Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of my Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to consider setting quarterly resolutions instead of
Speaker 1: the usual annual New Year's ones. I love setting New
Speaker 1: Year's resolutions. There's something about the clean slate of a
Speaker 1: new calendar year that makes me want to set new goals.
Speaker 1: But like many people, my excitement about bright, shiny New
Speaker 1: Year's goals often exceeds my actual capacity to implement these changes.
Speaker 1: And that's why I love the idea, which I got
Speaker 1: several years ago from an entrepreneur named Angelo Gia Kim,
Speaker 1: to set quarterly resolutions. Basically, the idea is that instead
Speaker 1: of focusing only on the stuff you'll try in January,
Speaker 1: you set goals for each quarter of the year. You
Speaker 1: get a clean slate in January, April, July, and October.
Speaker 1: There are several upsides to this concept. For starters, you
Speaker 1: can set more goals. I tend to identify twelve, one
Speaker 1: for each quarter in the categories of career, relationships, and
Speaker 1: self even if you'd only set one or two each quarter.
Speaker 1: Though this can broaden the scope from the handful of
Speaker 1: things you tackle as new Year's resolutions. Even as you're
Speaker 1: setting more goals, though you can be more focused on
Speaker 1: each habits are always hardest at the beginning. Setting too
Speaker 1: many intentions means you dilute what might already be limited.
Speaker 1: Willpower better to go all in on, say, eating vegetables
Speaker 1: at lunch and dinner for ninety days and then tackling
Speaker 1: exercise first. Trying to work out and eat vegetables and
Speaker 1: get enough sleep and give up sugar sweetened drinks all
Speaker 1: at once. You've got a much better chance of actually
Speaker 1: sticking with something if it's the only change you're trying
Speaker 1: to make. Setting quarterly goals allows you to pace your self. Yes,
Speaker 1: you're acknowledging that exercise is important, and there's a time
Speaker 1: when you will address exercise, namely starting in April, not
Speaker 1: right now, while you're doing your best to add broccoli
Speaker 1: and kale to your grocery cart and menu rotation. Finally,
Speaker 1: ninety days might feel like a more doable time frame
Speaker 1: than a year for something that's more of a challenge
Speaker 1: than an actual ongoing resolution. For instance, I might set
Speaker 1: a career goal to revise a novel in Q two
Speaker 1: and come up with a new book idea in Q three.
Speaker 1: Both of these will eventually be done, and by assigning
Speaker 1: a time over the course of the year, I know
Speaker 1: I will get to both. And sometimes resolutions are better
Speaker 1: fits for some parts of the year than others. I'll
Speaker 1: talk in an upcoming episode about my resolution to get
Speaker 1: outside for twenty minutes a day. I really have no
Speaker 1: trouble doing this from say, July to October, when the
Speaker 1: weather is amenable, but its a lot harder from January
Speaker 1: to March, which is why this is a Q one
Speaker 1: resolution that I won't worry about so much once spring
Speaker 1: and summer come. In any case, if you like this idea,
Speaker 1: to take some time today to think about dividing what
Speaker 1: might be your annual New Year's resolutions into quarterly ones.
Speaker 1: Which will you tackle first, what's better suited to later
Speaker 1: parts of the year. Of course, if you're going to
Speaker 1: make quarterly resolutions, then you should probably write them somewhere
Speaker 1: where you'll be able to see them later. Maybe send
Speaker 1: yourself a calendar reminder for the last week of each
Speaker 1: quarter so you'll be able to handle the logistics necessary
Speaker 1: for tackling each resolution at its appropriate time. If you
Speaker 1: set fourth quarter goals and then completely forget about them
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter. That makes this a slightly less
Speaker 1: useful exercise, although it must be said sometimes life changes
Speaker 1: enough that revisiting goals each quarter makes sense because they
Speaker 1: know longer makes sense for your life. Maybe you plan
Speaker 1: to renovate your house in the fourth quarter, but you've
Speaker 1: got a great new job in the second quarter that's
Speaker 1: going to require moving, so it goes we can change.
Speaker 1: But in general I find that while people overestimate what
Speaker 1: they can do in the short run, they underestimate what
Speaker 1: they can do in the long run. By setting small
Speaker 1: quarterly goals, these can become cumulative. A year from now,
Speaker 1: you could be in great shape, or on track for
Speaker 1: getting out of debt, or no longer smoking, or all
Speaker 1: of the above. And given how many people don't keep
Speaker 1: annual New Year's resolutions, that would be a pretty impressive outcome.
Speaker 1: Do you set quarterly goals? I'd love to hear about it.
Speaker 1: You can email me at Before Breakfast podcast at i
Speaker 1: hurt media dot com. In the meantime, this is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. M Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
Speaker 1: Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast pod. That's b E the number four, then
Speaker 1: Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me an
Speaker 1: email at Before Breakfast podcast. At i heeart media dot
Speaker 1: com that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio. For
Speaker 1: more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i heart
Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
Speaker 1: favorite shows.