How to Stay on Track for Your 2025 Goals (Quaterly Check In)

We are just over a quater way in to 2025 and that only means one thing...

Last year I released an episode on how to plan your goals for 2025, ensuring they are realistic and achievable. In order to make them acheivable, its essential we have quaterly check-ins to make sure we are still on track for what we want to achieve this year. 

In this episde I break down exactly how to conduct your quarterly check in, what to do if your priorities have shifted on certain things, and how to rethink those goals which seem out of reach. You don't want to look back in December with the same vision board and nothing completed! 

Listen for tips on how to stay motivated and reshift your mindset easily to stay on track for your 2025 goals. 

Enjoy!

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:17

your host, emily Astley. It is currently April, the year's flying by guys. It is flying. If you remember, and you're a loyal listener one of my previous episodes, a couple months ago, before the new year, was how to plan your 2025 goals, what you want to achieve this year. One of the things I mentioned was to have monthly quarterly check-ins to see how you're really doing, to see if you're achieving your goals, to see if you're achieving your goals, to see if you're on track and to see if anything needs to be changed, because what you set yourself was maybe a bit too easy or a bit too difficult. Now this is the time. This is the time where we're going to check in and see how we're actually doing, so that we don't leave it until October and we're like, oh my gosh, I achieved nothing compared to what I set myself out to do. Ultimately, there is absolutely no point making a vision board if you're never going to see it, if it's going to just collect dust. The best way is to keep revisiting them and see how am I getting on? So this episode is all about that and I'm going to help you, guys, so you don't need to stress about it. So, without further ado.

Why Quarterly Check-ins Matter

Speaker 1 1:18

Let's get into the episode. So firstly, we're going to talk about why these quarterly check-ins matter. And I'm probably the agony aunt right now to you and you're like I don't really have many goals, I don't really want to check in, I'm busy right now and I think they're fine. No, I believe in you. I really do, and I know that you are capable of achieving what you set out to this year. So it's really important to check this and revisit them quarterly, because my analogy of why this is important is really cringe. But these quarterly check-ins is kind of like a GPS redirecting you back into the right direction. So that is what this exactly is for you and why it's so important. Because life just gets in the way of pretty much everything all the time and you get lost in the busyness and just the hustle and whatever you're doing your job.

Structured Quarterly Goal Review

Speaker 1 2:16

Another reason why I love to do these quarterly check-ins is because it really holds you accountable. When you set your goals, you are feeling motivated, you're feeling great about yourself, you're like I am going to achieve and smash everything in the new year. New year, new me, new chance, a whole new 365 days for me to work on myself. But you're in a different mindset now, where things are getting difficult. Habits that you set out for yourself are getting difficult. Another reason why I like to do this is because it actually helps you feel less overwhelmed, because you're breaking down the year into quarterly chunks. So you feel less overwhelmed by being able to check in and look back and see how am I doing now, rather than checking back at the end of the year and just feeling so overwhelmed because there's so much that you hadn't gone through and needed to change. Also, we're not thinking necessarily about how we're going to achieve our set out goals for the next rest of the year. We're thinking about the next three months because we're going to check back in in another three months. So all we have to think about instead of the rest of the year left is the next three months. That makes it so much easier and so much more achievable. Now we're going to go into my curated plan for your structured quarterly check-in. If you are at home and you aren't doing anything and you're not at work, get your vision board out, because this is really good to take notes on right now so you don't forget about it. But if you're not, you can always revisit it.

Speaker 1 3:39

Step number one is reviewing your goals. So start by looking at the goals that you set for yourself at the beginning of this year. What did you want to accomplish? Was there anything on that list that you wanted to accomplish by March or April and see how you're getting on with them, and this also is important to hold yourself accountable. So did you set out to read 10 books this year. How many have you read so far? You know, have you only read one? How is it going? Have your priorities shifted? That's also so fine. Your priorities might have shifted and things change, and that's okay, and it's not about feeling badly about it. That's not what we're trying to do here. We're just trying to see how we can readjust to make you achieving these goals as easy as possible. And if you have already done something and completed something from your vision board, go and tick it off. Tick it off, check it off of the list. You are already doing what you set out to do, which is just such a great feeling.

Speaker 1 4:34

Number two is assess your progress. So this is really the point in time where you need to be honest with yourself what have I achieved so far? Tick that off yourself. What have I achieved so far? Tick that off Great. What have I not achieved? And why, instead of just thinking, oh, I haven't achieved this goal yet, I haven't been running as much as I set out to do, I haven't exercised as much. Why, like, why have I not done this? It's okay that you haven't, but why? Maybe you've been so busy at work, maybe you've just got a new job and you have only just now realized how difficult it is to manage and juggle both of those things. Maybe you completely changed your mind a month into this year and said, no, I actually don't really want to run anymore. I want to go and train at the gym, and that's also fine.

Speaker 1 5:17

But there might be a reason why you're just not feeling yourself, you're not feeling motivated, or just saying I'll do it tomorrow, I'll do it tomorrow, and then tomorrow comes and you don't do it. Or it might be because you don't actually have a plan. So if it is as I said, you wanted to run more, let's say you just saying that you want to run more isn't really going to help you run more. You need to have a plan. Monday and Fridays and Sundays, I'm going to go running, I'm going to run. This isn't really going to help you run more. You need to have a plan Monday and Fridays and Sundays. I'm going to go running, I'm going to run this far, I'm going to run to this destination and you have it in your calendar. Stuff like that makes your life easier because you know what you actually have to do.

Speaker 1 5:54

These things are really important, telling you how to achieve it, thinking about the why. If you haven't achieved something from your vision board yet, or it's not going to plan, why is that Holding yourself accountable? At the end of the day, if you don't achieve it, it's not affecting anyone other than yourself. And a big reason why checking in now is so important is because you can have a look at these obstacles that are the why you haven't achieved something so far, and try and remove them as quickly as possible. And removing them now is so much easier than removing them in another six months. That's just not going to be very helpful. The more you leave it, the bigger the barriers will come. In the case of the running example, the more you leave it and you don't go running, the more difficult it's going to be. Something is going to get busy in your life. Holidays are going to come and again when we're assessing our progress.

Identifying Roadblocks and Adjusting Strategy

Speaker 1 6:44

If you're struggling, you can always break down your milestones into smaller chunks, because the smaller it is, the easier it is to achieve. So maybe you set yourself a goal to run five times a week and it's really difficult. That is so fine, but if you're struggling with even just running once a week, five times a week is probably a bit much. I think you should stick with running twice a week if you're trying to break this goal down and stick with that. If you can do that for three weeks, then maybe ramp it up to four and then ramp it up to five. But start by making things easier for yourself, because it all goes back to this and I think everyone should be reminded from time to time that you being motivated is great, but keeping your habits small, but daily, is so much more important than just going and sending it all in one day, because that is just not sustainable, even if it's something that's so small which feels like really unsatisfying because you didn't achieve as much as you wanted that day. Even if it's something that's so small which feels like really unsatisfying because you didn't achieve as much as you wanted that day, even if you've just chipped away at it, it is better than nothing, and that is literally the same as reading. So if you want to read 10 books a year, just at least reading like three pages is so much better than reading one page. I would say that reading three pages a day is so much better than just reading 20 pages once a month, because you're keeping the consistency, and that is literally the whole recipe and the secret to success in this situation.

Speaker 1 8:12

Step number three identify roadblocks. So this is kind of similar, but what are you struggling with? What is holding you back? Is it time management? Is it motivation? Is it other factors? Is it work? Time management is so hard and when you're trying to commit to something, it is so hard. I think everyone's point of giving up is different when things get difficult, and some people find it really hard after one week to keep going, and other people it really kicks in in about a month's time. Just be honest with yourself, because it's really going to help.

Speaker 1 8:43

Step number four adjust your strategy. This is probably the most important one because, as I said before, if you haven't achieved what you wanted to achieve so far this year, you need to think how can I make this as easy as possible so I can? Adjusting your strategy isn't giving up. Changing your goals is not giving up. It's actually the complete opposite. I would say, okay, I haven't achieved this goal. I haven't achieved reading 10 books. I am so bad with reading, but I do want to read at least 10 books this year, which I know to all the bookworms is like nothing, but for me it's quite big. If I want to look back and say I'm not on track for reading 10 books this year, it's really easy to think, ok, I'm just going to blast it now. Having a look at this has changed my mindset. I'm going to go for it. I'm going to read 30 pages a night.

Speaker 1 9:29

That's not going to help, because we know that these past three months have proved that you couldn't do it. I'm talking for myself here, but these past three months have shown that you've actually struggled doing that, so you aren't going to help yourself by thinking, no, all I needed was a reminder. I can go and do it. That's been setting yourself up for failure. So you need to readjust. Readjust your strategy. Maybe it's starting smaller, maybe it's reading eight books a year Whatever is achievable, so you actually hit your milestone, because you just don't want to fall short at the end of the year. It does not feel good.

Speaker 1 10:03

You might need to adjust your daily habits and improve them in a way that gives you more time to work on these. That might be just having a better routine, and that might be even one of your goals. So it could be I want to go skiing this year. That's a different goal and in that sense it's just more like a done and dusted thing. You plan it, you go. But we're talking about the smaller day-to-day things you can do right now, and adjusting your daily habits and your routine might be really important to hit these goals. As I said before, and I'm going to repeat it again, being flexible is the key to success. So it's not failure. If you need to adjust something, it is just being flexible. Things need to be changed in every area of your life, so so do your goals, and that's okay.

Tools to Stay on Track

Speaker 1 10:47

Step number five once you have done all of those previous steps, you need to recommit and set a new focus. So this is after the adjustments you've made your adjustments and you're figuring out which goals am I going to prioritize, because you might be looking at a handful of goals you set for yourself, and you need to find the ones that you're going to prioritize, and I mean prioritize for the next three months. Okay, so what do you want to look back in three months and be like I've done that? I've done it. I'm so proud of myself. Which goal resonates with you the most? Which goal do you feel most strongly about? Which goal do you want to finish the year being like I have actually improved and changed that habit massively? Those ones are the ones that you need to focus on right now. You need to be your own boss and think I'm going to prioritize that in my day-to-day routine, my day-to-day habits. I'm adding that and you also need to think okay, which can I let go of?

Speaker 1 11:36

There are probably some goals that are just too much right now too much for you to commit to, because life is just really busy and work is busy and whatever you're doing, the main part of this task is just reassuring yourself that you're on track to set and achieve your goals and how you're going to do this, and having that reboost of energy and reassurance is so important. You're giving yourself faith that when you set your goals for the next year, you can achieve them, rather than you coming back in December 2025 and thinking, okay, here we are back again with the vision board and I'm writing down all these things that I want to achieve, but I just know that they didn't really happen last year, so I'm probably not going to be able to do them this year. I'm just doing it for the sake of it. You't want to be like that.

Speaker 1 12:20

If you guys are loyal listeners, you will know that I am such a structure freak, like I really really need my things organized. I really need color coding and I need time blocks and I need all these things that just really look nice so that I can not have to worry about it in my head because it's all down on my laptop or on paper. One of my goals for this year which is so funny and I think I'm doing better, but I could probably keep improving on that one is to be quicker with replies, like texts. I know how sad is that. It's so sad, but if you are someone who's quite close to me, you will know I have a really bad rep for slow replies. It's not that I'm so unbelievably busy that I can't reply, and it's also not that I don't want to reply. It's just that replying is so much effort for some reason. I don't know if you guys feel the same, but sometimes just replying to everyone's messages when they send them is so, so mentally draining. But I'm doing better at that. And receiving calls and returning calls I am trying out here. So if you still need a reply from me and I'm just AWOL, I'm actually here and I'm gonna reply. I promise, I promise. But now we're going to talk about tools and strategies that will help you stay on track for these goals before our next three month check-in, and you will be able to come back and be like okay, I've used these tools, emily, thank you so much because they helped me. So that is what we are aiming for.

Speaker 1 13:45

One tip that will help you is to factor your goals into your daily and weekly planning. This is through habit tracking. The best tools that you can use for this are there's so many. I love notion because I have a notion board that really just has every single day planned out, and then also my monthly goals and my yearly goals and lots of habits that I'm trying to keep. So I have them all down. Notion is just so great because you don't have to stress about tons of different documents. They're all in one board and they all save automatically. I live in Notion. Honestly, if my board got wiped, I would panic more than I'd ever. Panic like ever. That is probably my holy grail right now.

Speaker 1 14:24

There's so many other apps as well, like if your goal is to be on your screens less, then you need to download something like Opal. Opal is like a screen blocker and it stops you from social media at certain hours of the day. Look at that. Maybe it's your goal to read more books. Download an app that helps you track your books and your reading and pops up with notifications of how many pages you need to read that day, because looking at your phone is something we all do, so having these notifications from apps are really helpful and a great reminder to be like okay, now I have this incentive because I want to keep this streak of reading 20 pages a day, so download apps to help you.

Speaker 1 15:04

Apps to help you with your daily and weekly planning and habits. Ooh, I'm trying to save more. I'm trying to spend less and save more. So I downloaded Spendy, which is this app that links to your bank account and it tracks how much you're spending of each thing. So how much you're spending on food and drink a week? How much you're spending of each thing. So how much you're spending on food and drink a week. How much you're spending on petrol. How much you're spending on other random things. What you can also do in the app is you can set a limit of how much you want to spend of each thing a week or a month, and then you can actually check and hold yourself accountable, instead of just looking at your card after a night out and being like, oh my gosh, that is so painful, I spent so much money. It just helps you. So I'm still struggling, but I am using spendy and it's so good for that. And, honestly, there's so many more apps and I'm sure you guys have them. But if you have any other great apps that help you stay on track with your goals and goals that are similar to what I just mentioned, please let me know, like, dm me on Instagram or leave it in the show notes, because I'm desperate to know. I absolutely love apps for these kinds of things. So if you have any really good ones that you use on the day-to-day, please let me know. I really wanna know.

Speaker 1 16:13

And the second tool is accountability partners. This is probably one of the most effective because you don't wanna let that person down. It's not like finding a person, finding a friend who wants, who is going to be telling you off when you're not doing it. It's finding a friend, ideally, who is on the same journey, with the same goal as you and you both. Saying and committing together that you're going to reach this goal by a certain time means that you, when you feel like giving up, you don't want to give up because you don't want to let them down. You're not just letting yourself down, which is so much easier to do, you're also letting them down. So finding an accountability partner or an accountability buddy is so good. And then you're also voicing your goals, so you're saying them out loud, making them become more real, which gives you less of an excuse to not actually complete them. Also, this accountability buddy, this accountability partner, is going to help you have those check-ins and remind you what your goals are. They just have to be someone that you know you can trust will hold you accountable, because it's really easy for friends to let you slide back into old habits because they don't want to put authority over you and tell you to do something that they know you don't want to do and obviously they mean it with love, but that's really unhelpful for you. You need a friend or a member of your family or a co-worker who is going to tell you when you're slacking. They're going to be the ones who are calling you out, and you have to find someone who is really comfortable with calling you out, which also isn't really easy to hear. But when they say it and you're close enough with them, you know deep down they're right, and listening to them, someone who's going to hold you accountable is key.

Speaker 1 17:54

Another tip to help you is the two minute rule. The two minute rule is when a task that you have for the day, let's say, takes you two minutes or less to complete. If it does, do it straight away. It's so easy to leave it and let it just build up on your to-do list for a time when you're being motivated to do something little, a small dopamine boost that you've done your task. No, you should do it straight away, because it's actually crazy how just completing these little tasks will build up and compound and make you feel like you've achieved a lot more. Even if they are small, it is still an achievement. So when you have a task that comes your way or something you've got to do and it's two minutes or less, do it straight away, because that prevents you from forgetting about it. This really reminds me about my goal to reply to messages more, because replying to messages takes less than two minutes.

Keeping Motivation High

Speaker 1 18:48

Another tip that I have is regular reflection. This is a lot harder to stick to and keep as a habit in itself, but this is as well as looking and reviewing your goals and keeping on track. Setting time in the month or the week to just reflect on them and reflect on your progress, instead of just quarterly, if you can do this, is really helpful. This could literally be just 10 minutes a week that you sit down and you reflect on your routine your monthly routine, your weekly routine, your daily routine and just see how things going. Are there any corrections I need to make? It's all well and good to revisit your goals and have these tips that are going to help you, but it's actually also really hard to just do them. So I'm about to give you some tips on how to keep motivation high. The first one is really simple, and that is just setting smaller goals. Essentially, this is just quick wins. So, setting yourself goals that are really small and really easy, quick wins so that you can get that dopamine boost and keep going.

Speaker 1 19:42

Celebrate your progress. Okay, this is huge, this is such a big one and I've gotten so much better at doing this recently. But whatever you've done, whether it's really small or really big, and you've achieved something, you need to celebrate this because that makes you and incentivizes you, even if it's subconsciouslyly, to want to do it again. You are rewarding yourself in your brain and your brain is telling you oh, this was a good thing, I like this because I'm rewarding myself, so I'm going to want to do it again, even if this is a small milestone. Reading 10 books a year, reading one book and finishing it you should celebrate that. And this celebration can look like just taking yourself out for a coffee, going out for dinner, having a party, something like that. You know, I mean, read one book and have a party. Good for you, even if it's something that's small.

Speaker 1 20:27

A third way is to have visual reminders, and I actually do have this. This also could be the notifications on your phone from these apps that I was talking about earlier. That I was talking about earlier, but visual reminders really prevent you from forgetting about things and from falling and slipping into a trap of just not wanting to do it because you're not motivated that day, having like a post-it note, a sticky note buy as many sticky notes as you need. Go back to that year, seven stationary dream, obsessed with every kind of colour and every kind of pencil case and every kind of rubber that was like food pencil case and every kind of rubber that was like food those Japanese rubbers. Maybe that was just me, but find whatever it is that works for you to create these visual cues.

Speaker 1 21:08

Put these visual cues in a place that you're going to see every day. One great place is the bathroom, and I stand by that. I have a couple quotes in the bathroom actually that I loved and I've seen on Instagram and I printed them out. And I have a couple of quotes in the bathroom actually that I loved and I've seen on Instagram and I printed them out and I have them sitting in my bathroom. So every time I brush my teeth, every time I take my makeup off, I'm looking at that.

Speaker 1 21:29

This post-it note could be your. Why. Why am I doing this? Why do I want to achieve this. Why do I want to run five times a week? When you're feeling low on motivation, that post-it note will remind you your why, why you're doing it, and that is a great way of motivation. This could also be just a digital reminder on your phone.

Final Thoughts and Encouragement

Speaker 1 21:50

Okay, guys, to wrap up, I think that that was really productive. I hope you guys have been sitting with your vision boards and listening to this whilst taking notes or on a hot girl walk taking mental notes, I don't really mind which one. I just know that you will feel so much better if you actually go away and make that list and find out what it is that you have stayed on track with so far, what you want to achieve for these next three months. Hold yourself accountable because you are more than capable of achieving what you set out to do for the year months. Hold yourself accountable because you are more than capable of achieving what you set out to do for the year. It's really all just down to you whether you believe it or not, and if you do believe it, how hard it is is not an issue. No matter how difficult your goals are, you can go and achieve it if you want to. So remind yourself that the goals you set in the beginning of the year do matter. They did matter to you then and, although life gets busy, don't let that get in the way, because that is the essence of you improving and your self-growth as a person, which you really want to look back at the end of the year with like a glass of champagne or a margarita and be like I did it. I did it. So let's remind ourselves of that and keep going, because you're doing great.

Speaker 1 23:05

Also, if you've enjoyed this episode and you found it quite useful, please let me know whether that's through Instagram. You can also just send me a message. Actually, wherever you're watching this, you don't have to DM me. You can send me a message from the podcast. In the episode description it says send me a text if you've enjoyed this episode, please. I'd love to know. It takes two seconds and I know that it's effort, but I would really appreciate it even if you haven't gone and done what I've just said.

Speaker 1 23:33

That is so fine and I think you're doing amazing, and I know that you might think you have no idea what I'm doing. I'm sitting at home watching Modern Family. That's also fine. I do that all the time. But I'm really proud of you, and if no one else has told you that today, I'm telling you, and you should listen to me you're doing great. Have the best rest of your week and the best Wednesday ever. I love Wednesdays because of, because of the 20 survival guide. It is just your key to survival and that is all what we're here for. So I'm going to stop rambling now. I shall see you guys next week, bye, bye.