Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to write your own quarterly reports. Reflecting
Speaker 1: on life every ninety days can be a great way
Speaker 1: to keep big goals on track. If you follow the
Speaker 1: financial news at all, you know that public companies tend
Speaker 1: to issue reports every quarter on their earnings. This is
Speaker 1: always a dance of expectations and reality. What will the
Speaker 1: earnings per share be? Will that number rise or fall
Speaker 1: by the amount analysts predict? Stock prices move a lot
Speaker 1: based on this expectations game, which is one reason that
Speaker 1: normal investors should probably pay this no mind and just
Speaker 1: buy index funds and hold them for decades. But I
Speaker 1: do think the idea of quarterly reports is a good one.
Speaker 1: Ninety days is a long enough time frame to be meaningful,
Speaker 1: but short enough to get your head around it. You
Speaker 1: can see the landscape clearly in a way that is
Speaker 1: hard to do with the very far future. That's why
Speaker 1: I think writing quarterly reports for your own life can
Speaker 1: be smart. This episode is first airing at the beginning
Speaker 1: of April, which is the beginning of the second quarter.
Speaker 1: The first quarter began on January one, of course, and
Speaker 1: maybe that seems like a while ago, or maybe it doesn't,
Speaker 1: but either way, it was approximately ninety days in the past,
Speaker 1: more or less, and so you can think back over
Speaker 1: the past ninety days and see what you think. How
Speaker 1: did it go, what did you do, what did you enjoy?
Speaker 1: Did anything happen that you didn't foresee? Did you make
Speaker 1: progress towards any long term goals? Do you need to
Speaker 1: change course on anything, or should you add or subtract
Speaker 1: anything from your life based on first quarter performance? I
Speaker 1: think for many people this exercise can actually feel quite motivating.
Speaker 1: We wind up doing a lot over ninety days. This
Speaker 1: is true even if day to day life can feel unproductive.
Speaker 1: I have had a number of slow and incredibly frustrating
Speaker 1: days since January one, but looking back, I see that
Speaker 1: I also managed to move a family of seven into
Speaker 1: a new house, run a time tracking challenge where four
Speaker 1: thousand people track their time for a week, turn in
Speaker 1: the manuscript of my next book, read eleven of Shakespeare's plays,
Speaker 1: and do some fun stuff like going tubing, ice skating.
Speaker 1: For good measure, reflect on what you accomplished, and allow
Speaker 1: yourself to feel good about that you can also flect
Speaker 1: on what you'd like to change. I didn't run as
Speaker 1: much as I'd like to in the first quarter. I mean, yes,
Speaker 1: it was cold and snowy much of the time, but
Speaker 1: our treadmill didn't make the move, and our new house
Speaker 1: is not as close to some running trails as the
Speaker 1: old one. Now that I see how that played out
Speaker 1: in my life, I know that I want to do
Speaker 1: something about it as the weather improves. If I think
Speaker 1: it through, I can get in my car and drive
Speaker 1: five minutes to a trail and then run. Better to
Speaker 1: do a shorter run that happens, rather than just not
Speaker 1: do it at all. You might notice a particular pain
Speaker 1: point that came up again and again over the last
Speaker 1: ninety days. Is there something you could do in the
Speaker 1: next ninety days to solve it? How can you continue
Speaker 1: to make progress on your goals over the next ninety days.
Speaker 1: The purpose of setting these intentions is to be even
Speaker 1: more satisfied when you write your next quarterly report in
Speaker 1: another ninety days or so. Companies issue quarterly reports to
Speaker 1: be accountable to their shareholders. You want to be accountable
Speaker 1: to yourself. Writing your own quarterly reports is one way
Speaker 1: to do that, So what will you say in yours
Speaker 1: In the meantime, This is Laura. Thanks for listening and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod.
Speaker 1: That's b E the number four, then breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: podcast at i heeart media dot com that Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,
Speaker 1: I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from
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