The Quarter in Review: What Worked, What Didn’t, and What’s Next?
As we welcome in the spring, we are also saying goodbye to the first quarter of 2025 and it’s an excellent time to review how it went, celebrate the wins, identify any challenges and get your action plan in place for the next three months. I’m really good at setting goals and intentions on a micro level (like, it’s a daily thing, sometimes hourly) but in a bigger picture way I can find it more challenging and sometimes a bit overwhelming so here are the things I’ll be focusing on in my end of quarter review and hopefully it will help you to complete one without feeling completely overwhelmed!
Reflecting on Q1
First up, it’s time to reflect. For me that looks like getting a fresh page in my notebook (this excites me more than I care to admit) and either brainstorming, journalling or jotting down everything I’ve achieved and what the challenges have been. I think once you start writing it out physically, there will be so many things that pop up in your mind that you might not have thought of before. It’s also sometimes worth a scroll through your photos or your calendar to remind you exactly what’s happened in the past three months. I had things that were actually pretty huge wins for me that I’d totally ignored because I didn’t realised they’d actually happened so recently.
Measuring success beyond the numbers
It’s important to remember that while financial success can be great and seeing numbers on paper can be a real boost, success is so much more than that. For me, I’m measuring success in terms of things like work life balance, making sure I have time to spend with my daughter (the reason I set up my business) while also serving my clients and earning. Think about the random Tuesday where you met a friend for coffee and had a lovely time instead of being chained to your desk, maybe success for you is the amazing conversation you had in your Instagram DM’s with someone who isn’t even a client but they shared how something you had put out inspired them to do something great. Whatever your version of success looks like, it doesn’t have to have anything to do with your bank balance.
Identifying gaps and opportunities
I actually found it really helpful to have a chat with my good friend ChatGPT for this bit. Sometimes, when you’re so involved in your own business it’s easy to miss what you can’t see. I wrote into ChatGPT what I had jotted down when I was reflecting and asked for some advice around any gaps or opportunities I might have missed. Chat suggested some things that I hadn’t thought about, for example the missed opportunities to share online some of the amazing successes I had. Because I’ve been working so hard in my business, I’ve been missing opportunities to work on it, keep up with my social media and share the wins. Between my own notes and some suggestions from ChatGPT that I hadn’t even thought of, I’ve been able to identify gaps in my business that I need to focus on in Q2 and some opportunities that I should be looking at.
Setting aligned goals for Q2
Here’s the biggie - there’s no point doing all this if you do nothing with it. You need to take the wins, the challenges, the missed opportunities and the reflections on board to create goals that align with you and your business. This might be a variation of the goals you set at the start of the year (if you set any) or it might be new goals based on what you’ve learned already in the last quarter, but whatever the goals are, they have to be in line with your own personal values and your business ethos in order to be successful. They also have to be SMART, read my post on goal setting here if you haven’t already got that down.
Your Q2 action plan
Now you’ve done your reflections and you’ve created your goals, the best way to move into Q2 is to set out an action plan. Break your goals into small actionable steps, set timeframes, think about what success will look like and how you’ll know you’ve achieved it. By having a clear action plan in place, not only will you have thought even more about your goals when creating it, you’ll also be setting yourself up for the best possible outcome of achieving all of your goals in Q2.
Final Thoughts
Don’t just set intentions on the daily and goals at the start of the year, use each quarter as an opportunity to reflect, celebrate what went well, review the challenges you faced and set yourself new goals which you can turn into actionable steps. Remember, success isn’t just about the numbers, success looks different to different people so make sure you think about what your version of success looks like and how you’ll know when you’re there - and once you get there, don’t forget to take a moment to celebrate it!
