“Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.”

-Margaret J. Wheatley

Wow! We are a quarter of the way through the year, can you believe it? There is only nine more months to achieve everything you want this year. Are you on track?? 

Importance of Reviewing Quarterly:
We think it’s super important to take some time to review your LIFE for quarter one. If you aren’t looking at your progress for your personal and professional life, then how will you know if you are on track? And if you don’t know if you are on track, how will you know if you need to adjust your actions to then get you back on track or keep you on track? 

So, we highly recommend you find a little time (I know, that’s hard to do!) to timeblock out 60-90 minutes in the next few days to analyze how quarter one went for you. 

Reviewing Your Life:
Go grab that dream book we always talk about and start writing some answers to the questions below: 

• Think about any goals you set for yourself for this year. If they were measurable goals, are you tracking the measures? If so, are you on track? 
• Or if you didn’t have measurable outcomes, then just take some time to think about the past few months.
  • What sort of emotions have you been feeling lately? If there were a lot of frazzled/chaotic feelings, do you need to change some systems in your life to be less stressed? 
  • Are there relationships that are feeling strained lately that you need to make time for? 
  • How is your own health and fitness?
  • Are your spending money more than you realize and have a big trip, event, something to save for? 
  • Ask yourself, what is important to you today, this week, this month and analyze if it needs extra care in any way? 
• **Tip** Sometimes it helps me to look back at my photos of the past few months to remind myself of how I felt, what I did, etc.
• **Another Tip** My amazing coach told me when I do my monthly numbers to make a little spot to document how I felt that month. It is really nice to look back each quarter and realize how I was feeling at those times.

Other Questions to Get the Brain Thinking: 

• What did I accomplish in the past three months?
• What did I start but not finish?
• What did I not start that I intended to?
• What happened that didn’t go well?
• What happened that went AMAZING?
• Overall, how do I feel about the past three months?

Reviewing Your Business:
Hey you! Before you skip past this section because you are thinking, “well I’m not a business owner”, stop. Just because you might not be a business owner doesn’t mean you shouldn’t review your professional life. And even if you are retired and you supposedly done with a professional life, still listen up. 

Growth Is Important: 

• Even if you don’t own your own business it’s still important to think about your professional life and if it’s on track for what your goals are. You might not have specific goals that come to mind and that’s okay, but you should take some time to see if where you are at today is getting you closer to your someday big picture goal.
  • Is that, retirement at a certain age?
  • Is that, reaching a specific level of achievement in your industry? 
  • What about going back to school to learn something new? Have you wanted to do something like that? 
• Even if you are retired and never intend to work again, you can still asses if where you are at right now and where your life is headed is still the right trajectory for you. What I mean is, if you continue doing the steps you are doing now, will you be happy in one year? Five years? Or will you get bored and stuck in a rut you can’t get out of?
  • Whatever your answer is, just make sure you are thinking about it and not just surviving each day. 
  • You are never too old to start something new!
    • Stan Lee didn’t write his first comic until he was nearly 40. Martha Stewart didn’t start her cooking/homemaking empire until she started a catering business in her 40s. Vera Wang entered the fashion industry in her 40s. Laura Ingalls Wilder published her first “Little House on the Prairie” book at age 65!
    • What have you always thought about doing and never made time for it?
      • What small step could you take today towards that thing? 

All About those Stats: 
I did not get a business degree or ever take a statistics class in college yet, I still believe in the importance of reviewing your numbers in your business. I actually track our weekly numbers at Elevate so that we can stay ahead of any dips in business before it gets too late. So what do you need to track in your business? Some ideas of what we track: 

• Weekly Pending Sales 
• Weekly & Monthly Closed Sales 
• Terminations
• Projections for the current month and the next month 
• Social Media stats and E-newsletter subscribers (thanks for following along!!) 
• General stats in our industry  
• Time spent prospecting 
• New Business 

Quarter 2 and 3 Preview:
SUMMERRRRRR is coming!!!!! And you don’t want to miss it!! Whether that means your busy season at work, your dedicated family time with the kiddos at home, your favorite season to hit the mountains, or just the time you want to spend sipping margaritas on the beach, start thinking about what you want the next two quarters to look like!  

• Based on some of your answers from your review of quarter one, is there anything you can start doing (or stop doing) to get you back on track (or stay on track) for your professional and personal goals?
• What is ONE THING  you can accomplish in the next three months that would impact your life in a meaningful way?
• What are three words that describe your next quarter?
• Overall how are you feeling about the next quarter?
• Should you start tracking any numbers, feelings, etc. on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis? 

Take Action, NOW:

• Once you have reviewed and thought about what you should be doing then, start getting to work, now!
  • If you’re ahead, how is your mindset and team (if applicable) doing? Watch for burnout! I’ve had times that I’ve had my head down and I was just grinding and didn’t realize how hard our team was working and the need for some additional leverage.
    • Think about how you and those around you are doing. Is your family missing and needing you while you’re out training for that marathon? It doesn’t mean stop, it just means shift things slightly. 
  • If you’re behind, what do you need to do now to ensure you get ahead for quarter two and bring you back to being on track?
  • If quarter one was awful and you are thinking there is no way you can get back on track to hit your goals for the year, that’s okay! You may not be able to lose the fifty pounds you wanted this year, but twenty is better than nothing, right? Business may have been slow, but you can still work hard now to have an amazing quarter three and four! 

So get to work!! Oh, and don’t forget to timeblock each month or quarter to continue to review how things are going. 🙂