The case for quarterly goals

90-day goals can be better than annual ones

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of my Heart Radio.
Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is to consider setting quarterly resolutions instead of
the usual annual New Year's ones. I love setting New

(00:23):
Year's resolutions. There's something about the clean slate of a
new calendar year that makes me want to set new goals.
But like many people, my excitement about bright, shiny New
Year's goals often exceeds my actual capacity to implement these changes.
And that's why I love the idea, which I got
several years ago from an entrepreneur named Angelo Gia Kim,

(00:45):
to set quarterly resolutions. Basically, the idea is that instead
of focusing only on the stuff you'll try in January,
you set goals for each quarter of the year. You
get a clean slate in January, April, July, and October.
There are several upsides to this concept. For starters, you
can set more goals. I tend to identify twelve, one

(01:09):
for each quarter in the categories of career, relationships, and
self even if you'd only set one or two each quarter.
Though this can broaden the scope from the handful of
things you tackle as new Year's resolutions. Even as you're
setting more goals, though you can be more focused on
each habits are always hardest at the beginning. Setting too

(01:31):
many intentions means you dilute what might already be limited.
Willpower better to go all in on, say, eating vegetables
at lunch and dinner for ninety days and then tackling
exercise first. Trying to work out and eat vegetables and
get enough sleep and give up sugar sweetened drinks all
at once. You've got a much better chance of actually

(01:52):
sticking with something if it's the only change you're trying
to make. Setting quarterly goals allows you to pace your self. Yes,
you're acknowledging that exercise is important, and there's a time
when you will address exercise, namely starting in April, not
right now, while you're doing your best to add broccoli

(02:14):
and kale to your grocery cart and menu rotation. Finally,
ninety days might feel like a more doable time frame
than a year for something that's more of a challenge
than an actual ongoing resolution. For instance, I might set
a career goal to revise a novel in Q two
and come up with a new book idea in Q three.

(02:35):
Both of these will eventually be done, and by assigning
a time over the course of the year, I know
I will get to both. And sometimes resolutions are better
fits for some parts of the year than others. I'll
talk in an upcoming episode about my resolution to get
outside for twenty minutes a day. I really have no

(02:55):
trouble doing this from say, July to October, when the
weather is amenable, but its a lot harder from January
to March, which is why this is a Q one
resolution that I won't worry about so much once spring
and summer come. In any case, if you like this idea,
to take some time today to think about dividing what
might be your annual New Year's resolutions into quarterly ones.

(03:20):
Which will you tackle first, what's better suited to later
parts of the year. Of course, if you're going to
make quarterly resolutions, then you should probably write them somewhere
where you'll be able to see them later. Maybe send
yourself a calendar reminder for the last week of each
quarter so you'll be able to handle the logistics necessary
for tackling each resolution at its appropriate time. If you

(03:43):
set fourth quarter goals and then completely forget about them
in the fourth quarter. That makes this a slightly less
useful exercise, although it must be said sometimes life changes
enough that revisiting goals each quarter makes sense because they
know longer makes sense for your life. Maybe you plan
to renovate your house in the fourth quarter, but you've

(04:05):
got a great new job in the second quarter that's
going to require moving, so it goes we can change.
But in general I find that while people overestimate what
they can do in the short run, they underestimate what
they can do in the long run. By setting small
quarterly goals, these can become cumulative. A year from now,

(04:27):
you could be in great shape, or on track for
getting out of debt, or no longer smoking, or all
of the above. And given how many people don't keep
annual New Year's resolutions, that would be a pretty impressive outcome.
Do you set quarterly goals? I'd love to hear about it.
You can email me at Before Breakfast podcast at i

(04:48):
hurt media dot com. In the meantime, this is Laura.
Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
our time. M Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.
You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.

(05:09):
Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at
Before Breakfast pod. That's b E the number four, then
Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me an
email at Before Breakfast podcast. At i heeart media dot
com that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.

(05:36):
Before Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio. For
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