A critical component of success is to set goals and then reflect on your progress along the way.

If you don’t, it’s almost impossible to accomplish something notable when you don’t know you’re aiming for it. This is why writing down goals improves the chances of you completing them.

On January 1, 2016, I set out seven goals that I wanted to achieve by the end of this year. You can read that post here: 2015’s 1 Year Milestones And 2016’s Works In Progress.

Since we’re six months into the year—at halftime—I’m going to revisit each goal and review my progress up to now.

It’s time to see if I’m on track or if I need to light a fire under me to accomplish all my goals!

2016 Goals

1) Author three books

Halftime result: In March, I published Freedom Mindset for ebook, paperback, and audiobook format. It performed really well during launch week and continues to sell today!

So that’s one book down already for 2016!

Book number two on the slate for this year, How To College, is set to come out in late July or early August. I’m confident this book is going to be my best one yet! Read more about it here.

And although The Golden Resume came out last September 2015, it previously was only available in ebook format. But earlier this year I added the paperback and audiobook format. (Get your copy or audiobook today if you want to supercharge your job hunt.)

While it’d be nice to accomplish the rest of the goals, writing three more books this year has been my number one priority. Every morning I dedicate my time to book writing and that’s why I am ahead of pace on this goal.

2) 250,000 total views

Halftime result: Total website views= 151,200

In the beginning, I used to be all about website views. Today, I see them as a secondary metric. Because although views tell some part of the story about a website’s success, they’re much less important in the grand scheme of things.

Website success is all about social media followers and email subscribers. That’s how I create lasting relationships with people, compared to someone who visits the site, leaves, and never comes back.

Regardless, I’m going to continue publishing two posts a week to give you helpful content. And as a result, those posts will increase my blog’s SEO, organic views, and total views.

It’ll be close, but I believe I’ll hit the 250,000 total view goal.

3) 3,000 total subscribers

Halftime result: Maybe I set the goal too high, but my email subscribers goal is not even close to being on pace. Why is this? I don’t exactly know.

One reason is probably due to spending all my time outside of blogging on writing hours each day for Freedom Mindset and now How To College. Another cause could be that I started a new site, which sucks away all the extra time I could have used to guest post on sites to grow the Take Your Success audience.

But, to get back on track in the second half of 2016, I want to write more guest posts and get featured on a major site. You’ll see those are two goals below, so writing guest posts could knock off three birds (subscribers, guest posts, and major site feature) with one stone if done the right way.

4) 750,000 Alexa rank

Halftime result: Alexa rank = 1,495,072 (United States rank = 346,597)

Unless you have a blog, you probably don’t know about Alexa rank. This ranking takes into account every single website on the internet and then ranks them from 1 to 18 million, or something. And doesn’t rank the sites that are worse than 18 million.

My Alexa score improved by around 300,000, but it’s still not where I want it to be. However, if I continue to put out quality content and books, then my audience and thus Alexa rank is sure to improve.

Remember Brian, patience is one key to success.

5) 15,000 Twitter followers and 100,000 Instagram followers

Halftime result: Twitter followers = 7.3k and Instagram followers = 39.5k

Twitter is great for building relationships with people and sharing links back to my blog. Each day I get double-digit website views from Twitter alone. At 7.3k followers with a goal of 15k, I have a good shot of reaching this goal before 2017.

On Instagram, I’ve found success in growing a large following by:

• Liking and commenting on tons of pictures
• Adding the maximum number of 30 hashtags for each post
• Promoting my Instagram on other social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
• Making sure each post has quality and adds value
• Geotagging my pictures
• Posting around two to three times a week

It’s going to be an uphill battle to get to 100k Instagram followers, but I’m not counting it out yet. I need to keep plugging away and maybe an account with millions of followers will give me a shoutout.

You can help by following me on Instagram @brianjrobben and Twitter @brianjrobben.

6) Write a minimum of 12 guest posts in 2016

Halftime result: Although the goal is technically guest posts, I’m going to include podcasts and webinars in this report.

Below is the work I’ve done on other websites:

• Freedom Mindset – The Road To Financial Freedom
• E040: Building Financial Freedom with Brian Robben
• Webinar on financial freedom on Albert’s List
• And I’ve submitted an interview for another site that hasn’t posted yet

I’m behind and unfortunately put this goal on the back burner, but there will be a lot of opportunities to get featured on other blogs with my book How To College coming out. So there’s no reason I can’t reach this goal.

7) Get featured on Forbes, Business Insider, Fortune, Entrepreneur, LifeHacker, or another major website

Halftime result: Not featured, yet.

Similar to goal number six, I also put this one on the back burner. I have a note on my phone of some contacts to connect with about possibly getting featured on their major site.

But I’ve been slacking hard on this one. Again, probably because my time is focused on writing books and blog content every day. It’d be huge to get featured on a site like Forbes though! This goal excites me.

Make Goals And Reflect On Them

It’s easy to have a vague idea of what you want to accomplish, because you can trick your brain and forget about it if you don’t accomplish it.

What’s hard, but produces growth, is to set specific goals and then evaluate them honestly over time. That’s the process I just did and I’m already inspired to work harder to accomplish those goals.

So I encourage you to do the same. Make goals and then evaluate them once or twice a year.

Did you make goals for 2016? It’s not too late to revamp your efforts to accomplish them. Or if you didn’t set goals, you can start now by creating a few six-month goals to close out the year.

Set goals. Reflect on them. Adjust your approach. Reflect. And repeat this process until you complete your goals.

I believe in you. You can do it!

How are you doing on your 2016 goals? Since it’s never too late to start fresh with a six month goal to close out the year, what goal or goals do you want to accomplish?

Part 3: Reviewing My 2016 Take Your Success Goals

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