As we transition into October this coming week, it creates that reflection point for the 3rd time this year of quarter end.
If we’re serious about our growth then we owe it to ourselves to take stock of the past 90 days and use those lessons to tee up a strong finish to this unusual year.
Reviewing each month and quarter is about investing past experience into future preparation and focus – ie your past decisions, successes, failures, lessons. That’s where the good stuff comes from.
Here are a selection of questions, I learned from Peter Voogd, that I’ve been using for a couple of years now to help reflect on the previous quarter and carry momentum into the next. Use these prompt questions to help you reflect and free flow write for 30 mins or so each quarter about the previous 90 days. [By the way, I used the accountability of writing this post to get my own review done before hitting publish and it does only take about 30 mins].
Section #1 – OVERVIEW
- What went well, what didn’t?
- When was I in my zone, when wasn’t I?
- When was I at my emotional energy peak?
- What caused me peace of mind?
- What frustrated me?
- Did I do what I said I was going to do?
- What systems have I put in place?
Section #2 – PSYCHOLOGICAL
- What have been my biggest breakthroughs?
- What have been my biggest frustrations?
- What have been my mind-shifts?
- What have been my biggest disappointments?
Section #3 – TACTICS
This section looks at what were my top 5 wins from last quarter: financial, family, adventure…?
Getting down to business metrics ask yourself:
- Did I hit my business income goal last quarter?
- What were the top three marketing campaigns or sources of income last month?
- What were my top income producing activities?
- What are the biggest ways I’ll be producing income this next month?
- How did I add value to the marketplace, could I have added more?
These will likely be related to your highest values but only you will know.
- Did I leverage technology?
- Did I maximise my reach?
- What will exponentially grow my reach this next quarter?
- What did I do to stay adventurous and feel fully alive?
To help keep you going with the nitty gritty march of each day it’s important to mix it with the things that energise you.
If you aren’t consciously making a decision to put things in your diary that will keep you alive and vibrant, even in these times of restricted freedoms, you will become complacent. Be creative and plan in some things you know you can do within the guidelines outdoors and in. It’s more important than ever now.
Section #4 – RELATIONSHIPS
I love this one:
- Who did I connect with and reach out to last quarter?
- Did I take care of my current relationships and did I reach out to people who can cut my learning curve in half- i.e. people who I can partner with in some way that’s relevant to your business?
- Did I leverage partnerships?
To add to this, based on what’s currently happening, who can you make a conscious effort to connect/reconnect with virtually in Q4?
Section #5 – TEAM
Think about questions that will help with your team review:
- How was my team engagement?
- How was my speed of communication?
- What feedback can I give them?
- What do they need in terms of skill development?
If you have a team, what can you do to help assure and engage them in during these uncertain times.
Section #6 – LEGACY
- What did I work on that was legacy focused? In other words something that you work on now but won’t get paid until long into the future, or something that you don’t reap the benefits for until way later, ie creating things that you value but that you get paid 6 months or more down the road. Note that if you just do this kind of work for the rewards/benefits you will lose steam, it’s important to engage in legacy work for other reasons, for something bigger than you.
Voogd recommends spending 80% of your time on profit making activity, creating systems etc that makes sure you have the money coming in for you and your family now. Then 20% of your time on legacy focused things. Eventually when you have built the business you want you can switch focus to investing 80% of your time on the legacy side of things. Isn’t that an exciting prospect? To spend 80% of your time on something that helps a cause you believe in or adds value to the world in some way, and not worry whether it pays you or not.
Conclusion
I challenge you to invest 30 mins each quarter to do this. WHY? Because high achievers always ask better questions, and they are always investing their past mistakes/lessons into their future preparation.
If you’re inspired, use this post thread as your accountability buddy and hit reply to say you’ve reviewed your quarter.