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I was at a meeting last week when, after the “good to see you’s” had been exchanged, we all had the same realization: We’re almost half-way through 2010! Holy cow! Where did the first half of the year go? Before you know it, the stores will be decorated for the holidays and we’ll be talking about New Year’s resolutions.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves; there are still six months left in 2010. And there’s no better time than now to assess the success of your marketing efforts (or your own personal goals), and make adjustments to achieve the results you want by the end of the year.

So ask yourself these five simple questions:

1) What am I going to focus on?

You’ve probably gotten caught up in the day-to-day trials and tribulations (or are just spending too much time on Facebook, Linked In and Twitter) that can distract you from what’s really important. Don’t feel bad. It happens to the best of us. Take some time to understand what’s worked, what hasn’t worked out the way you had thought or planned, and what’s changed in the past six months. Re-forecast and renew your efforts in areas that have reaped the most benefits, and disengage from those things that haven’t.

2) What am I going to improve?

Whether it is personal or business, we all start the year with resolutions, goals or strategies for ‘getting better’ at something – eating, exercising, making calls, planning ahead. But then the real world happens. Take time to re-ignite that passion and find opportunities for small improvements.

3) What are you going to grow?

Everyone has ideas, but how many of us actually act on them? Now is a good time to put a plan together to nurture that great idea you had at 3:00 a.m. when you couldn’t sleep. A new event theme, a new collateral piece, a new iPhone app, a new search engine program. Go out on a limb and take a chance ─ you never know until you try.

4) What I am NOT going to do?

We all have lists of things we need to get done. I heard recently that some of the most successful people are those who create lists of things they are going to STOP doing. Take those time wasters off the list – it will enable you to put more energy into focusing, improving and growing!

5) What am I going to learn?

Things are changing every day, it seems. Media is more and more fragmented, people are connecting to one another in new and different ways, the Web changes at an alarmingly fast rate. So how are you keeping up? We stay fresh and creative by learning new things. What topic or field gets you excited that you haven’t devoted time to learn about?

It only takes a little bit of time to step back, review and make the necessary tweaks to achieve the results you want. There are 168 hours in a week, so I bet you can find 30 minutes to think through these five easy questions, so 2010 can go out with a bang! Good luck!

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