Her Next Chapters

89. Midyear Reset: Redefining Your Goals

• Christina Kohl

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Midyear is the perfect time to pause, reflect, and reset—especially if those January resolutions have long faded into the background (you're not alone—most don’t make it past February!). In this episode, we explore how July offers a fresh opportunity to check in on your goals in a way that feels aligned with your real life right now.

Whether you’re in the thick of summer with kids at home or preparing to launch a teen to college, this season invites intentionality. We’ll talk about how to make time for memory-making moments, reset career momentum with simple summer actions, and approach health and wellness goals with easy additions—not pressure-filled overhauls.

You’ll walk away with three powerful reflection questions and the reminder that any day—especially today—can be the start of your next chapter.

(And if this episode speaks to you, don’t forget to rate and review the show. Scroll down past the episodes to tap the stars and share a few words if you're on Apple Podcast—it means so much! And subscribe to my newsletter for weekly encouragement straight to your inbox.)

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Christina Kohl:

Hi and welcome to Her Next Chapter's podcast. I'm your host, Christina Kohl. I'm a mom of three and soon to be an empty nester. I'm also a certified HR pro who restarted my career after being a stay-at-home mom for over a decade. I created this podcast to connect with moms who have an empty nest on the horizon and are wanting to redefine their identity outside of motherhood, which might include a job search. On this show, we'll have raw conversations about our ever-changing roles as moms. We'll hear from women who restarted their careers and share tips for a job search after a career break. So if that's you, you're in the right place. Friend, let's get started. Hi everyone, and welcome to this week's episode of Her Next Chapters.

Christina Kohl:

If you're listening in real time, it is the first week of July, specifically July 2nd. I thought it'd be a great time to talk about the halfway point of the year and I know so many people tend to like set resolutions and goals and intentions on January 1st because you know we're changing the calendar. It's a whole new calendar, a whole new year. But you guys, we are at the midpoint of the year and I'm also one of those that's like I don't have to wait until January 1st, to set a new intention right, like. What's so magical about that day? Why couldn't it be February 17th or, in this case, july 2nd? We're halfway through the year and it's a really good time to reflect and determine, like, what's working, what's not, and figure out what we want more of in the second half of the year. And figure out what we want more of in the second half of the year. And as far as resolutions, you've probably heard this stat before, but 80%, you guys, 80% of New Year's resolutions are abandoned by February. Only 6% to 9% stick through the whole year. So if you're one of those that you can't even remember what your resolutions are, don't worry, you're in good company, you're not behind, but maybe you're ready for a reset that fits the season that you're in now.

Christina Kohl:

So some ideas of what to focus on this time of year really, family life and the rhythm. If you are a parent, you know, if you're listening, you're probably a mom, and summer is a transitional season, right, there's less structure, there's more time with the kids, and it might be that you've got you know. Obviously, the kids are going to be starting a new grade, maybe a new school, in the fall, and you've got another six to eight weeks with them at home and really it's time to ask what do you want this time to feel like and what activities do you want to do? Maybe it's having a weekly library date I know I used to go with my kids for story time and he gets to pick out new books. They were so excited and you've got teens. Maybe it's spending one-on-one time with them and doing something that they enjoy and it's okay to let go of the need to schedule every minute right.

Christina Kohl:

Summer is kind of a little more laid back and if you have a kiddo that's heading off to college or maybe back to college, what are some memories that you want to create this summer before they leave the house? And obviously you're going to be setting everything up for the dorm and all the shopping and all of that but really some time to be intentional about just enjoying each other's company and not just be checking off the to-do list. My youngest will be heading back in actually August 2nd, so I've got four more weeks with him at home not very long at all. So we are looking at scheduling things like going on a hike and going kayaking and paddle boarding together, and he wants to learn how to cook, because he's going to be living in a house and be responsible for planning his own meals and cooking. So that's one of the things we're going to be doing more of over the next four weeks is teaching him how to cook his favorite meals. So, you know, I challenge you, like you know what would be high, a high priority for you, even just the next six to eight weeks. It doesn't have to be the whole next six months, rest of the year, but for this season of summer, you know, set some intentions and and put things into practice.

Christina Kohl:

And then another area of our lives that is a good opportunity to kind of reframe or reset is our career goals. And if you listened to last week's episode or if you haven't listened, go back to last week's episode I talked a lot about some summer job search momentum. Just quick, little easy things that you can do to keep the momentum going. So, yeah, go back and listen to that episode, if you haven't already listened, to get some ideas of how to keep your job search momentum going and know that summertime can be a great time to get clear on what's next like before the back to school chaos begins. Bit, but just little things you can do is updating parts of your resume. Or the best part is one of the things I enjoy the most Reconnect with a past colleague. Get together for a cocktail hour or lunch or go for a hike or a walk or something, to get together with past colleagues and just reconnect. And yeah, that does count as job search, because your network is really important and so taking the time to connect with your friends and past colleagues is a job search activity, so it counts.

Christina Kohl:

And then another area of our lives that particularly midlife women that we like to tend to focus on is our health and wellbeing. And for the summer, don't overcomplicate it, just focus on additions. So for me, I used to like when it was cooler. I live in Colorado and in the wintertime it's sometimes too cold to go out so I was going out for walks at lunch with my dog and she's very persistent about asking me to go out for a walk, but it was just. It was um, lunchtime was great, but right now that we're in the heat of the summer, it is way too hot to go for a lunchtime walks. It's just too hot. So and I'm not a morning person so we uh switched my walking with her to evening walks. I'm here in Colorado, it cools down pretty nicely most evenings, so after dinner is when we go for the walk, so kind of making that shift, and then maybe it's morning stretches before the kids wake up, that you're doing something physical for yourself.

Christina Kohl:

Another thing with your diet, particularly in the summer, is a good time to be focused more on adding one more fruit or one more veggie a day, just something, being health conscious. It doesn't have to be a major overhaul of your life, but it's just kind of a nice time to be kind of reassessing what your goals are. And again, whether it is your family life, your relationships with your kids, maybe it's your relationship with your spouse you want to start doing date nights more regularly, or setting your budget, things like that or if it's your career goals or your health and well-being, any of that, this is a great time to pause and kind of reset what your goals are, and I would invite you to take some time, just even a few minutes. And if you are a journaler, someone that likes to journal, here's some journal prompts that you can use to guide you. And so it's what is one thing I want to keep doing, because so many times I think of a goal or resolution being something like that new and big, but it's also what's working well. And what do you want to keep doing? For me, it's my evening walks, and I've been inviting my husband to join me more because he's usually here right after dinner. He's not always here in the middle of the day when I go on the walks, but after dinner he's usually here. So I'm going to keep doing my evening walks and I'm going to invite him to join me. So that's something new.

Christina Kohl:

Another question is what is something you're ready to let go of? So maybe driving to the gym is taking too much time and you just want to do workouts at home. Or maybe you've been hyper-structuring your teenagers' time and day, what they do and realizing you know what they're getting more independent. They don't need their mom to be so in charge of their schedule. Maybe it's time to let go of that and let them sleep in, let them have later hours, particularly the kids that are older, and whether they're in high school or heading off to college, they're going to have a lot more independence and it's good for them to start with more of that while they're still at home. So maybe that's something to let go of. I know it's something that I've certainly done. I don't wake my kids up when they go to their jobs in the summer. I'm not waking them up for the summer classes unless they ask me to. So actually, my son yesterday he sent me a text at like one in the morning saying hey, can you do me a favor and make sure I'm up at 8.30 tomorrow morning because I have to drive to campus tomorrow for my test. But otherwise I kind of let my kids run their own schedule. So that's something I've had to let go of.

Christina Kohl:

And then, finally, what's one small goal that would feel good to recommit to this summer? So, if you can go back to January, what were your big goals for all of 2025 that maybe have fallen by the wayside? Well, what's something that you can pick back up and recommit to just for the summer, just for the next couple of months? Is it your health, your fitness? Is it, you know, your relationship with your kids, your spouse? Is it your job search, you know? Is it getting your clarity on what you want to do next in your career? Maybe it's fine, you know, fine, tuning your resume, your LinkedIn profile, all those things, but what is just one small thing that would feel good to recommit to this summer? All right, well, I hope that's helpful to kind of think about this mid-year. It's mid-year's eve, right? Actually, I'm recording it on mid-year's eve, june 30th, so tomorrow is the halfway point of the year. So, yeah, time to reevaluate those goals.

Christina Kohl:

And if you would like to have a little midweek encouragement in your inbox, I want to invite you to join my newsletter. So I know many of you are subscribers to my newsletter, but many of you might've found the show and had no idea that I have a newsletter. So check the show notes and I'll have a link in there for you to sign up for the weekly newsletter and that way you won't miss a thing. And then the other thing if this episode spoke to you, or if you've been a listener for a while and you just really enjoy the messaging here, it would mean so much to me if you could leave a quick review. So just head to Her Next Chapters on your platform that you use and then go to the show rather than the episode. So you might have to like click on three dots if it's on Apple, but just go to the show and then scroll down and then tap the five stars and, if you have an extra minute, write a few words about what you love or how the show has helped you. It really helps.

Christina Kohl:

Other people find us. All right. And if you're feeling extra, send me an email and let me know, like what you're committing to, what your goals are for July and onward and for the rest of 2025, so that I can help cheer you on. Send me an email. I'm honest. I respond to all of them. It's Christina at hernextchapterscom, or, if you're on LinkedIn, you can find me there and send me a direct message to say hello and, yeah, let me know what your goals are for the rest of the year. I'd love to support you. All right, thanks so much for listening, as always, and I'll talk to you next time. Thank you so much for listening today. I hope this episode hit home for you and, if you haven't already, be sure to connect with me on LinkedIn and say hello so I can personally thank you for listening Until next time. Remember, your story is uniquely your own, and your next chapters are ready to begin.