the last 6 months have gone.

Cheers, 

Kate