Quarterly Review of Your Life | 12 Week Goal Audit Questions

Today we’re diving into the power of a quarterly review!

A lot of people come to me and tell me they feel like their behavior is out of their control. They don’t know why they’re doing the things that they’re doing, and they don’t understand why they can’t stop the behaviors they don’t want and can’t start the behaviors they do want.

My response is always a question back to them: Are you reviewing and reflecting on your behavior on a regular basis?

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Hi, my name is Dr. Karin Nordin and I’m a PhD level expert in all things behavior change and mindset. Here, I’m the CEO and founder of Body Brain Alliance. We’re on a mission to bring you the real science behind self-help.

The Power of Reflection

Here at Body Brain Alliance, we have a coaching program known as Alliance Coaching. This blog isn’t going to sell you on that program — it’s going to give you insight into how our clients progress and why they make changes so fast. The answer is reflection. Specifically, a unique cycle we use in our coaching program that I’m going to teach you how to implement today.

Common Reflection Patterns

When we think about reflecting on our lives, there are really two times of year that most people reflect.

End of Year Reflection

This is the big one — at the end of the year, we typically think about how the year went, what we learned, did we accomplish our goals.

Monthly Reflection

Oftentimes we also divide the year into months — saying to yourself, “I can’t wait for next month to start,” or “This month went pretty well or went poorly.”

The Problem with These Reflection Periods

Here’s the problem with both of these. Reflecting at the end of the year is great — super awesome. Reflecting at the end of the month is also great, but a month is really not long enough where you can actually see changes.

A month is not long enough for anything to be different. But a year is almost too long — if you’re only reflecting once every single year, you’re not giving yourself a chance to stop, troubleshoot, pivot, or learn from your mistakes.

The Quarterly Approach

That is where the quarterly approach comes in. This is something I actually borrowed from the world of business — it’s very common to set quarterly benchmarks and do a quarterly review at the end of 12 weeks.

When I looked at the world of self-development, I realized it was very rare to be on this 12-week cycle. However, 12 weeks really is that sweet spot. It’s short enough where you can still make meaningful changes and stop, pause, and pivot. But it’s long enough where you can actually start seeing whether or not your approach is working.

How to Implement a Quarterly Review

Look at the end of this quarter and schedule a one-hour meeting with yourself on your calendar. This is your moment to look back on the past 90 days — reflect on what has gone well, what didn’t go so well — and then set intentions, goals, and plans for the next 90 days.

Four Key Questions for Your Quarterly Review

1. What does my behavior indicate that I value? Look carefully at the behaviors and actions you’ve taken in the past 12 weeks. Ask yourself: “If I was a stranger looking at this person’s life from the outside, what values would I assume this person has based on the behaviors they were engaging with?”
2. What psychological skill held me back this quarter? Look at your behavior and where there are commonalities across multiple actions. For example, if you frequently skipped the gym because you couldn’t generate motivation, maybe it’s time to work on your meta-motivational regulation skills.
3. What moments stuck out to me this quarter? What moments were filled with the most joy? What moments did I feel best about myself? We call these “tiny joys.” When looking at next quarter, always ask: How can I make more room in my schedule for these tiny joys?
4. What are the four values and four behaviors I want to prioritize over the next 90 days? This is our Core Four framework. Think about the values you weren’t necessarily embodying with your behavior — maybe you want to be more active or more present with your kids — write four of those down, then ask yourself: How can I actually enact those values on a daily basis?

Conclusion

That, my friend, is our Core Four framework! I promise if you implement this, it’s going to make a massive difference in your sense of fulfillment and your sense of leading an intentional life.

Let me know in the comments — did I sell you on quarterly planning? Are you going to take some time at the end of this quarter to answer these questions? I really hope you are, because I have personally seen it impact and change so many people in our membership and coaching program.

Thank you for reading, see you in the next one!