Have you ever wished you could write your happy ending? In this solo episode, I'm pulling back the curtain on a personal practice that has been a game-changer for me over the last decade: the quarterly review.
I share how a simple, strategic process, born from my days in program management, can help you track your progress and design a life and career that lights you up.
If you're ready to move from simply having goals to living them, this one's for you.
Chapters
00:00 A Look Back: On Growth
02:50 You Don't Have to Be Perfect to Be Valuable
05:22 The Power of a Quarterly Review
08:08 Writing Your Own Happy Ending
11:05 The Quarterly Check-In: A How-To Guide
12:15 The 7 Questions for Self-Reflection
15:10 Action, Obstacles, and Accountability
16:25 The Magic of a Supportive Partner
17:50 Final Thoughts and Encouragement
To follow along and to create your own Quarterly Review be sure to download the PDF handout her:
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Follow on Instagram: @martine.severin | @thisishowwecreate_
Subscribe to the Newsletter: www.martineseverin.substack.com
This is How We Create is produced by Martine Severin. This episode was edited by Daniel Espinosa.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to This Is How We Create, a show that digs deeper into the creative life ofcontemporary artists of color.
Discover what feeds their creativity and how they found or are finding their artisticvoice.
Through these intimate and candid conversations, you'll gain insights into the lives ofcreative professionals of color that are hard to find anywhere else.
(00:22):
Hello, friends.
Welcome back to This Is How We Create.
My name is Martine Severn.
I am your host.
Today, we are going to be focusing on a solo episode where we'll talk about how to createa quarterly review, either for your own personal life or for your business, as long as you
(00:43):
have goals to measure and are looking to understand what you accomplished in the year andhow you can use that data to influence what you plan for next year.
This episode is the one for you.
For me, at the end of each quarter,
I take two hours of my time to complete a personal and professional progress report.
(01:05):
I use this time to reflect on the goals that I made at the beginning of the year and togauge my progress so far.
Then in November, I gather and reread the reports that I created for each quarter tocreate a plan for the following years.
I've been using this process for 10 years now.
(01:28):
And I'm always amazed by how much fun it is to be in tune with what you want in life andhow rewarding it is to see those things come to be.
So the backstory for this process started years ago when I was a program manager at anonprofit housed at Harvard University.
In that position, the team and I launched countless programs over several years beforestarting a new program
(01:54):
We created a program description, a plan to how to achieve our ends, and detailed theneeded metrics to measure our success.
Similarly, when we wrapped a project, we would do a project recap or a postpartum, as weused to say, to identify what worked, what didn't work, and one of the best practices we
(02:16):
learned.
Each quarter, we wrote a short internal report to summarize project updates.
Now these reports didn't necessarily need to go to anybody else.
It was just a way for us to capture data, to capture information, so I would inform whatwe do in the following year.
So you can guess, I came to fall in love with strategic planning and even got acertificate in strategic planning at Harvard.
(02:47):
You know, it was only a matter of time until your girl started implementing
the same strategic process that I learned then into my own life.
And here is why I use the fundamentals of strategic planning in my life.
And I'm hoping you fall in love with this process too.
I am an avid reader and it's one of my greatest joys in life.
(03:10):
Every once in a while, I love to pick up a romance novel.
Why?
Because you know, at the end of the story, everyone's going to have a happy ending, or atleast the main characters will have a happy ending.
One day it just occurred to me, what if I could write my own happy ending?
What if I could write what my goals are and figure out exactly how I can get to where Iwant to go?
(03:32):
Kind of like a book.
So that's how I started really.
I would write out the results I would want in my life.
Now I wanna give you a metaphor.
So imagine that you're going on a road trip.
You start out knowing your destination and you figure out which route you'll take and youmake
plans for pit stops and detours along the way.
(03:53):
Heck, you might even put aside a bit of emergency money as a contingency plan in casethings go awry.
Steadily, despite pit stops or detour here and there, you're bound to arrive at yourdestination.
So in the same vein, a strategic plan helps me determine where I am in my journey.
(04:16):
It helps me identify what's important.
It helps me figure out the actions I need to take to get further along in my journey andput in processes for accountability as well.
Having a plan clears headspace for me so that my anxiety doesn't enjoy the spotlight atcenter stage.
(04:38):
Rather, I focus on doing and executing on the things and the actions that are going to getme closer to
what my goal is, as well as leaving room for fun and leaving room for excitement to happenand for detours as well.
(05:00):
If we're still using that road trip metaphor, if your car breaks down, you wouldn't simplyopen the hood and take out the gears and filters and you'll start unscrewing anything.
Can you tell that I don't know much about cars?
Anyway, so if your car breaks down,
you'll either fix it or you'll call roadside assistance or a mechanic will likely do adiagnostic prior to fixing anything.
(05:27):
I use the quarterly check-in in my business and in my personal life.
And let me tell you a secret, my husband and I use it as well to keep our marriage ontrack.
So the process is really magical, particularly since it makes you focus on the things thatreally matter.
Since you're focusing on the things that matter,
(05:48):
your success and the things that are important to you are a foregone conclusion, right?
Are you excited?
I'm so excited.
Okay.
Let's get into the nitty gritty about the quarterly check-in itself.
At the beginning of the year, I set a big audacious goal, like something huge, but doable.
(06:09):
And I use the quarterly check-in to stay on the course.
To start, I make the quarterly check-in as fun as possible.
because it's important for me to make my mind associate pleasure and newness andexcitement with reviewing where I've been.
I'll generally take myself to a lovely cafe or a restaurant or a sunny corner of my house,or even I'll do this uh while I am on vacation.
(06:41):
I bring colored pencils, I bring notebooks, I bring a pad of paper.
uh
Post-its, I bring a lot of different goodies because I never quite know where my mind willtake me in terms of notes that I want to write for the future.
And I start by reviewing the check-ins that I did for the first and for the secondquarter.
(07:06):
And the reason I do this is because a year goes by really quickly, but at the same time itdoesn't.
For the check-in, I asked myself seven questions in total.
And don't worry about taking notes on this as you maybe in the car or you're going on awalk or maybe you're washing dishes or doing laundry.
I have a handy dandy download for you to check out in the show notes so you can downloadthe worksheet that goes along with this episode.
(07:36):
The first thing that I do, I go over what my goals were for the year.
In very broad strokes, I wrote down my three goals.
And those three goals could be anything from increased revenue by X percent, uhcollaborate on X number of photo shoots, and it could also be focusing on marketing in
(07:59):
very specific ways so that I can increase my business and I can increase my client base.
Regardless though, I focus on three goals for the year.
And why do I do that?
Honestly, there's not really a good reason.
I just keep going back to the KISS method, know, keeping it simple, stupid, because whenyou try to focus on too much, you get stressed out, you stretch your resources, and you
(08:29):
dilute your efforts all around.
So I found that three is a really good way to do it.
And generally, I will, I square by the three and.
That's why we do three.
If you want to do more, if you tend to focus on more, certainly you can do more than threegoals in the review.
(08:49):
Okay, first we talk about what my goals were for the year.
And the next thing I do is I list out the steps that I've taken to achieve my goal.
It's great to have goals, but if you're not doing anything for them, if you're not doinganything to achieve the ends,
of your goal, then there's not really any point is there.
(09:10):
So this is the point where I list out the steps that I've taken.
And it might be that every in a quarter, I've only worked on one thing.
I've only taken one step and some quarters have done everything.
Rarely, it's only happened once, it's rare, but whatever it is that has happened in youryear, be honest with yourself because that's the whole point of this check in with
(09:35):
yourself.
You have to be honest because that honesty will help you see what you need to do next andhow you need to grow.
One thing to remember about this process is to be gracious.
Don't judge yourself too harshly.
The goal for this review is to be impartial and act as if you are a third party,non-judgmental third party who's just writing out a review of what has happened.
(10:06):
in a person's life.
Next, I'd like you to write a quick list or a paragraph, depending on your mood, on whatare the three actions you need to take to bring you closer to achieving your quarter's
goal or heck, this year's goal.
Whatever the actions are, just write them down because let's face it, action is king.
(10:30):
We can talk about executing on our goals or we can create busy work, but
until we make meaningful action, we won't get closer to our milestones.
Next, let's talk about some of the things that are getting in the way of you achievingyour goals.
If I'm being honest, at times I pick up bad habits that I must break in order to besuccessful in what I've set out to do.
(10:57):
I find that it's a really great idea even during this review process to take a few minutesto think about
How are you making your life harder?
What are the things that you're doing that is standing in your way?
And so from there, you try to find a solution and you stick with it.
The last part of the review is to share your review with an accountability partner orperhaps with a friend, a mentor or a significant other.
(11:26):
The goal is to fill that person in with what you've accomplished.
and more importantly, to set a date on the calendar to follow up with them about whatyou've set out to do.
We haven't talked about smart systems as we've gone through the review and usually throughthe process of creating the review, I tend to embed smart goals, but in a very not so uh
(11:54):
rigorous way.
And if you haven't heard of smart goals, essentially whatever goals you have,
have to be specific, they have to be measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound,meaning that the goal should be very precise with no room for interpretation.
So you try to always come up with goals that are specific, measurable, achievable,relevant, and time-bound.
(12:20):
In our case, we're just doing a review, which assumes that when you create your goal foryour strategic plan for the year,
Last thing I want to say about the accountability partner, just be sure that whoeveryou're sharing your review with is someone who is very supportive, someone who's got your
(12:42):
back, and someone who wants the best for you.
That's it.
So you'll find the download link to the worksheet in the show notes.
Please take a look, have a go, fill it out.
All right, I'll see you later.
Bye.
There I have a quick favor to ask you before you go.
(13:04):
If you're loving the show, would you mind taking a quick second to leave us a five starreview on your favorite go to podcast app?
Here's the thing.
Those reviews are like magic fairy dust.
They help other creators of color discover our show and tap into their own artisticsuperpowers.
(13:25):
While you're at it, why not subscribe to our subs tech
newsletter Creative Matters.
Creative Matters is like a weekly dose of inspiration delivered straight to your inbox.
You can find the link to subscribe in the show notes.
Alright, that's all that I have for you today.
(13:45):
I can't wait to see you on the next episode.
Bye.
Welcome to This Is How We Create, a show that digs deeper into the creative life ofcontemporary artists of color.
Discover what feeds their creativity and how they found or are finding their artisticvoice.
Through these intimate and candid conversations, you'll gain insights into the lives ofcreative professionals of color that are hard to find anywhere else.
(00:22):
Hello, friends.
Welcome back to This Is How We Create.
My name is Martine Severn.
I am your host.
Today, we are going to be focusing on a solo episode where we'll talk about how to createa quarterly review, either for your own personal life or for your business, as long as you
(00:43):
have goals to measure and are looking to understand what you accomplished in the year andhow you can use that data to influence what you plan for next year.
This episode is the one for you.
For me, at the end of each quarter,
I take two hours of my time to complete a personal and professional progress report.
(01:05):
I use this time to reflect on the goals that I made at the beginning of the year and togauge my progress so far.
Then in November, I gather and reread the reports that I created for each quarter tocreate a plan for the following years.
I've been using this process for 10 years now.
(01:28):
And I'm always amazed by how much fun it is to be in tune with what you want in life andhow rewarding it is to see those things come to be.
So the backstory for this process started years ago when I was a program manager at anonprofit housed at Harvard University.
In that position, the team and I launched countless programs over several years beforestarting a new program
(01:54):
We created a program description, a plan to how to achieve our ends, and detailed theneeded metrics to measure our success.
Similarly, when we wrapped a project, we would do a project recap or a postpartum, as weused to say, to identify what worked, what didn't work, and one of the best practices we
(02:16):
learned.
Each quarter, we wrote a short internal report to summarize project updates.
Now these reports didn't necessarily need to go to anybody else.
It was just a way for us to capture data, to capture information, so I would inform whatwe do in the following year.
So you can guess, I came to fall in love with strategic planning and even got acertificate in strategic planning at Harvard.
(02:47):
You know, it was only a matter of time until your girl started implementing
the same strategic process that I learned then into my own life.
And here is why I use the fundamentals of strategic planning in my life.
And I'm hoping you fall in love with this process too.
I am an avid reader and it's one of my greatest joys in life.
(03:10):
Every once in a while, I love to pick up a romance novel.
Why?
Because you know, at the end of the story, everyone's going to have a happy ending, or atleast the main characters will have a happy ending.
One day it just occurred to me, what if I could write my own happy ending?
What if I could write what my goals are and figure out exactly how I can get to where Iwant to go?
(03:32):
Kind of like a book.
So that's how I started really.
I would write out the results I would want in my life.
Now I wanna give you a metaphor.
So imagine that you're going on a road trip.
You start out knowing your destination and you figure out which route you'll take and youmake
plans for pit stops and detours along the way.
(03:53):
Heck, you might even put aside a bit of emergency money as a contingency plan in casethings go awry.
Steadily, despite pit stops or detour here and there, you're bound to arrive at yourdestination.
So in the same vein, a strategic plan helps me determine where I am in my journey.
(04:16):
It helps me identify what's important.
It helps me figure out the actions I need to take to get further along in my journey andput in processes for accountability as well.
Having a plan clears headspace for me so that my anxiety doesn't enjoy the spotlight atcenter stage.
(04:38):
Rather, I focus on doing and executing on the things and the actions that are going to getme closer to
what my goal is, as well as leaving room for fun and leaving room for excitement to happenand for detours as well.
(05:00):
If we're still using that road trip metaphor, if your car breaks down, you wouldn't simplyopen the hood and take out the gears and filters and you'll start unscrewing anything.
Can you tell that I don't know much about cars?
Anyway, so if your car breaks down,
you'll either fix it or you'll call roadside assistance or a mechanic will likely do adiagnostic prior to fixing anything.
(05:27):
I use the quarterly check-in in my business and in my personal life.
And let me tell you a secret, my husband and I use it as well to keep our marriage ontrack.
So the process is really magical, particularly since it makes you focus on the things thatreally matter.
Since you're focusing on the things that matter,
(05:48):
your success and the things that are important to you are a foregone conclusion, right?
Are you excited?
I'm so excited.
Okay.
Let's get into the nitty gritty about the quarterly check-in itself.
At the beginning of the year, I set a big audacious goal, like something huge, but doable.
(06:09):
And I use the quarterly check-in to stay on the course.
To start, I make the quarterly check-in as fun as possible.
because it's important for me to make my mind associate pleasure and newness andexcitement with reviewing where I've been.
I'll generally take myself to a lovely cafe or a restaurant or a sunny corner of my house,or even I'll do this uh while I am on vacation.
(06:41):
I bring colored pencils, I bring notebooks, I bring a pad of paper.
uh
Post-its, I bring a lot of different goodies because I never quite know where my mind willtake me in terms of notes that I want to write for the future.
And I start by reviewing the check-ins that I did for the first and for the secondquarter.
(07:06):
And the reason I do this is because a year goes by really quickly, but at the same time itdoesn't.
For the check-in, I asked myself seven questions in total.
And don't worry about taking notes on this as you maybe in the car or you're going on awalk or maybe you're washing dishes or doing laundry.
I have a handy dandy download for you to check out in the show notes so you can downloadthe worksheet that goes along with this episode.
(07:36):
The first thing that I do, I go over what my goals were for the year.
In very broad strokes, I wrote down my three goals.
And those three goals could be anything from increased revenue by X percent, uhcollaborate on X number of photo shoots, and it could also be focusing on marketing in
(07:59):
very specific ways so that I can increase my business and I can increase my client base.
Regardless though, I focus on three goals for the year.
And why do I do that?
Honestly, there's not really a good reason.
I just keep going back to the KISS method, know, keeping it simple, stupid, because whenyou try to focus on too much, you get stressed out, you stretch your resources, and you
(08:29):
dilute your efforts all around.
So I found that three is a really good way to do it.
And generally, I will, I square by the three and.
That's why we do three.
If you want to do more, if you tend to focus on more, certainly you can do more than threegoals in the review.
(08:49):
Okay, first we talk about what my goals were for the year.
And the next thing I do is I list out the steps that I've taken to achieve my goal.
It's great to have goals, but if you're not doing anything for them, if you're not doinganything to achieve the ends,
of your goal, then there's not really any point is there.
(09:10):
So this is the point where I list out the steps that I've taken.
And it might be that every in a quarter, I've only worked on one thing.
I've only taken one step and some quarters have done everything.
Rarely, it's only happened once, it's rare, but whatever it is that has happened in youryear, be honest with yourself because that's the whole point of this check in with
(09:35):
yourself.
You have to be honest because that honesty will help you see what you need to do next andhow you need to grow.
One thing to remember about this process is to be gracious.
Don't judge yourself too harshly.
The goal for this review is to be impartial and act as if you are a third party,non-judgmental third party who's just writing out a review of what has happened.
(10:06):
in a person's life.
Next, I'd like you to write a quick list or a paragraph, depending on your mood, on whatare the three actions you need to take to bring you closer to achieving your quarter's
goal or heck, this year's goal.
Whatever the actions are, just write them down because let's face it, action is king.
(10:30):
We can talk about executing on our goals or we can create busy work, but
until we make meaningful action, we won't get closer to our milestones.
Next, let's talk about some of the things that are getting in the way of you achievingyour goals.
If I'm being honest, at times I pick up bad habits that I must break in order to besuccessful in what I've set out to do.
(10:57):
I find that it's a really great idea even during this review process to take a few minutesto think about
How are you making your life harder?
What are the things that you're doing that is standing in your way?
And so from there, you try to find a solution and you stick with it.
The last part of the review is to share your review with an accountability partner orperhaps with a friend, a mentor or a significant other.
(11:26):
The goal is to fill that person in with what you've accomplished.
and more importantly, to set a date on the calendar to follow up with them about whatyou've set out to do.
We haven't talked about smart systems as we've gone through the review and usually throughthe process of creating the review, I tend to embed smart goals, but in a very not so uh
(11:54):
rigorous way.
And if you haven't heard of smart goals, essentially whatever goals you have,
have to be specific, they have to be measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound,meaning that the goal should be very precise with no room for interpretation.
So you try to always come up with goals that are specific, measurable, achievable,relevant, and time-bound.
(12:20):
In our case, we're just doing a review, which assumes that when you create your goal foryour strategic plan for the year,
Last thing I want to say about the accountability partner, just be sure that whoeveryou're sharing your review with is someone who is very supportive, someone who's got your
(12:42):
back, and someone who wants the best for you.
That's it.
So you'll find the download link to the worksheet in the show notes.
Please take a look, have a go, fill it out.
All right, I'll see you later.
Bye.
There I have a quick favor to ask you before you go.
(13:04):
If you're loving the show, would you mind taking a quick second to leave us a five starreview on your favorite go to podcast app?
Here's the thing.
Those reviews are like magic fairy dust.
They help other creators of color discover our show and tap into their own artisticsuperpowers.
(13:25):
While you're at it, why not subscribe to our subs tech
newsletter Creative Matters.
Creative Matters is like a weekly dose of inspiration delivered straight to your inbox.
You can find the link to subscribe in the show notes.
Alright, that's all that I have for you today.
(13:45):
I can't wait to see you on the next episode.
Bye.
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