Mid-Year Reflection for Neurodivergent Adults: A Simple Reset for Your Goals
- Eric Kaufmann
- Jul 3
- 4 min read
Learn how to revise and reset your goals.
🔎 TL;DR
Six months is enough time to drift away from your biggest goal without realizing it.
Reflection strengthens executive function skills like metacognition and cognitive flexibility.
Most people don’t need a new goal. They need to revise the one they already have.
Hi Friend,
At the beginning of the year, I picked one BIG goal for my business: becoming the most sought-after executive function coaching practice for adults in California’s Self-Determination Program.
I thought I was pretty focused.
Until one of my favorite YouTubers, Ali Abdaal, asked a question that completely changed how I viewed the past six months.
“What would someone who really knows you say you should focus on more?”
Oof. That one hit home. It forced me to pause, practice a little cognitive flexibility, and look at my year from a completely different perspective.
My mind immediately went to all the hours I’d spent…
Replying to emails.
Creating content.
Reading Alan Watts.
And the recent revival of an old hobby: surfskating, which somehow involved spending more time watching YouTube tutorials than actually skating.
None of those are bad. In fact, I plan to keep doing all of them. But that one question made me realize something:
I’d slowly drifted away from the vision I set back in January.
It wasn't that I didn’t care or wasn't working hard.
Life happened. I let urgent things take priority over what was most important.
New interests popped up. Small distractions accumulated into countless hours going in the wrong direction.
If you’re one of the many neurodivergent adults reading this, I bet you understand.
And here we are, six months later…not doing terribly, but not where I wanted to be.
So I created an exercise I’ll be doing every July from now on. I call it the Mid-Year Reset.
Its purpose is simple: reflect on where you’ve been, revise what matters most, and create a plan for the second half of the year.
If your January goals have quietly faded into the background, this one’s for you.
Let’s dive in.
Why Reflection Matters for Neurodivergent Adults
Most of us spend far more time planning than reflecting. But reflection is where learning happens.
When we pause to look back, we find out what’s working and what isn’t, and we uncover the small wins we overlooked while moving from one task to the next.
A mid-year reflection helps neurodivergent adults strengthen executive function skills like metacognition, our ability to think about our thinking, and cognitive flexibility, our ability to adjust when circumstances change.
Without reflection, it’s easy to keep repeating the same patterns without realizing it.
What Most of Us Get Wrong About Reflection
The biggest mistake I see is believing reflection has to be this long, quiet journaling session.
It doesn’t.
Reflection can happen during a walk, through voice notes in your car, or on a Google Doc. On top of that, 15 focused minutes is often enough.
Others turn reflection into self-criticism. It quickly becomes a list of reasons why we're failing, defeating the purpose.
If you’ve read my article about the Gap and the Gain, you’ll know why this matters.
Those you learn from reflect, place their attention on progress, learning from what’s gone well, and deciding what deserves your attention next.
And finally, many people simply don’t know where to begin.
Confusion is one of the biggest causes of procrastination. A blank page is surprisingly intimidating.
That’s exactly why I created the Mid-Year Reset.
The Mid-Year Reset for Neurodivergent Brains
The exercise has three simple stages: reflect, revise, strategize. In each stage, you'll ask yourself a few questions.
Reflect
“What would someone who really knows me say I should focus on more?”
Revise
"What’s the smallest next step that moves my most important goal forward?"
Strategize
"What’s most likely to get in my way this time, and what will I do when it happens?"
Those are just three of the questions.
The complete worksheet takes about 15 minutes to finish and walks you through the entire process step by step.
Start your Mid-Year Reset here.
Summary
When I read Ali Abdaal’s quote, my perspective on the first six months of the year shifted immediately.
“What would someone who really knows you say you should focus on more?”
It led me to reflect, revise, and create a new strategy for my BIG goal this year.
Now, the motivation and excitement I felt in January has returned. I am ready to get after it!
If you’re neurodivergent, spending time in reflection can feel like a lot. I may stir up feelings of guilt, failure, or confusion.
But you don’t need to spend an hour in silence, writing down thoughts into a beautiful journal. You just need a moment to pause and…
Reflect.
Revise.
Strategize.
That’s why I turned my reflection exercise into The Mid-Year Reset.
I genuinely think you’ll finish The Mid-Year Reset with more clarity than you’ve had in months.
You can get started here.
I’m rooting for you.
In service,
Eric
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About the Author
Eric Kaufmann is an Educational Therapist, Certified Executive Function Coach, and speaker. He is the Co-founder of UpSkill Specialists, an executive function coaching company that helps adults and workplace teams overcome disorganization, procrastination, and productivity roadblocks.
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