July marks the halfway point of the year. Are you making progress toward the goals you set at the beginning of this year?

The next six months are pivotal for shaping not only your achievements for this year but also for laying the groundwork for making next year great, too.

Your life unfolds according to your beliefs and expectations. Without clear goals for the future, your subconscious expects that you’ll continue the same path and repeat your past. To break this cycle and create a different future, you need to get very clear on your goals. You must know precisely how you want your future to change and then determine what actions you’ll take to make that vision a reality. The real question to ask yourself is, “Am I living in the past or looking forward to the future?”

Goal-setting is more than just making plans for the future; it’s deciding exactly what you want it to look like and carving a path to get there. Your beliefs and expectations are self-fulfilling prophecies. If we don’t define the self-fulfilling prophecy we want, we default to adopting our past as our future destiny. Our future then becomes an endless extension of the past.

When you get crystal clear on what you want the end of this year and the beginning of next year to look like, you can work backwards to determine what is going to get you there. To determine what steps you should take, look at your high-payoff activities: what daily activities will make the biggest difference to get you where you want to go?

Once you determine what your top three high-payoff activities are, you should also find ways to reduce the activities that are standing in the way of you working on those activities. When you carve out uninterrupted time for your high-payoff activities, you’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish. To set aside this time, you’ll need to cut back on other time-sucking activities. What things can you simplify, eliminate, delegate, or outsource in your daily life?

By identifying and focusing on your high-payoff activities, you can transform your goals from mere dreams into tangible realities. Use these next six months wisely, and you’ll not only finish this year strong but also set yourself up for an even more successful year ahead. Remember, the future is yours to shape — start today.

Learn more at Achievable.com.