It’s Time For Your Mid-Year Mental Health Check-In
Before we recap anything, let's get one thing straight: this isn't about catching yourself falling short. It's about catching yourself, period.
Black News 
July is here. It’s been a little over six months since some of us gathered with our friends, family, and/or the one we love — or loved, at the time — to count down the seconds until midnight and the start of a brand new year. For some, the excitement was brimming with thoughts of “new year, new me!” while for others, it may have been the end of one of the worst years of their life, and they were just happy to get another 525,600 minutes on the clock (shout out to my fellow musical theater nerds who caught that reference).
The time-honored tradition of setting resolutions for the new year is common, and an earlier piece I wrote, The Case For Slacker Resolutions, touched on some of my ideas about simple “resolutions” that can improve the quality of your life. So think of this as a mid-year review of sorts. Not a quiz you’ll be graded on, but rather a gentle nudge to examine how well you’ve been honoring the commitments you’ve made to yourself.
Six months into the year, I have one question for you: how are things going so far?
And before you answer that, I want to say something that doesn’t usually come standard with check-ins like this one: however it’s going, you’re allowed to be okay with it.
We treat resolutions like contracts. As if once we’ve declared something out loud (or worse, posted it), we’ve signed away the right to change our minds. But you’re not a corporation bound by quarterly earnings calls. You’re a real person whose life, priorities, and capacity have probably shifted at least a little since January 1st.
So before we recap anything, let’s get one thing straight: this isn’t about catching yourself falling short. It’s about catching yourself, period.
Let’s Recap
For starters, let’s review the original set of resolutions I offered back in January.
Suggested slacker resolution number one: Use all of your PTO this year.
Have you taken a vacation yet? Are you planning to? And before you say you can’t afford it, let me clarify that “vacation” doesn’t necessarily mean jetting off somewhere fabulous (although those kinds of vacations are wonderful, too). If your job provides paid time off — the “P” in PTO — then you don’t have to spend a dime to actually use it.
That “vacation” could be a staycation in your own city, or simply a block of free time to do you, sans alarm clocks, schedules, and the rigor of your daily routine. Breaks are more than just a fringe benefit. They’re a chance to detach from the grind and restore much-needed balance in your life. If you haven’t taken one yet, what’s been getting in the way? Is it logistics, or is it something a little harder to acknowledge, like guilt about resting at all?
Suggested slacker resolution number two: Say “no” more often. How are those boundaries looking? We talked about exercising more of your right to gracefully say no to what might be weighing you down: namely, the people, places, and things that, if you’re honest, don’t truly add joy or value to your life, and if we’re keeping it really real, maybe they never did.
What or who have you started to say no to? Was it difficult? More than likely it was, and maybe it even left you feeling a tad guilty. But the good news is that if you keep at it, saying no inevitably gets a little easier each time. And if you haven’t said no to a single thing since January? You’re not behind. You’re just getting started on something that takes practice, like anything worth doing does.
Suggested slacker resolution number three: Say “yes” more often. This one was specifically about saying yes to the things you might have been avoiding because of uncertainty or fear. Have you stepped outside of your comfort zone at all this year? Done anything you’ve been thinking about doing but stopped short because of your own hesitation or perceived limits?
What’s the one thing you’d like to be able to include in your 2026 wrap-up that you can look back on and say, with a huge smile, “I DID that”? Now that summer is in full swing, it’s a great time to get out and say yes to all the things this season offers. And if your “yes” list is still mostly blank, consider this your permission slip to pick just one thing. Not the whole list. One.
Suggested slacker resolution number four: Make life easier for yourself whenever possible. Are you still trying to get that “E” for effort by doing the most, or have you started delegating and outsourcing when appropriate? Again, whoever ends up most exhausted does not, in fact, win a prize.
So go over that to-do list right now and ask yourself: is there an easier way to get any of this done? Think hard. Be creative. More than likely, there’s at least one thing you’re making harder than it has to be. What if there is an easier, simpler way? How might that free up some time in your day, or add to your peace of mind?
Moving beyond resolutions
2026 has not necessarily been a smooth ride thus far. Collectively, we’ve carried a lot. Perhaps this is an appropriate time to pause and focus less on what we haven’t accomplished so far this year and more on what we’ve managed to get through. Did the year start off bleak, but it’s beginning to look up, even if only slightly?
Have you made a small amount of progress toward a goal you set, albeit less than you’d hoped to have made by now? Allow yourself to celebrate the smallest of victories. After all (and I may be dating myself here, but I digress), a famous Chicago rapper told us back in 2004 that “slow motion is better than no motion.”
Here’s another part that often gets left out of these mid-year check-ins: if a goal you set in January no longer fits the person you are in July, you’re allowed to let it go. Not abandon it in shame, not quietly chalk it up as a failure, but actually release it–on purpose–with your whole chest.
Goals are supposed to serve you, not the other way around. If something on your list now feels like a relic of who you were six months ago rather than who you’re becoming, that’s not a sign you gave up. That’s a sign you grew. Revising the goal, swapping it out, or scrapping it entirely is not the same as quitting. It’s recalibrating. And recalibrating is what every person who actually gets somewhere does, over and over, until they reach their destination.
The Good News: It’s Not Too Late
July 1st is halftime, if you will. If you follow sports, you know that most competitions include a mid-game break that gives athletes an opportunity to catch their breath, restore their energy, and reflect. They review what is going well so far, as well as what needs improvement.
In the most thrilling competitions, the team that comes from behind to win it all is the one that sticks out most prominently in our memories. Just when hope was waning, the team managed to make the necessary corrections and come back to secure that well-deserved victory.
The same could apply to you, even if this year didn’t start off in the best direction. Halftime isn’t for shame. It’s for adjustments. Take the break. Make the call. Then go back out there and play the second half like you mean it.
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