I used to get SO nervous come report card time in school.

How to set review periods to get one step closer to your goal

I was the most straight and narrow student you could imagine: I never broke the rules on recess, I always said ‘please’ and ‘thank you’, and I worked my rear off to get good grades.

Still, every time I knew a report card was following me home from school, I got nervous.

What I didn’t know at the time was that when I was handed my report card – those grades on that card weren’t set in stone; instead, they were a review of the work I had done up to that point.

My report cards were actually giving me a special opportunity: to double down on what I was doing well, and to correct course on what I wasn’t doing so well before final grades came out.

I really wish someone would have told me that back then…

What I know now about review periods

Setting review periods for your goals is sorta similar: you’re simply setting aside time to reflect back on the work you’ve done up to that point towards accomplishing your goal so you can see if there are opportunities for you to double down on what’s working and correct course on what’s not working.

If you’re following along in you Freedom Journal, then a review period is equivalent to your “Quarterly Review”.

During your reviews, you’re looking for overall reflection that can help give you insights into your work. These insights are what will help you get one step closer to accomplishing your goals.

Some things to think about during your review period, which might last 1 full day, or span a very concentrated 1 hour time block:

• Have I achieved the micro-goals I set for myself over the past 25 days?
• If I haven’t achieved the micro-goals I set for myself, how can I adjust my plan in order to make up for lost time?
• What are the things I’m doing that are helping me achieve my micro-goals?
• What are things that have not been working for me in terms of getting one step closer to my BIG goal?

Your review periods are a time to make adjustments, slight pivots or speed things up depending on your timeline and overall progress towards your goal.

Without this critical time, how will you know whether or not you are getting one step closer to your goal?

The naysayers

So many pass off review periods as unnecessary – something they can do in their head while they’re at the gym, or during commercial breaks.

Review periods don’t work unless you’re FOCUSED and committed to pulling out insights that will help you move forward – insights and realizations that will help motivate you and push you forward instead of back.

Without motivation throughout our journey, it’s too easy to give up. It’s too easy to not feel like we’re making progress.

Prove yourself wrong.

Schedule the time. Write it down. Show yourself progress.

Your Freedom Journal awaits, and once you have your own copy you’ll have an exact step-by-step, fill-in-the-blanks guide to setting and accomplishing your #1 goal in 100 days. It’s all over at TheFreedomJournal.com.