Cara Harvey (00:04.11)

Welcome to the Purpose Driven Mom Show. Here at a Purpose Driven Mom, we believe that it’s possible to manage your home, work on your personal goals, and grow and scale an online business.

Most productivity tips out there tell you to hustle more and make you feel shame about not being motivated enough. And we’re here to dispel this myth. I’m Cara Harvey, and I am on a mission to help work-at-home moms realize that they have the power to go after their dreams, take care of themselves, and manage their home without perfectionism, guilt, or having to sacrifice their sleep. If you’re ready to shift your thinking around productivity and get some practical tips to help you manage your mom life, toss your earbuds in while you fill the laundry, and let’s do this.

Cara Harvey (00:44.462)

Welcome to the Professor Mom Chef, episode 517. Today we’re doing a mid-year goal audit. And we’re here, June, halfway through the year. I feel like every year I say the same thing. Man, did this year go fast? But it’s important to pause, reflect, make some goals, and audit what is there. Midpoint of the year is a nice natural checkpoint. One, six months into the year, yes. But for a lot of us, we’re also transitioning that summer feel.

And it’s kind of taking us into what’s going to happen next. When you do a midway audit, you also avoid drifting through without any intention. It can be so easy. I put a million goals on your plate. Halfway through the year, you’re like, I haven’t even started these. well, I guess I just forget that I said I was gonna do them. No, no, no, friend. What we’re gonna do is lean into it. This is all about resetting and not judging.

What we’re gonna do is put show notes over at a purposedriven mom.com slash podcast 517. So if you want to go through this again slowly, say you’re in the car, you know, things like that, so that you can kind of sit, cause me, reflect. You can watch it on YouTube if that’s easier for you and write as you go. All right. First up, as always, with my system and my process is reflection. Reflection matters so much because if you’re always going 100 miles an hour and you never stop to reflect, then you’re never gonna be able to move forward. You need to identify

What’s been happening for me? What’s really going on? And what did I like and not like about the way this first half of the year went? This will allow you to audit, pivot, and adjust. So I want you to look at the goals you set for yourself at the beginning of the year. And you might be thinking, Kara, I didn’t set any goals, because I know I hear this a lot in my students. It’s okay. What did you think the first half of the year was gonna look like? Okay. If you didn’t have any physical goals written down, what do you think the first half of the year is gonna look like?

Think about those goals. Okay. I want you to write them down. Look at them. All right. And then categorize them a little bit. What did I actually accomplish? And I want accomplish to not just be what did I finish, but what did I move forward on? What did I do a little bit more of? Okay. How did I move the needle towards any of it? What worked well? And I want you to ask yourself, what worked well and what did I do to have that get to that place? All right.

Cara Harvey (03:03.766)

And what didn’t go as planned and why? The why is really important because it’s not just I failed. It’s this didn’t work for me because, and that’s okay. I want you to focus on different areas of your life. So if you’re writing it down, you might want to go through and be like, all right, what happened with my work life stuff? What happened with my personal life? What happened with my health and my habits, my finances, my marriage, my family? Really think through your categories and ask yourself, did I set any goals?

If I did, what went well and what didn’t go as planned. This is also a really important part because it’s going to have you pause and be like, wait, I didn’t even set goals in this area. I just let this part of my year float through undecided and unintentionally. Well, it’s probably why you didn’t achieve it, right? So step one in your mid-year audit, reflect. Step two is to celebrate. We do not do this enough, moms. We do not give ourselves enough credit for all the things that we do. I want you to identify wins, both big and small.

Celebrate the progress. I already talked about this when I said, you know, accomplished. I want you to look at that differently. But like, what did you do? Did you get more put on your plate and you were still able to handle this? Were you establishing a new routine? This first half of the year, I didn’t really add a lot of new onto my plate. It was about maintenance. I told myself that I had so many things going on, some new shifts, some things happening. So this first half of the year is how can I maintain? What is my maintenance of it all?

Not just did I check it off, but yes, if you accomplish something, if you said, I’m gonna run a 5k and I ran a 5k, celebrate that dang 5K. I want you to acknowledge the growth that you’ve personally had to remind yourself that you have done something. Again, this is the 1% concept I talk about. How you can move things forward just a small amount. Maybe your area of growth is a skill you gained. Maybe you learned how to do something new or you learned how to do something more intentionally or better. What was the lesson?

That you’re taking away, the lesson that you learned. This will help you build motivation and confidence moving forward. Okay, maybe I didn’t have the first half of 2026 that I hoped, but I did do these things and I’m gonna celebrate. Okay. So you reflect, you celebrate. Then you’re gonna just get honest. This is that honest conversation with yourself about what’s not working and why. This is important, and I want you to come out of this with a

Cara Harvey (05:30.574)

Positive mindset, not let me go beat myself up. This is my time to self-criticize. I’m just gonna judge myself for all the places I failed. That’s not the goal of this. So if you struggle with this piece, I want you to take a step back and look at it from the outside. Look at it like perhaps you’re doing this for someone else. Would you talk to them the way that you’re talking to yourself when you’re checking out what’s not working? Would you give them the same feedback, right? Be kind to yourself when you do it. Remember the goal and the intent.

Is not to self-criticize, but is just to be honest so that you can make appropriate plans moving forward. So, did you have any goals that you abandoned? We call them blessed and released over here, right? And why? I had a couple goals. So I’m gonna give you an example. I really wanted to get my cleaning routine like down this year. I it’s always been something that I struggled with and I was like ready to go. I started January, fine. And then I had so many things going on.

Then I blessed and released slash abandoned this goal in about March. And I said, you know what? I’m just gonna work on getting my maintenance done of like the dishes get run and the laundry gets done and like I’ll vacuum when I notice I need to. And the other types of cleaning that’s like a little bit deeper, a little bit more spring cleany type tasks. I’m gonna put them on hold until June. Let’s take a second so I can pause and formally invite you to my brand new program, On Purpose You.

On-purpose U is meant to be a membership that you’re going to be able to dive into to create your own pathway around what you need in your life. We’ve got three distinct schools: the school of clarity, which is all about finding yourself again, understanding your season, and knowing what matters. The school of alignment, which is about systems, routines, rhythms, and planning that fits your season. And the school of momentum, which is about tiny steps, consistency, building trust and belief in yourself, staying in motion, and leadership.

Inside this program, you’re gonna get our core 101 schools already uploaded and ready for you. And every single month, I’m going to put in new majors, minors, and electives for each school. As a former teacher, I thought it was really fun to kind of have this university play so that you can be a student of you again. You can remind yourself what you want in your life, what’s been holding you back, and what is going to help propel you into the future. Go to a purpose drivermom.com/slash on purpose you now.

Cara Harvey (07:49.174)

And see what we’ve got going on inside the membership and come join us.

Cara Harvey (07:56.558)

So I put them on hold because I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to get to the deeper cleaning and I was just starting to feel shame around the goal. So I said to myself, this summer I have more time that I can dedicate 30 minutes to an hour if I needed to to do some deep cleaning. I’m gonna allow it be then. I’m not gonna beat myself up aboard. I acknowledge. You know what? And in that, good job, Kara, for recognizing your season and your capacity. Did you make expectations for yourself?

That were perhaps unrealistic or misaligned. Were you, I’m gonna work out X amount of hours and not thinking about what it the transition was gonna be like for you. We just got a puppy the other day and we’re transitioning. He is perfect now, so I mean, knock on one, but his he doesn’t bark a lot. But let’s say we got this new puppy. He’s okay, he’s in right there. And he barked a lot and my sleep was different, right? It was a transition for me. Okay. The other thing that like I had to notice with my own goals.

is I am in a transition period with getting some part-time jobs, which meant that my hours were split. So I did make a couple unrealistic expectations for myself. My son started travel baseball this year. I didn’t really know what we were getting into until we got started. Well now that I know if he chooses to do it next year, I can make better goals. Okay. And what patterns or obstacles do you notice that kept coming up for you? If you’re saying I didn’t hit four goals because I was not getting enough sleep and I was tired, that’s something to think about.

Or I didn’t have enough help around the house, something to think about. Or I noticed that I’m procrastinating instead of taking action. Something to think about. Step three in this process of your audit is simply to get honest. What isn’t working? Once you have done that, now we’re gonna make a new plan. Okay. We’re gonna revisit and revise goals. It’s not about quitting. It’s not, I have to start over from scratch. It’s what works.

So I want you to look back at that list of goals you made at the beginning of the year and decide which ones still matter and which ones do not. And then decided that it isn’t the year for that. It’s okay to bless and release. Okay. So I want you to eliminate any goals that you’re like, this still doesn’t fit. And I also want you to adjust the goals. So if you noticed the exercise example, you said you were gonna work out X amount of times and then this is how long you’re gonna do it and you noticed it wasn’t happening. What if you adjust that goal?

Cara Harvey (10:15.65)

What if instead of saying I’m gonna work out six days a week, you said my new goal for this next half of the year if I can get three workouts in, you go to that minimal viable option. I want you to adjust them to a place where you can start to see success and not live in this I’m always failing mindset. And then I want you to set clear new priorities that are realistic for you for the next six months and to close out the year. I want you to think, if I’m gonna end the year, which of these things would I have liked to cross off?

Yes, I would have loved to have run that 5K, but will I still feel just as proud of myself if I look back and realize I showed up to run 15 times? I would have loved to save $5,000, but will I be just as, you know, proud of myself still if I save $1,000? I want you to really think through and ask yourself, what priorities do I want to focus on based on what I know happened this first half of the year and what I know is already probably going to happen the second half. And then it’s time to evaluate your systems.

There’s a reason some of your goals didn’t work. And part of it is going to be because your systems aren’t setting you up for success. Okay? Success comes from systems, not just your goals. You can make as many goals as you want. You can have the pretty vision boards, but if you don’t have a system to make them happen, they’re not gonna happen. So I want you to think through what routines did I have this year that supported my progress? Working out before my kids go to school supports my progress. I am a hundred percent more likely.

To get in and exercise before my kids go to school than not. If I do not get it in in the morning, it is rare it’s gonna happen. So I’ve created a system for myself of what my morning looks like. Where are there places that you’re perhaps being inconsistent? And we’ve talked about this often of what consistency actually looks like. Are there places where you’re struggling to show up the amount of times you said you’re gonna show up? Why? What tweaks can you make?

And is there anything that I can s simplify, delegate, or outsource? If there is anything that you can make easier, be it by I’m gonna make a dinner meal plan and we’re just gonna eat the same foods. I saw this thing the other day on some internet place, but they were saying that what they do is they basically eat the same thing, like if they do a quarter meal plan and like the third of every month, for example, is barbecue chicken sliders, right? No matter what. The third of every month makes it so much easier. Makes it a lot

Cara Harvey (12:38.1)

simpler so you’re not having to make as many decisions. Are there places you can simplify your systems to make things easier for you? Once you’ve gone ahead and done a realistic audit, you’ve adjusted your goals, you’ve identified places you can make things easier, it’s time to refocus your time and your energy. I want you to ask yourself am I spending my time on what actually matters? Or am I getting caught in busy work? Am I getting caught in running errands 18 times a day, right? I want you to identify for the first half of the year

What were the things that distracted you? Were there other people’s problems? Was it a specific time of day? Or what are your quote low value activities? The things that you’re doing that like do not need to happen right now, or as we call them, drop its i’m sorry, delegated, the Q3s, do not need to happen by you. I want you to look at your plan for the second half of the year and reallocate your energy to high impact activities, the things that are gonna move you towards your goals, not I need to sit and procrastinate.

over and over and over until something’s perfect. What is the high impact you can have? And then make your plan for the next half of the year. What are your key priorities? Two to four. Don’t have to have a goal in every area. Okay. We’ve done a whole series that you can go back and listen to on how do you break down the different types of goals. Break your goals into actionable steps to know what you’re gonna do. This is what I’m gonna do in June. This is what I’m gonna do in July. This is what I’m gonna do in August. And then I want you to pre-plan out.

Checkpoints or monthly reviews for yourself. It doesn’t have to be like the 30th of every month. We do a monthly planning and the purpose of your mom club. So it’s kind of built into our system. But if you don’t have that, I want you to go through and I want you to identify, hey, on the 17th of every month, this is what I’m going to do. Put it as a date in your calendar because what happens is if you’re only checking in on your goals six months in or at the end of the year, then too many goals are going to go past you without having any action taken. I also want you to do the final step.

Which is to do a little mindset reset. Let’s like clean out the voices in our head that tell us we’re not doing good enough. Yes, you probably have goals on your list, just like I do, that you didn’t get done, that you feel guilty about, that you wish you had done. Okay. Acknowledge those feelings and say, I’m proud of you for acknowledging this. I have gone through and checked these goals out. I’m now focusing on forward momentum. And treat these next six months of the year.

Cara Harvey (15:03.68)

As an absolute fresh start for you. It’s about alignment and adjustment. These small tweaks and adjustments you can make now could change where the trajectory of the rest of the year is. The year is not over. You could still make progress on all of these goals. Your consistency matters more than the fact that you haven’t had the most intensity from January to now. I want you to do this activity today. You can come to Instagram, tag me at a purpose-driven mom. I’d love to hear your takeaways.

Otherwise, all of your show notes are gonna be at a purpose driven mom dot com slash podcast five seventeen.

Cara Harvey (15:37.72)

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Purpose Driven Mom Show. If this episode served you in any way, we would really appreciate it if you headed over to wherever you listen to podcasts, hit that five star, and leave a review and a rating. That’s how more moms can find us and we can grow our community. If you had a tip or an aha, make sure you come over and tag me at a purpose-driven mom on Instagram and share it with your friends. The best way for us to get this message out there of less hustle and less shame and more intentionality is for you to share it with people you know need to hear it.

Thanks for listening, we appreciate you, and I can’t wait to connect with you more outside of the podcast.