167. Stop Coasting! The "Sleeper Quarter" Secret to Saving Your Year

Q2 can be your most important quarter in life + business!

Most people treat the second quarter of the year as a time to simply "sail through," coasting on the fumes of their January resolutions. But according to Laurie Reynoldson, Q2 is your secret weapon for finishing the year strong. 

In this episode, Laurie breaks down the seasonal psychology of the year—from the "shot out of the gate" energy of Q1 to the "balls to the wall" panic of Q4—and explains why January is actually a terrible time to start new habits. She introduces a more agile way to live: using the first 13 weeks of the year as a data-gathering phase, then using Q2 to make the tactical pivots necessary to actually achieve your "Best Life." 

Key Takeaways:

• The Winter Trap: Why starting big goals in the dark, cold days of January often leads to disappointment and how to use Q1 as a "toe dip" instead. 
• The Data-Driven Life: How to move beyond "checking boxes" to using habit tracking as a tool for personal information and better decision-making. 
• The Best Life Planner: Laurie shares the science-backed framework of her custom planner, including the "Morning 5, 10, 5" routine to prime your brain for success. 
• The Quarterly Review: Five critical questions to ask yourself right now to assess what is serving you and what needs to be left behind. 
• Sneaky Success: Why making "big moves" in Q2 is easier because nobody else expects them. 

What’s New at the School of Midlife:

• The Tech Overhaul: A behind-the-scenes look at the new systems, website, and email platform launching to better serve the community. 
• High-Level Leadership Collective: An exclusive announcement about a new small-group initiative for midlife women featuring in-person intensives and virtual support. 
• Upcoming Workshops: Short, tactical virtual sessions focused on midlife clarity and focus

LINKS + MENTIONS:

Best Life Planner

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Transcript

0:00

Are you still running on your new year, new me energy from January, or has that spark started to fade? In this episode, I'm revealing why Q2 is actually the sleeper quarter... the most critical 13 weeks to reclaim your momentum before the distractions of summer set in. If you feel like you've been doing life instead of achieving your dreams, it's time to stop coasting and start pivoting. Learn how to use a data-driven litmus test to assess your first 90 days and set yourself up for success this year, that may even surprise you. Let's get started.

Speaker 2 0:35

Welcome to the School of Midlife podcast. I'm your host, Laurie Reynoldson. This is the podcast for the midlife woman who starting to ask herself big life questions. Like, what do I want? Is it too late for me? And what's my legacy beyond my family and my work. Each week we're answering these questions and more. At the School of Midlife, we're learning all of the life lessons they didn't teach us in school and we're figuring out finally what it is we want to be when we grow up. Let's make midlife your best life.

1:13

Hello, hello, hello and welcome back to another episode of The School of Midlife podcast. I'm your host, Laurie Reynoldson. In so good to have you back here with me today. This is gonna be a short one. I have been really thinking about the School of Midlife, the direction the company is taking. What we're doing with the podcast, because as you know, we have just celebrated three years of podcasting. But it is the perfect time to actually take a step back, assess the business, assess my life, figure out where we're going, and I would like to invite you to do the same. Here's what I'm talking about. At the time this episode drops, we are just beginning q2, I love Q2. The second quarter of any year feels like a sleeper quarter to me. Here's what I mean by that. Everybody gets so excited about Q1, the beginning of the year, the whole new year, new me. And we feel like we have to make a lot of changes and momentum and really jumpstart the year and all of the big goals and the dreams that we're working on. Like we have to start like a shot right out of the gate. We feel like on some level that that's the only way that we can set ourselves up for success in Q1. Q2 comes. A lot of people just kind of sail through it. They feel like they've got some momentum from Q1. They just keep doing the same thing that they started the year with. Q3. Q3 is all about fun, whether you realize it or not, because you're squarely in the juicy part of summer. So longer days, lots of time and activities after you leave the office. Long weekends. Just fun, all day, every day, the week I, there's something about summer that's spectacular. That you just can't replicate any other time of the year. Which means when we are out vacationing and camping and going to the mountains and spending the time at the lake and going to concerts and rodeos and doing all of the things that we like to do for ourselves in the...summer when we're out really living life, a lot of times we're just kind of coasting as it Relates to our business or our career, and that is great because at some point you actually have to take some time off, right? Even if you're not going somewhere, we need to mentally take a step back and just kind of relax and enjoy our life a little bit. And so many of us do that in Q3, July, August, September. And then Q4 rolls around and all of a sudden we look at the calendar, we're like, holy shit. There are three months left in the year. And we try and cram a lot of life and living and projects and goals into that last three months because we told ourselves at the beginning of the year this was going to be our year to do the big things. We've moved the needle forward on a number of big projects and phases in our life. We've made some big decisions. We've started doing some really impressive things. We've stopped doing some things to get us to where we wanted to be. I mean, as it turns out, we've, we've pretty much had a great year, but there are still a couple of things that we wanna tie up before the end of the year. And so we go balls to the wall in Q4 and of course we couple all of that have to get to do the thing energy with the fact that it's also the holiday season, so between Thanksgiving, which in the US is on the fourth Thursday of November, and the end of the year, we're kind of caught up in the busyness and the excitement of the holidays. Which means oftentimes Q4 goes by in a flash and we get to the end of the year and we're like, how is it December already? How did I get here? I had all of these big hopes and dreams at the beginning of the year and I don't really feel like I accomplished them'cause I was so busy doing life. If that sounds like you, you are not alone. In fact, I hosted a masterclass on that at the end of last year, and the women who attended the five day masterclass were like, yep, this is exactly how I feel. I get to the end of the year every year and think, how was it already the end of the year? I mean it, I swear we just took down the Christmas lights from last year. I swear we just addressed all of those end of the year Happy New Year cards that we're sending out. And how is it that we don't have a single photo of the entire group to put on the card for this year? We try and cram a lot into Q4. Let me tell you why I think Q2 is the sleeper quarter that you shouldn't miss. For a number of years now, I have been talking about why I think the beginning of January and maybe even January as a whole is a terrible time to start new habits to try and bring on new behaviors to really go full speed ahead on achieving new goals, and here's why. January is in the middle of winter. It's cold, it's dark. The days are literally the shortest days of the entire year. It's all we can do to just kind of snuggle in and do our work, do what's expected of us. So when we try and couple that with new habits, new routines, it's really hard. For most of us, we take time off in December. We take time off over the holidays. So to think that we're gonna start January with all brand new routines and all new habits and new schedules after we have been pretty much off of work for the two to three weeks before that where we haven't worked a regular schedule for nearly a month. We're setting ourselves up for, I'm not gonna say disaster, but we're setting ourselves up for disappointment. Because on the one hand we think we've got all this energy, we wanna start fast, we want to get going in the right direction right now. But we're tired. We're not used to even a normal routine because we've been on vacation, we've been away, we have been resting and recuperating from the holidays. We try and do too much in the beginning and then instead of understanding that that's what's going on. We just resigned to this whole idea that, well, maybe this isn't my year. This isn't the year that I'm going to smash the gym workout and change my eating habits, and finally lose that 15 pounds and finally write the book that I've been thinking about writing for a couple of years, and maybe learn a new language so that when I travel to Europe, in the summer, I can actually speak to the locals. And we might as well throw in the remodel project at the house or the new landscaping plan for outside. Do you see how we start with these grand ideas of everything that we're going to do? But then life gets in the way, especially when we start trying to do that in January. So what I like to do is use Q1 as kind of a litmus test to yes, try out some new ideas, some new behaviors, some new habits. Not hugely different though. Just kind of a toe dip, dip, and then at the end of Q1 or the beginning of Q2, so literally where we are right now, then I can look back on what has happened over Q1 and make adjustments accordingly. Because there is a lot of time between now and when summer hits in earnest. So if I can look back on what has been serving me in Q1, what have I done that I wanna continue doing? What have I started doing that frankly isn't serving me, or it's just not what I expected I needed moving forward? Then we can make these very agile data-driven pivots just 13 weeks into the year. Which means we have three more quarters to step into that person that we are hoping to be at the end of the year to do the things that we were hoping to accomplish this year. I love doing this after each quarter, but Q1 in particular, and here's why. When we wait to do a review of our life, to ask some questions about what's going well. When we wait to do that at the end of every year, which many of us have been taught to do, maybe not in our personal life, but certainly in business. We think, okay, we get to the end of the year. We've got year end reviews. How did the year go? Did we meet our sales goals? Did we meet our performance metrics? Did we meet the KPIs that we needed to meet? When you save all of that analysis for year end, you are missing opportunities to pivot along the way to make some tactical changes. And this doesn't just apply to work. It applies beautifully to your life outside of work. Which is exactly why the Best Life Planner, the planner that I created, I was a complete planner junkie. I had tried them all. When I couldn't find a planner that worked in the way that I needed it to work, I created one. It's called the Best Life Planner. It is an undated quarterly planner. It has scientifically backed frameworks in it. Each day. We start with the Morning 5-10-5. Five things. I'm grateful for. 10 dreams I achieve five things I'm looking forward to every single day because we wanna start with gratitude. We want to give a call with that 10 dreams I achieved of the big goals that we're working on in our life, and we write them as if they have already happened so that we tell our subconscious that this is important to me. I want you brain, as I go through the day, subconscious, I want you to find opportunities that are going to help me actually achieve these, these dreams that I say that I have achieved. And then five things I'm looking forward to today. That's just setting yourself up, setting your mind up, setting your brain up to have a good day. To not look at your calendar and be like, oh my God, the schedule is so tough today. No, no, no, no. I'm excited to do X, Y, and Z. These are five things I'm looking forward to. So we change our mindset right off the bat when we do that in the morning. There is a place to track your best life habits. Your morning routines, how much water are you drinking? How much sleep are you getting? What was the quality of that sleep? Let's record your meals. Let's talk about workouts. Things, metrics, data, information that you can use while you are on your way to living your best life. We track that every day. Because what you write down, you pay attention to. It's as simple as that. That's why we track this, not so that you can give yourself a gold star at the end of the day and be like, I got all my water in today. We do it so that we can get to the end of the week and be like, yep, I can definitely tell when I went out and had a glass of wine with dinner that I didn't sleep as well that night. So when I am very stressed out at work, I should understand that unwinding with a glass of wine isn't actually serving me. Or we realize, you know what? I need more protein on the days that I am lifting weights because I get to like three o'clock in the afternoon and I have no energy anymore. So we track these habits not only so that we can live a healthy life so we that we can live our best life, but to give us information so that we know what we're doing is either getting us closer to being the person who lives a life we wanna live or maybe is, is holding us back. And then we can make changes to address those things. There are systems like today's top three. Other to-dos there is the Sunday planning session. It is, in my opinion, the best way to plan a week. And it's not about time management, it's about being intentional about how you're spending your day every day. If you are interested in learning more about the Best Life Planner, you can go to the website school of midlife.com/planner, P-L-A-N-N-E-R, or there's a clickable link in the show notes. There's some videos on there that show you how to use the systems. Um, you can actually pick up a copy of the Best Life Planner if you want. There is even a closeout on version one of the Best Life Planner that has exactly the same systems in it, just a different cover. That is there if you were interested in checking it out. I bring up the Best Life Planner because not only is it chockfull of these incredible systems that will support you as you are moving forward, as you are stepping into best life you who lives the best life version of the life that you wanna live. Every, every planner in the back of it has a quarterly review. Where you can actually assess how you are doing on your way to living your best life. There are questions like, what did I accomplish? What did I leave unfinished? What am I most proud of? If I could, I would go back and I would do this differently. What are some new habits that are serving me? What are some new habits that I wanna focus on in the next 90 days? What are some of the biggest lessons I learned? What are some other thoughts that I've had? Maybe some things that I wanna try out. Maybe there are some ideas that you had to put on the parking lot for the current quarter because you just didn't have the time and the space and the bandwidth to address them. What are some of those things that, that you wanna do in the next 90 days? You spend a little bit of time looking back on what you have accomplished, what you have experienced, what you did or did not do in Q1, so that you can set yourself up for greater success in quarter two. Do you see how that works? It's just taking data and information and using it. Now you're not just recording it every day, so you get to the end of the day and you're like, well, I achieved all my habits today. Oh, well, I, I got up and I did my morning routine. I got to check off the box. That's not why we do this. This is a habit that supports you living your best life, whatever that means to you. If you've been around here long enough, you know that BEST LIFE at the School of Midlife is actually an acronym. It is Living a Life Beyond Your Wildest Dreams Success on Your Terms. Filled with what you truly want so that you can live a life LIFE, which is legacy, impact, fulfillment and excitement. Everything we do at the School of Midlife is based on that trademarked framework. A life that's beyond your wildest dreams, success on your terms, a life that you truly want so that you can live a life filled with legacy, impact, fulfillment, and excitement. At some point, I probably should go even deeper into the BEST LIFE framework, but for purposes of what we're doing today, that's what you need to know about it is. The Best Life Planner is set up as the most effective tool to help you live your BEST LIFE. And when I say live your BEST LIFE, I mean best life, the acronym. Not Best Life some slogan that you saw, embroidered on a couch, pillow, or painted on a piece of wood from Hobby Lobby. BEST LIFE framework. That's what we're talking about, and that's why Q2 is so amazing because we've already got data from Q1, especially data that we thought would get us closer to the goals and the dreams that we expected to achieve for this year, right? We started some new things in Q1 because we thought that they were gonna get us closer to where we ultimately want to end up at the end of the year. We made some decisions. We had some tough conversations. We started some new habits. We changed some behaviors, all because we thought that they would get us closer to where we wanted to end up at the end of the year. And if we actually take the time to step back and take a look at it, we can do that right now. We have three months of information. Is what we are working on, are we actually getting closer to where we wanna be? Or do we wanna use Q2 this kind of sleeper quarter where people aren't really expecting much of us. They're expecting that we are in the groove. That we're just kind of carrying the momentum. We're sliding. We're, we're, we're still putting in the work, but there's not as much inertia needed to get us going. We're, we're kind of continuing on that momentum that we built so we can ride this momentum, but we also have the data to make the tough decisions that need to be made. What is serving me? What do I wanna focus on moving forward? What did I accomplish? What am I most proud of? What do I still need to finish? And from that point, then we can actually use q2 to our advantage almost sneakily so. What I mean by that is other people aren't expecting big moves in Q2. They're expecting that well, we got through the big hump of Q1. We're gonna slide into summer and you know, there's, there's Mother's Day and there's graduations and there are end of the year school parties and there's a lot of celebrating that goes on in May and June. And so we're at that point where we're like, well, we just have to get to summer. And then we can kind of take the summer off. And then we've got that last push to the end of the year. And while that works of course it works That, that that's how we've been living for decades of our life. Think about how you could set yourself up for success in a way that you never have before if you take advantage of the opportunities that you have ahead of you for the next 13 weeks. I'm telling you, Q2 can be the most important quarter of your year every year. If you just make some, if you just pay attention to what you've learned from the first 13 weeks and make some decisions accordingly. So instead of just sliding through Q2, instead of just looking forward to the summer and assuming that you're gonna get to work in Q4, I'm telling you, you are going to set yourself up for so much greater success, maybe even success that will surprise you. If you just roll up your sleeves, you make some tough decisions, you figure out where you're headed, and you put all of your time and attention moving in that direction. And if you need some help, pick up a Best Life Planner. Go to the website, watch the videos, figure out how to use it. If you need even greater support, reach out to me. I'll put a clickable link in the show notes. Schedule a call, let's you and I talk about what it is that you are working on in your life right now that you need help with. I have two spots for one-on-one coaching open for Q2. That's all I've got. I've got two spots and that's it. But you've got time. You've got opportunity. You've got time. Let's make Q2, the quarter that you really set yourself up for something incredible this year. And again, if you don't know how to do that, let's get on a call. Let's talk through it. If you are on my email list, and I don't know why you're not, if you're not, um, you may have read in yesterday's newsletter that we're gonna do a change to the newsletter going forward. It's gonna drop monthly instead of weekly, which will give me the opportunity to kind of do deeper dives on some things. But I also mentioned that there's some really cool things coming for the School of Midlife this year. I am, huh? Yeah, I'm, I'm doing so much different. There, there's a lot changing here and, and most of this comes out of me stepping back after Q1 and figuring out that how I've been running the School of Midlife, not only for the last 13 weeks, but for the last six years. I have to change some things to build the vision of the business that I am building. One of those things is, um, I, I'm so excited about it launching later this year. Um, you'll get more information about it very, very soon. But for the first time ever, I am going to host a small, very high level leadership collective for midlife women. That's gonna include two in-person multi-day intensives. Then we're gonna do monthly virtual sessions for support and perspective and real conversation. I'm excited to pull together a room full of women who are all asking the same questions, which is what exactly we're doing here in this season of life; right? Like, what is next for me? It's gonna feel a lot like your own personal board of directors who are navigating so many of the same questions and experiences that you are in the season of life. I couldn't be more excited to tell you more about that, but I've gotta get some backend pieces of the business setup first, and that includes a brand new website, new email platform, new backend systems. We're getting a complete tech overhaul. I am very excited about it. It is a long overdue. My guess is there will be some bumps along the way. Um, I don't think it will impact the podcast, but you just never know. So I am reviewing the entire tech stack right now, in the hopes that what we are building will actually make it easier for you to find the information and the resources that you need as a midlife woman moving through this season of her life. And I also mentioned that I'm gonna be hosting a couple of virtual workshops this quarter. This is going to be different than anything that I have hosted before. They're gonna be short focused sessions, so, um, probably two to three hours I would think. You know, half day maybe. I don't think we're gonna go an entire full day, but they're gonna be focused on, well focus midlife focus, midlife clarity, with the whole idea that we wanna get you clear on really what matters most in this season of life and what comes next for you. Uh, they're gonna be very tactical workshops. I don't have all of the information at my fingertips to pass along to you right now, but just know that there are some very exciting things coming for the School of Midlife, and I cannot wait to introduce'em to you because I know you are going to love them. Uh, I'm looking at the clock. I've talked for half an hour now, so I guess the episode wasn't as short as I expected it to be, but there there was just some logistics that we had to work through, um, at the end of the episode to, to give you a little lay of the land and tell you what's going on here and, and why I am so grateful that you are here. And just know that I am listening to all of your comments. I am trying to deliver on what it is that you say you want and you need at this time in your life. And I couldn't be more grateful that you are here to share this journey with me. So it's the beginning of Q2. Let's go. Let's make this year our best year yet. Let's start that by taking a step back, doing a quick review on what happened for the first 13 weeks of the year, and then let's get going. Let's put it in drive, and let's get going. Thank you so much for being here today. As always, I am so grateful that you would choose to spend part of your day with me, part of your week with me. If something has resonated with you in this session, I would be so grateful if you would share it with a friend. It's, I cannot overstate enough how much it helps the podcast when you do share episodes with your friends. It just really helps us build this mission that we are on to give high achieving midlife women everywhere, the tools, the information, the community, the support that they need to live their very best life in midlife and beyond. So again, thanks so much for being here. Have a great week. I'll see you back here next week when the School of Midlife is back in session. Until then, take good care. Thank you so much for listening to the School of Midlife podcast. It means so much to have you here each week. If you enjoyed this episode, could you do me the biggest favor and help us spread the word to other midlife women? There are a couple of easy ways for you to do that first. And most importantly, if you're not already following the show, would you please subscribe? That helps you because you'll never miss an episode. And it helps us because you'll never miss an episode. Second, if you'd be so kind to leave us a five-star rating, that would be absolutely incredible. And finally, I personally read each and every one of your reviews. So if you take a minute and say some nice things about the podcast, well, that's just good karma. Thanks again for listening. I'll see you right back here. Next week when the School of Midlife is back in session until then take good care.