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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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Speaker 1: Today's tip is to write your own quarterly reports. Reflecting

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Speaker 1: on life every ninety days can be a great way

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Speaker 1: to keep big goals on track. If you follow the

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Speaker 1: financial news at all, you know that public companies tend

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Speaker 1: to issue reports every quarter on their earnings. This is

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Speaker 1: always a dance of expectations and reality. What will the

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Speaker 1: earnings per share be? Will that number rise or fall

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Speaker 1: by the amount analysts predict? Stock prices move a lot

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Speaker 1: based on this expectations game, which is one reason that

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Speaker 1: normal investors should probably pay this no mind and just

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Speaker 1: buy index funds and hold them for decades. But I

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Speaker 1: do think the idea of quarterly reports is a good one.

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Speaker 1: Ninety days is a long enough time frame to be meaningful,

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Speaker 1: but short enough to get your head around it. You

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Speaker 1: can see the landscape clearly in a way that is

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Speaker 1: hard to do with the very far future. That's why

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Speaker 1: I think writing quarterly reports for your own life can

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Speaker 1: be smart. This episode is first airing at the beginning

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Speaker 1: of April, which is the beginning of the second quarter.

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Speaker 1: The first quarter began on January one, of course, and

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Speaker 1: maybe that seems like a while ago, or maybe it doesn't,

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Speaker 1: but either way, it was approximately ninety days in the past,

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Speaker 1: more or less, and so you can think back over

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Speaker 1: the past ninety days and see what you think. How

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Speaker 1: did it go, what did you do, what did you enjoy?

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Speaker 1: Did anything happen that you didn't foresee? Did you make

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Speaker 1: progress towards any long term goals? Do you need to

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Speaker 1: change course on anything, or should you add or subtract

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Speaker 1: anything from your life based on first quarter performance? I

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Speaker 1: think for many people this exercise can actually feel quite motivating.

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Speaker 1: We wind up doing a lot over ninety days. This

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Speaker 1: is true even if day to day life can feel unproductive.

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Speaker 1: I have had a number of slow and incredibly frustrating

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Speaker 1: days since January one, but looking back, I see that

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Speaker 1: I also managed to move a family of seven into

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Speaker 1: a new house, run a time tracking challenge where four

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Speaker 1: thousand people track their time for a week, turn in

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Speaker 1: the manuscript of my next book, read eleven of Shakespeare's plays,

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Speaker 1: and do some fun stuff like going tubing, ice skating.

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Speaker 1: For good measure, reflect on what you accomplished, and allow

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Speaker 1: yourself to feel good about that you can also flect

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Speaker 1: on what you'd like to change. I didn't run as

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Speaker 1: much as I'd like to in the first quarter. I mean, yes,

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Speaker 1: it was cold and snowy much of the time, but

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Speaker 1: our treadmill didn't make the move, and our new house

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Speaker 1: is not as close to some running trails as the

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Speaker 1: old one. Now that I see how that played out

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Speaker 1: in my life, I know that I want to do

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Speaker 1: something about it as the weather improves. If I think

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Speaker 1: it through, I can get in my car and drive

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Speaker 1: five minutes to a trail and then run. Better to

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Speaker 1: do a shorter run that happens, rather than just not

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Speaker 1: do it at all. You might notice a particular pain

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Speaker 1: point that came up again and again over the last

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Speaker 1: ninety days. Is there something you could do in the

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Speaker 1: next ninety days to solve it? How can you continue

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Speaker 1: to make progress on your goals over the next ninety days.

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Speaker 1: The purpose of setting these intentions is to be even

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Speaker 1: more satisfied when you write your next quarterly report in

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Speaker 1: another ninety days or so. Companies issue quarterly reports to

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Speaker 1: be accountable to their shareholders. You want to be accountable

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Speaker 1: to yourself. Writing your own quarterly reports is one way

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Speaker 1: to do that, So what will you say in yours

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Speaker 1: In the meantime, This is Laura. Thanks for listening and

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Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,

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Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me

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Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with

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Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod.

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Speaker 1: That's b E the number four, then breakfast p o D.

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Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast

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Speaker 1: podcast at i heeart media dot com that Before Breakfast

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Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,

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Speaker 1: I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is

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Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from

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Speaker 1: I heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Ye