Erica: Hey, girl. By now, you know I have Her Collective, my online community for ambitious women who are done doing it alone. Her Collective is for the women who are smart, capable, and driven, but they find themselves stuck on the sticky floors like self doubt, burnout, and waiting for permission that quite honestly never comes. Inside HER, you get more than motivation. You get real support, real strategies, and real momentum.

Erica: We work on things like clarifying what you want now and what's coming next, building confidence without burning yourself out, navigating hard conversations, career moves, and leadership moments with clarity, and surrounding yourself with women who actually get it. This isn't about hustling harder. It's about moving intentionally with the right tools and the right people in your corner. If you're ready to stop spinning, start choosing yourself, and build a career in life that actually feels aligned, I'd love to welcome you inside her collective. You can learn more and join us at www.joinhercollective.com.

Erica: Because honestly, girl, you were never meant to do this alone. Y'all know I love a fresh start, and we are officially in Q2, which is a fantastic time to have a really candid check-in with yourself. How is this year going? How are you doing?

Erica: It's only been three months, but you know how quickly those three months went. And that was with a January that seemed to last an eternity. These next three months are also going to fly by because, hello, it's summer. And then we are gonna be halfway through the year, y'all. It is crazy.

Erica: Time is just such a wild concept. But today's episode is all about how can we make the best use of our time. And in doing so, I'm going to walk you through my exact formula for what I call the quarterly refresh. I'm going to give you all the questions and prompts that I ask myself at the end of every quarter to ensure that I am tracking towards my goals and where I need to get honest with myself about where I may have fallen short. But here's the twist, and what makes this quarterly refresh so powerful.

Erica: It's the mindset that nothing is a failure, and I'll share that secret with a little example in my life of what some might consider a flop, but I see as a stepping stone. You are listening to the Glass Ceiling and Sticky Floor podcast. The podcast that will empower you to shatter limiting beliefs and toxic behaviors to uncover infinite possibilities so that you can live your best life. I'm Erica Rooney, and I'm on a mission to bring more women into positions of power and keep them there. I'm obsessed with all things growth and abundance, and I'm here to talk you through the tried and true secrets to get you to level up your career and your life.

Erica: We talk about the hard stuff here, imposter syndrome, perfectionism, fear, and burnout. So pull up a seat, pop in an earbud, and let's dive in. Alright, y'all. The quarterly refresh consists of three parts. That's it.

Erica: Three parts. First, a reflection followed by an official refresh, and then finally, the action planning. It is so so so important that when we hit one of these fresh start moments, which you know I love, like a new quarter, that we reflect back on where we've been. Now for me, I love the concept of monthly reflections and also quarterly ones. So if I rewind all the way back to January, I ask myself, how am I feeling about my life?

Erica: Now I like to look at my life in categories, work, family, my marriage, friendships, fitness and nutrition, and personal growth. Yours might also include these or others such as spiritual, community, finances, or something else totally different. At the beginning of the year, I rank myself in each of these categories that I deem important on a scale of one to ten. Ten being the highest, one being everything is god awful. How do I feel about each area of my life?

Erica: So if you didn't do this back in January, now is as good of a time as any to start. Write out which areas of your life matter the most and then give yourself a ranking. If you've done this in the past, compare them. How are you ranking yourself today versus how did you rank yourself back in January? Now one super important thing to note here is that I do not ever want you to feel like you have to consistently go up, up, up in each category.

Erica: That is not the goal here. This reflection piece is all about taking stock of your life. It's not about hitting all ten out of ten in every single category every time you check in with yourself. That's quite honestly going to set you up for failure and massive disappointment. It's about having that honest check-in to say, are there any areas in my life that I need to pay more attention to, or are there areas that I need to focus on in a different way?

Erica: So I'll give you an example. In January, in health and wellness, I was on point, y'all. I ranked myself an eight. I was feeling really good about how I maintained during the holidays and about my consistency of the workouts that I was getting in. But this month, right now, it felt more like a six or a seven.

Erica: And when I got really honest with myself and I did a look back, I recognized that in January, of all times, I had had way more sugar than I would have liked, or I would really like to publicly admit. And I wasn't as consistent with my workouts as I would have hoped. So for me, I then ask myself, is this okay? Am I okay with this ranking? Now for me, the sugar, that gave me a hard no.

Erica: It's not how I like to eat. It's not what I like to put in my body. It's not like me to be in the sugar as I was this past quarter, but I got into that nasty habit. So while my workout consistency, I was okay with it, I wasn't okay with the sugar I was taking in. So I need to cultivate my health a bit differently as I move into Q2 by cutting back on the sugar.

Erica: Now another area was my relationships, specifically my marriage. Now I previously gave myself a four, which was the lowest out of all of my categories. And I just felt really disconnected with Dan over the holiday season, and I was not where I wanted my marriage to be. I'd really slipped away from date nights and spending time together without the kids. And so over the past few months, he and I really put in the work to find a babysitter for date nights alone and with friends.

Erica: We started having more family dinners together and started being more present with him instead. And we even talked with a counselor. So you know what? I went up in that category. I now ranked at a six or a seven. Now I still have a lot of work that I want to do in this area.

Erica: But the point is I'm making progress, and I'm really good with that, because you're not gonna go from a four to a ten overnight, y'all. That's impossible. So for step one, the reflection, list out the different categories that mean the most to you. Family, marriage, job, growth, health, finances, etcetera. And rank yourself on a scale of one to ten.

Erica: And then ask yourself, and be honest, how are you feeling about each category? Are there any areas you feel you really want or need to focus on? And then, still in step one here, ask yourself, over the past three months, where have you seen the most growth and development? Write it out and then, girl, congratulate your damn self. You did that.

Erica: But once you've done your little happy dance, I want you to ask yourself what goals need more focus. One of my biggest goals that needs work is ironing out my rhythms. How and when I do all of the things that I do. I want to be more intentional with my time and less like flying by the seat of my pants. So that's where I'm gonna be focusing my energies.

Erica: Now I love to always ask myself at this point, what do I need to say no to this quarter to help me with my focus areas, and what will I say yes to? Maybe you need to say no to meetings without agendas or making the bed every morning. PS, that's something I really need to do.

Erica: And maybe you need to say yes to invitations out with friends. Now I'm personally saying yes to more creative time in my day and more revenue driving activities, more date nights, and more reading before bed. But that also means I'm saying no to endless social media scrolling. And I'm gonna need y'all to wish me luck and give me some support on that. Now step two.

Erica: This is your official refresh. And it's also where we're gonna talk about the mindset shift that is of the utmost importance to your success long term. Take a look back at your goals from January. And if those goals still hold true, or you're tracking towards them, amazing. Give yourself the gold star or reward yourself with a massage or a facial. But if not, instead of getting down on yourself, calling yourself a failure, or just giving up completely, take a breath and write out a refreshed goal.

Erica: This refreshed goal might be a new timetable. For example, I wanted to launch a digital course in Q1. Y'all, nowhere near happening. Did not happen for a million and one reasons, but it's still a goal that I have and something I want to do. So I refreshed my timetable on this.

Erica: And instead of having it up and ready to go by Q1, I simply shifted the due date back to Q2, and, honestly, maybe Q3, depending on how this quarter goes. Right now, I'm keeping it flexible. Now another refresh for me is travel time. In January, I laid out that I wanted one trip with Dan, no kids, and then one trip with the kids. And, you know, we actually just got back from The Bahamas with the kids, so that's checked off.

Erica: Fifty percent of the goal is complete, and we're only in Q2. And Dan and I are currently mapping out our ten year anniversary trip. But what I also found this past quarter was that I was really craving some alone time for myself. So I refreshed my goal and I added that to my travel goal. Now you see the refresh is all about taking life in as it comes and allowing your goals the flexibility to shift, and not considering it a failure.

Erica: All too often, I see people get wrapped up in goals that they aren't hitting just because of life, and they throw in the towel. They feel like they missed the boat or something, and that, my friend, is a bunch of nonsense. It's not a failure unless you stop trying. Now let me throw this caveat in there, that sometimes you need to take your goals and put them in a box and put them away for a bit. For example, if you wanted to run a half marathon this year, but you have an aging parent whose health has taken a turn, you may have to tuck that goal away while you spend your free time sorting out that piece of your life.

Erica: Or maybe you get an injury and you're unable to run, and you have to do PT instead. Tuck that goal away. Don't toss it. You can always come back if you wish. Now the other piece is, don't hold so tightly to goals that no longer serve you.

Erica: I once had a dream to run a half marathon in two different states every single year, which sounds great and attainable on paper. But turns out it was a lot harder for me at this stage of my life with two small kids than I thought. I've got this beautiful piece of wood art that hangs on my wall. All of my half marathon medals dangle from it. And the goal is, after you run a half marathon, you color in one of the states, and then they're all colored in.

Erica: Well, no new states have been colored in since 2022, y'all. Legit? Still love this idea. And I still want to do half marathons in new states. I think that's a great way to travel, but I needed to let go of this goal that I could do two states every year because it just wasn't going to happen, and it wasn't serving me at this stage of my life.

Erica: So out the door it goes. So step two, refresh those goals. Ask yourself, what matters the most? Does this align with the areas of my life that I just acknowledged in step one that I want to focus on? What can I let go?

Erica: What timetables do I need to shift? And where can I be more realistic? Remember, it's never a failure unless you give up. And even then, it's not a failure if it no longer serves you. One foot in front of the other. One foot in front of the other. That's all you need to do.

Erica: Now step three, which is the final step, is action planning. Planning this out. Take those big goals, break them down into bite sized chunks. What do you need to do each month, each week, and each day to hit those goals? You have to plan for the season ahead, and a great way to do that is by establishing monthly, daily, and weekly rhythms. So what do I mean by that? Let me give you some examples. Monthly, I always look ahead for any big events or holidays that I may want to plan content around.

Erica: Are there any holidays coming up? Am I taking any vacations where I need to get ahead of some content planning? How can I make the most of this month from a scheduling perspective? I literally sit down at the beginning of every month and I do that. And I always try to then schedule the month out with my rhythms, because what gets scheduled gets done.

Erica: I also then each month look back. This is part of my rhythm. What is working? What isn't? How are my numbers tracking? What does my revenue look like? Did I hit my targets? Why or why not? So all of those are monthly rhythms. Weekly rhythms are meal planning, scheduling workouts and clients, making sure the family's aligned on what's going on activity wise.

Erica: And then daily rhythms are all about the habits that I want to cultivate or keep going, such as physical activity, nutrition, gratitude journal, flossing my teeth even, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. So now it is your turn. Think about your monthly, weekly, and daily rhythms and what they need to look like. The truth is, the smaller you can make this next step, the more likely you are to take it. When you regularly break down these goals and you reflect back, you learn so much about yourself.

Erica: You accomplish so much more. And the best part, you grow. You feel proud of yourself, and you aren't just wasting away the days. Girl, you are living out your dreams day by day, week by week, moment by moment. So take a look back, reflect on how you did.

Erica: What do you need to say yes to? What do you need to say no to? And refresh your goals. And then plan it out and start doing it. Now I highly, highly, highly recommend taking an hour out of a day, one day where you can have quiet and no interruption, and focus on these three steps.

Erica: Get really clear about your goals and start taking action. This will disrupt your life, and it will change how you look at your goal tracking for the better. Now I will one hundred percent be checking in on you to see how you are doing and how you're tracking towards these goals. And remember, I am always here to help. All you gotta do is holler at me.

Erica: So thank you for listening and tuning in. If you haven't already dropped that five star review, do it today. It truly helps it land in the hands of the woman that needs to hear it most. And don't forget to jump over to my socials too. Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and even TikTok.

Erica: I dropped some really great freebies over there, so you do not want to miss out. And until next time, remember the only ceilings that exist are the ones we place over ourselves. Let's smash through them together.