Why Do a Personal Quarterly Review?
Wow – can you believe it is almost at the end of another Quarter?
Yep it has been almost 3 months, since we said goodbye to last year in the end-of-year review ritual and then created your goals for the first quarter. Remember those? You know the ones – starting to write a book, finishing that course or running a half marathon.
Well, now it is time to do a personal quarterly review and see how you have been tracking with those goals and intentions.
“The only journey is the one within.”
~ Rainer Maria Rilke
Why Do a Personal Quarterly Review?
For me, one of the main reasons I do a personal quarterly review is to increase awareness. For example – increasing awareness on where my resources (i.e. time, energy, love and money) have been going, identifying any behavioural patterns and making time to celebrate.
Steve Jobs said it so eloquently in his Stanford University Commencement Speech –
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart even when it leads you off the well worn path; and that will make all the difference.”
What is a Personal Quarterly Review?
Basically a personal quarterly review helps you reflect on the past quarter of your life (including your career). Within a quarterly review, you can reflect on a variety of things including feelings, values, thoughts and behaviours to check-in to see if they are in alignment with your goals and intentions.
It is a great process to help you to reflect, evaluate and then adjust on your life, so you can focus on your most important tasks and activities. And as the saying goes…
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.”
~ Unknown (often attributed to Albert Einstein)
How Can I Do a Personal Quarterly Review?
Glad you asked! I started doing a quarterly review about 10 years ago (I did them as an athlete, however I got out of the habit). Following are two of the steps I use –
Step 1 – Gather Your Materials
What do you use to plan and write your goals / intentions, power word or project plans in? It might be a planner, your booklet from the end-of-year review ritual, calendar or self-management system. What ever you use, find it and have it close to you so you can refer back to them. If you do not have anything, then you can start with a clean slate.
You will also need a journal or something to write your reflections in.
Step 2 – Review Your Previous Quarter 1 (i.e. January, February and March)
There are many questions you could use for a review. Some of these could include the following –
- Have I honoured my power word in this quarter? If so, how?
- Did I honour my intentions? If so, how?
- What went really well in the last quarter? Who / what helped me do this?
- In the last quarter, the following was challenging for me… My biggest lesson that I learnt / remembered was…
- How am I feeling after the past quarter? Am I being the person I want to be?
Over to You…
I hope this has given you some insight in to how to start todo a personal quarterly review! If you have any questions, please let me know below. Also – if you would like to be in group to focus on your quarterly priorities, feel free to join us in the Next 84 days.
If you are ready to reclaim your courage and take the next step towards freedom and opening your heart, why not join our Toolkit?