272. 6 Questions to Level Up Your Next Quarter

Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] Ken: Marissa, can you believe it’s almost the end of the first quarter?

[00:00:05] Marissa: No.

[00:00:08] Ken: I feel like that happens so fast. We’re almost 90 days into 2025, but I feel like we still have one, so much time left on the clock, but I still have so much time left on my goals that I want to accomplish, which is really exciting.

[00:00:21] Marissa: It’s really true. We have a lot of time left. I like to think of these quarters as almost like And so when we come up on a new quarter, it’s almost like we’re coming up on like a mini new year. I love that. I feel like what we have today is going to be so good because it’s going to help you guys just kind of take inventory for all the things that have happened over the last quarter and then really start to look ahead for this next quarter.

[00:00:49] And it’s such a good process, even if you’re not at all where you thought you would be by this point in the year, or maybe you’re farther than you thought, and you’re really motivated and ready to [00:01:00] keep it going. I just love this. I love a fresh start effect and we’re right at the end of the first quarter.

[00:01:06] And so it’s time to hit the reset button and make. Q2, just as amazing as we possibly can. And we’re going into summer, which is really exciting. Like this is going to be part of summer is Q2. I always feel like that feels rejuvenating and just good. You know, it’s like, okay, the dark dreary months are behind us and we’re entering into the light.

[00:01:27] So I’m so excited.

[00:01:29] Ken: So that’s why this episode today, we’re going to be talking about six questions to level up your next quarter. Let’s go.

[00:01:40] Welcome to another episode of Focus on This. This is the most productive podcast on the internet, so you can banish distractions, get the right stuff done, and finally start loving Mondays. I’m Ken Freire and I’m here with my amazing co host, Marissa Hyatt.

[00:01:55] Marissa: Hey, happy Monday.

[00:01:56] Ken: Happy Monday. Q2’s [00:02:00] almost here.

[00:02:00] Marissa: I know, it’s like the end of March and I’m so stinking happy.

[00:02:05] I mean, I always love Q1 because it feels exciting and we come out really strong usually into the new year. Usually midway, we may kind of lose our way a little bit. We probably mostly found our way back or we’re starting to, but Q2, I just really love. It feels like somehow it gets easier in Q2. It just feels easier in life.

[00:02:29] It’s lighter, longer during the days. So I feel more personally motivated throughout the day and I’m just so excited. So I can’t wait because today we’re going to be talking about kind of looking back and then also looking forward. So looking back on where we’ve come within the last quarter, where are we want to go in this next quarter?

[00:02:47] And so no matter what kind of quarter you’ve had for Q1, I just want to invite you right now that today is a new day. We get to hit the reset button and we’re going to help you do this. Um, now this is [00:03:00] baked into our quarterly preview process in the full focus planner. So if you have that, you’re, you already have a leg up.

[00:03:07] If you don’t, don’t worry. We’re going to walk you through this. And this is so good. This is such a beautiful invitation for this next quarter to make it even better than this last quarter and just recalibrate and get off on the right foot.

[00:03:21] Ken: Yeah. So let’s jump into it. Let’s talk about question number one that you want to ask to make sure you’re on the right foot is where am I doing better than I think?

[00:03:30] And here’s why this is really important. It’s so easy to get lost sight of our wins. Right, like us as high achievers, especially struggle with this, we’re wanting to press right into the next thing. We don’t stop to actually smell the roses. We don’t stop to actually enjoy what we’ve accomplished. We’re like, nope, that’s accomplished.

[00:03:48] Let’s move on to the next thing or you’re critical and you’re like, these are all the things I’ve done wrong.

[00:03:53] Marissa: I love doing this every single quarter because it’s so easy to forget what you did. I don’t know about [00:04:00] you, but like, I can’t even remember. I’m like, what even happened to you? I don’t even know, you know, at this point.

[00:04:05] And so to be able to like, look back and be like, Oh my gosh, I did pretty darn good. Even if it’s been a really tough season for you, let’s say Q1 was really hard. You actually probably are doing way better than you think. And this specific question is going to be really important for you. We want you to be focusing on what went well and having that sense of gratitude right out of that, that gate and just feeling overwhelmed with.

[00:04:33] Kind of joy of like, gosh, like how amazing, how far have I come? You know, what are the things that I accomplished? What are some wins that I had? Like some highlights.

[00:04:42] Yeah.

[00:04:42] Marissa: Just want to encourage you here. If you’re struggling, if you’re kind of like, I don’t even remember, or I don’t really know where to start with this.

[00:04:48] There’s a few great places that I tend to look back at when I’m trying to answer this question. I look over my calendar because that will remind you what you actually did. If you’re anything like me, it’s easy to forget what you did last week. And [00:05:00] so this is helpful. And then the other thing is your camera roll.

[00:05:03] So go into your phone and look at all the things that you did over, you know, since January 1st, what did you do? What are the pictures that you took? You could totally make this into a fun challenge. I know people who’ve done this where they do like one photo a day and it could be like of anything, but just some way to capture kind of like a visual representation of that day.

[00:05:24] And it really helps you to be able to flip back through those photos and realize just how many wins that you had, whether it was personal, work related, family related, no matter what it is, there’s a lot more happening that you’re doing right than you probably think.

[00:05:39] Ken: 100%. And, and if you don’t do either one of those and you’re using the planner, take a few minutes to like look through every single day and look at how many of your daily big threes you’ve accomplished and your weekly big threes you’ve accomplished.

[00:05:51] And the most important part, your daily wins. Cause sometimes we just forget and it’s like, Oh, I did that. I did that. A couple of weeks ago, I was looking through my, my [00:06:00] planner and I was trying to look at all my daily wins in January. And it was fun to see how there were days where I was just crushing it at work.

[00:06:08] And I was like, Oh, I met my goals there. And I met my goals there. And I was just so ecstatic. And then, uh, Scotty, who’s one of our success coaches, right? I wrote one of my daily wins, like seeing him thrive.

[00:06:18] Marissa: Wow, because

[00:06:19] Ken: of one of the days he just like did an amazing job, right? And I was just like dude, I get to be a part of this team.

[00:06:24] That’s so phenomenal. That’s winning and helping other people succeed So I just saw those successes because I stopped and looked at my planner.

[00:06:31] Marissa: That’s such a good tip So look at your calendar. Look at your planner. Look at your photo real, you know Look through all of those things to just remind yourself.

[00:06:40] Yeah, how much went right? in Q1. It’s easy to focus on what was challenging or what didn’t happen, you know, or where things went off the rails, but we want you intentionally right out of the gate to start with what went right this quarter. Question two is what small shifts will make a [00:07:00] big difference in my success?

[00:07:02] So this is when you’re noticing kind of what’s not working that could change to impact My results. Okay. Now it’s important to say here that we don’t want you to shame yourself. Like this isn’t a time to be hard on yourself and try to correct all kinds of things and whatever. This is where we want you to just notice what is happening.

[00:07:24] Where are those small shifts that you can make that would just have a dramatic impact on your success. So it might be something as simple as like something that you want to stop doing. So it could be, we’ve talked about this in previous episodes. Maybe it’s staying up late. You know, maybe that’s consistent for you and it’s just not having a positive impact on your success.

[00:07:44] Maybe it’s snacking at night or during the day. Like that is something I really did my best in Q1 to stop doing. And, you know, it really did make a big impact for me. Maybe it’s something that you want to start doing. [00:08:00] So this could be, you know, a bedtime ritual. This could be meal planning. There’s so many things that you could start doing.

[00:08:06] Or maybe it’s just something that you want to improve, that you want to make better, that you already are doing, but you want it to be better.

[00:08:12] Ken: And don’t forsake the, these small little beginnings or small changes that you’re making. At the beginning of January, I decided to give up dairy. For this quarter.

[00:08:23] And I, I love dairy. It’s my comfort food.

[00:08:27] Marissa: Cheese is life.

[00:08:29] Ken: Exactly. I was like, Oh, cheese and carbs, like put together. It’s like, I’m in heaven, but I decided like, I want my health to be as best as possible.

[00:08:38] I

[00:08:39] Ken: optimized. So. I decided to give it up. I know, I know how it affects me. I think Marissa, I was telling you how Terry affects me.

[00:08:45] We might’ve recorded it. It was offline. I can’t remember, but it affects me a certain way. Right. So I gave it up for this quarter. So don’t forsake the small beginnings.

[00:08:53] Marissa: Now, as you look back, what are you learning, you know, that could empower you moving forward, that you [00:09:00] feel like fuels your success. And then what are some things that you noticed that hinder your success and how does that Change how you want to approach this next quarter.

[00:09:10] So just again the invitation here is to notice It’s not to shame yourself beat yourself up for all the things you’re not doing or you’re not doing well enough or consistent enough or Whatever. It may be fill in the blank. We just want to notice so that we can Make those small shifts in q2 That’s really the whole goal here is like setting yourself up for success.

[00:09:32] And so the truth is, it’s usually those small changes that actually have a really dramatic impact. We often think it has to be these huge changes in our lives, and it could be something as simple as implementing an evening ritual that is 20 minutes long, that totally changed how you, how you’re able to wind down for the evening.

[00:09:52] And that totally shifts how you show up the next morning. And that’s a small shift you can make. So whatever that might be for you, [00:10:00] ask yourself the question, what small shifts will make a big difference in my success?

[00:10:04] Ken: And if you’re having trouble trying to figure out those small shifts, then question number three might be able to help you determine those.

[00:10:10] And that’s, what are the, my most important priorities in the next 90 days?

[00:10:15] Marissa: Yeah, this is good.

[00:10:17] Ken: This is really good because your goals are definitely on this list, right? You want to make sure you’re thinking about them, and you may want to revise them. Some of them are going to change, some of them you’re going to keep the same, and others you may be like, I’ve accomplished it, congratulations, and you want to add some things.

[00:10:33] When you start to prioritize what you want to do in the 90 days, then you may know what things you may need to change in your life, right? This may also, when you think about prioritizing for the next 90 days, this might also be big projects or big events that are coming up, right? It might be traveling, especially because the summer is coming.

[00:10:51] A lot of you may be traveling. It might be anniversaries. It might be birthdays, it might be weddings, something’s going to come up that you want to start planning for and [00:11:00] be mindful of that. So certain things are going to need to change.

[00:11:03] The

[00:11:03] Ken: other thing that you may want to do during the next 90 days is just like review your values.

[00:11:08] I think this is a perfect time to just assess and see like, am I doing what really matters most in my life and how I want to live my life? And if it’s not, readjust. It’s okay. I think these are the moments when you getting focused on what matters informs how you spend your resources, like your time, money, and energy, and where you ultimately want to go.

[00:11:32] So make sure you just pause and say, what really does matter in the next 90 days?

[00:11:37] Marissa: I think this is where a lot of people go wrong in this process, you know, is, Everybody tends to do these things on like January 1st, right? We all are getting clear on what our priorities are going to be for the year. What are our goals?

[00:11:52] What do we want to accomplish? You know, we may look at our values or things like that, but we get three months in and we kind of forgot all [00:12:00] about them. And this is where you get, again, to hit the reset button and just say, what really matters to me for this next quarter? Just the next 90 days, what am I going to prioritize for the next 90 days?

[00:12:23] Question number four is what rhythms are absolutely essential to my flourishing? I love this question. Again, we want to help you be set up for perfect success as best you can. We want you firing on all cylinders. You know, we want you to be able to show up every day. flourishing. And one of the best ways to do this is to revisit your rituals.

[00:12:48] Now we did an episode a couple of weeks ago on this, and this is really, really helpful if you’re kind of struggling or you’re not sure what rituals you need to think about or how to think about revising those, but your [00:13:00] rituals are really going to be those things that help you. Fuel your success. You’re flourishing.

[00:13:06] So you may also want to look at your ideal week as part of this. I actually just did this and it is such a helpful process to look through your ideal week and say, gosh, how do I want to spend my time every single day? Now we’ve done a lot of episodes on the show about ideal weeks. I encourage you to revisit those episodes because they’re so helpful.

[00:13:29] The ideal week is such a transformational tool. We also have a tutorial video on how to create your ideal week if you’re brand new to this. And it’s of course in your full focus planner, but we have a free download, which you can get at full focus. co slash ideal week, and you can print that out and create your ideal week.

[00:13:49] But this is such an important tool for you. So I think the important thing here is you want to notice what are the daily and weekly rhythms that support my flourishing [00:14:00] and success. So, what are those things that are going to really help you day in and day out to be your best? You may want to go back and like I said, check out our episode.

[00:14:11] We did a, an episode, um, probably a couple of months ago, I guess at this point, but it was about 10 activities for getting back into real life. And those are really about helping you flourish. Those are things like getting off of your screens. And those were so helpful. So if you’re kind of looking for a little inspiration, check out that episode.

[00:14:29] Ken: As you think about this, this is really important that you do pause and you start to evaluate, because if you don’t, you’re going to keep doing the same routines over and over or the same rhythms, and this is the time to pivot. So for example, uh, Marissa and I were just talking about this, how we want to walk more, but in the wintertime, it’s just really hard to do that.

[00:14:47] It’s dreary. It’s cold. You don’t want to wake up and, and experience the torture of that unless you like ice baths and torturing yourself as part of your normal day. Now that it’s warming [00:15:00] up, it’s like, Oh, maybe I do change my morning ritual and start walking every morning. Right? Like this is the perfect time to do that.

[00:15:08] Marissa: Well, and this is like the beauty of Having this rhythm of looking at the last quarter, looking at head every 90 days is it gives you an opportunity to say, man, like I want to be really intentional with my days and I get the option now, like life is going to probably have happened in the last three months.

[00:15:31] Your life probably doesn’t look the same today as it did on January 1st. And it’s important that we continually revisit these things because otherwise, if we only do this once a year, like we know how well that works. It doesn’t work. It works for a couple months and then it doesn’t work for the rest of the year.

[00:15:46] And so our invitation is that you get to do this every single 90 days, looking at your days, looking at your weeks and really creating a designed life that helps you flourish.

[00:15:57] Ken: Which leads to question number five. When we talk about a [00:16:00] life that you’re trying to design that makes you flourish, you want to ask the question, what’s the big picture I’m actually reaching for?

[00:16:07] All right, so you focused on the next 90 days, but you want to fit these next 90 days into a bigger picture. Maybe it’s the bigger picture of next year. Maybe it’s the bigger picture of the next five years. Even better, what you want to do is take those next 90 days and make sure it fits into the life you want to actually build.

[00:16:25] A question that you could ask yourself is, how does what you’re pursuing connect with who you’re becoming?

[00:16:32] I’m going to

[00:16:32] Ken: say that again. How does what you’re pursuing connect with who you’re becoming? We talk a lot about this that like these goals right what matters more is about who you’re becoming in the process Not that you’re actually achieving these goals It’s great that you do both.

[00:16:47] Don’t get us wrong. You want to achieve both, but it’s who you’re becoming in this process. So like, stop and ask that. And Marissa, I can’t tell you how many times I talk to people and when I ask them about their goals and I ask them, well, why do you want that goal? And they’re like, Oh, it’s because I [00:17:00] want to achieve this.

[00:17:00] I’m like, okay, who do you want to become? They’re like, I’ve never actually stopped and asked myself that.

[00:17:06] Marissa: Well, and if we’re not careful, like we set these goals because we think it’s cool to like have goals or we know it’s important on an intellectual level. You know, it’s like you’re driving for things and all of that, which is great.

[00:17:17] Like all of that is good, but it’s like. What’s it all worth? You know, what’s the point? Where are you actually going? Like if you in this year and you’ve accomplished your list of goals that you set out to accomplish, but like to what end, like you’re not just doing that to just check it off your list and say, I did that thing.

[00:17:37] You’re doing it because it’s likely leading you to become the person that you want to become, to live the life that you want to live. So you’re trying to install habits that you want to have because you know that that’s who you want to be. You want to maybe it’s get out of debt or save money because that’s important to you.

[00:17:56] That’s something that you see in your future for you is to be able to build [00:18:00] wealth. Maybe that’s something that you’re working towards. So this, usually these goals, you know, in a perfect world, they tie to the larger picture. of your life. And this is kind of where I would say, like, you go from like goal achievement 1.

[00:18:15] 0 to like 2. 0 is when you tie those goals to your life plan. Now, if you’ve never heard of a life plan, if you don’t have a life plan, don’t worry. You’re more normal than you think. Most people don’t have this. This is not a common thing. In fact, I didn’t have one until last year. And it has been a game changer.

[00:18:34] And we see this with our clients all the time. This is a huge game changer. When you’re able to create a vision for your life, ideally in our framework, we talk about doing this for the next 10 years. So when you think about the next decade of your life, what do you want your life to look like? And you get to design it.

[00:18:53] That’s a beautiful thing. You get to design it. Now we have a really incredible process for helping you actually [00:19:00] do this, where we walk you through this. We literally. Step by step walk you through this over a two day period at our life focus retreat. This is such a blast It’s such a good process to go through and you’ll never have to wonder how your goals Fit into the larger picture how they’re helping you become who you actually want to become You’re now going to have a clear roadmap for the next decade of your life.

[00:19:24] Uh, there’s still time to join us. Our next retreat is actually in May. It’s May 2nd and 3rd. It’s all virtual, so you don’t have to travel anywhere. We’d love for you to join us on that and you can join by going to fullfocus. co. Slash spring retreat. We’d love to see you there and help you really craft this vision for your life.

[00:19:42] So, you know, day in and day out, the actions you’re taking actually tie back to that bigger vision and that bigger person you’re working to become.

[00:19:50] Ken: And one of the beautiful parts of that retreat and figuring out your life plan is that you’re doing it with people. Which leads to question number six is, [00:20:00] who are the people I want with me on the journey?

[00:20:03] The people, Marissa, is like the best part of the journey. Totally. It’s like who you’re hanging out with, who you’re growing with, who are you excited to be with? That’s the stuff that I get really excited about. I was talking to an individual who is interested in joining our program and I, and I was talking to him and I said, Hey, who do you want there at the end of your life, 10 years from now?

[00:20:24] And he was like, I really want to spend time with my kids. And my, my wife, he didn’t mention anything about work. He was getting ready to retire. And he didn’t mention anything about like his hobbies. He’s like, this is what I really want is these people. I got him to that place where he acknowledged what he really wanted.

[00:20:42] I said, okay, now let’s just reverse engineering.

[00:20:44] What are you

[00:20:44] Ken: doing today to spend more time with them and to develop them? His, his daughter was getting ready to go off to college. And he was like, Oh man, I haven’t even thought about it that way. I’m, I haven’t structured my life so that I spend more time with her.[00:21:00]

[00:21:00] I’m like, okay. And right then and there, I was like, let’s figure it out. And we just started mapping things out for him. And he was just so excited. Cause he’s like, I see a path forward. Totally. To actually execute on the goals I want. And that’s

[00:21:11] Marissa: the game changer.

[00:21:12] Ken: Yeah.

[00:21:13] Marissa: That’s the game changer is when you’re able to have this vision and then you, you have this vision and we all have some version of that for our life.

[00:21:20] Like whether we’re conscious of it or not, we all have some kind of idea of where we’re trying to go, what we’re trying to accomplish, who we’re trying to become. Maybe we haven’t like literally written that out ever, but we have some idea. But rarely are we ever thinking about how today. is part of how we get to that vision.

[00:21:42] And so this 90 day kind of evaluation process is quarterly preview process is such a powerful way for us to stop and reflect and ask ourselves, are we moving closer or not? You know, we really want to prevent us from drifting. In our lives where we’re [00:22:00] just constantly swept up in the swing of things in the day to day life where we’re not actually making that forward progress or worse, we end up just basically our head down grinding where we’re just, you know, pressing and pressing and pressing in and we’re actually not moving towards what we actually want and both this process and then especially in that life focus retreat, we’re able to help you guys craft that vision, get crystal clear on where it is you’re wanting to go.

[00:22:28] And then we help you like Ken’s talking about, create that roadmap from today all the way to accomplishing that 10 year vision for your life. So really asking yourself, like as you’re walking through this journey, who do you want to be with you? Who are the people, you know, whether it’s the people that you live with, you know, your, your immediate family.

[00:22:49] People that you’re spending your most time with, like your friends, and then also like your coworkers, who are the people that are going to help you get to those places where you’re trying to go, those positive influences [00:23:00] that can really partner with you and kind of link arms and walk that journey with you.

[00:23:05] Ken: And you wanna make sure those are fun people and they’re pushing you.

[00:23:08] Yeah.

[00:23:09] Ken: Marissa, I can attest to like full focus, right? ’cause you guys have been my tribe for work, right? For the last several years. It’s been so much fun. It’s easy. It’s fun to hang out. We know each other in a personal level. It’s not just work colleagues, right?

[00:23:23] We’re texting each other trying to figure out like how we’re doing in our goals. And we got our group text sending memes all all day every day, right? But the point is that is like we’re doing it. We’re making things happen and we know about each other’s goals and we’re trying to accomplish it. And it’s so much fun.

[00:23:38] Marissa: We’re doing life together.

[00:23:40] Ken: We’re doing life together. So for those of you who are like, man, I wish I had a Marissa. I wish I had a Michael Hyatt who can do that. Man, I’d encourage you do life focus, right? And if you’re interested, you can also check out our double wind coaching program and see how we can potentially help you.

[00:23:53] The most important thing is that you find your tribe that you want to be with. Cause you’re going to go further faster [00:24:00] when you have a tribe, when you have a coach that can actually walk you through the process.

[00:24:05] Marissa: Well as you set yourself up for this next quarter, as you think about going into Q2, I want to just preview a little bit too.

[00:24:12] Next week we’re going to be coming on and talking about how to pivot on your goals. So if you’re kind of as part of this process going, gosh, I don’t really make a lot of Progress on my goals, or it didn’t kind of look like I thought, don’t worry, we’re going to have a great episode where we help you think about those goals.

[00:24:28] But right now we want you to walk through these six questions. So Ken, why don’t you share kind of a summary of these six questions?

[00:24:35] Ken: Yeah, so the six questions. The first one is, where am I doing better than I think? Number two. What small shifts will make a big difference in my success? Number three, what are my most important priorities in the next 90 days?

[00:24:50] Number four, what rhythms are absolutely essential to my flourishing? Number five, what’s the big picture I’m reaching for? [00:25:00] Number six, who are the people I want with me on this journey? So Marissa, these are the six questions that everyone can do and as they start doing it, they’re going to start too. See extraordinary results for the second quarter.

[00:25:14] Now, what do you think these people should focus on this week based on this conversation, Marissa?

[00:25:20] Marissa: Yeah, this week, all we want you to do is schedule your quarterly preview and then actually make it happen. So as you look at this next Week, find some time, block off an hour or two, and really take care of this process.

[00:25:33] It’s easy to just kind of brush this off, but I literally, wherever you are, unless you’re driving , don’t do this. But if you’re out on a walk or you’re cleaning your house or whatever it might look like, wherever you’re listening to this episode, want you to literally stop right now. Pull up your calendar and.

[00:25:50] Put your quarterly preview on your calendar for this week and then go make it happen. This next quarter can be everything you want it to be and more, but [00:26:00] you’ve got to schedule the time to be intentional about it.

[00:26:07] Thanks for joining us on Focus on This.

[00:26:09] Ken: This is the most productive podcast on the internet. So please share it with your friends and be sure to go to any of your major podcast platforms and leave us a review. It helps us to get the word out there. It helps us to know what we’re doing well, and we love the feedback as well.

[00:26:26] So go to any of your podcast apps, leave a review so that we can keep. Helping you guys keep pushing forward and have the most productive Mondays.

[00:26:35] Marissa: We’ll be here next week with another great episode.

[00:26:37] Ken: Until then, stay focused.