Q1 Check-In: A Personal Strategy Review
Five steps to celebrate wins, adjust course, and let go of what isn't working
Without a review cadence, even the best strategic plan quickly becomes irrelevant. Organizations often integrate a regular check-in for strategic plan health into their annual planning cycles.
Most people never apply the same discipline to their personal goals — and then wonder why January momentum for New Year’s resolutions dies by March. Through a strategy management check-in, your personal goals benefit from the same consideration, evaluation, and monitoring as organizational strategic goals.
1. Checking in early
As I’ve shared previously in my Invitation to Rethink New Year’s Resolutions, I love to coordinate my review of goals around the seasons. This is the start of your personal strategy review cadence. I often do this first one a little on the early side and take this as an opportunity to confirm I’ve set the right areas of focus for the year now that I’ve had some time to assess early progress against initial assumptions. By taking a closer look at how my goals are going so far this year, I can celebrate early wins and identify where adjustments might be needed. I also flag if there are areas that are either missing or need dramatic reinvention due to changing internal factors, such as a personal job change or health development, or external environmental factors such as regulatory shifts or seasonal weather events.
2. Celebrating wins so far
I’m all about celebrating the early wins. Sometimes I put items on my to-do list that I can check off quickly just to build that momentum – Morning coffee? Check. Goal-tracking for the year is no different. Taking a look at your goals and seeing where you’ve made progress is a great way to build and sustain momentum early in the year.
One of my goals this year is to read 50 books. I’m excited to share that I’m ahead of schedule so far. This is extra exciting because I lagged behind all throughout 2025…a downside of averaging 500+ pages a book…but is also an indicator that I’m enjoying what I’m reading this year and that is a positive contributor to my overall focus on wellbeing, under which my reading goal nests.
3. Adjusting where needed
Small adjustments may be needed once you start living your goals this year. Maybe you set a goal to go to the gym 5 times weekly and that’s just too much for your schedule – that’s okay. Sometimes we set targets based on our best guesses, past experiences, or best practice-informed principles, and they’re not quite right. Adjusting goals based on learnings and integrating optionality is part of an adaptive, agile strategy practice. Identifying where small adjustments can and may need to be made can help ensure that your goals stay relevant and attainable for you – the ultimate customer of this process – even after they run up against the challenges of reality.
4. Recognizing a swing and a miss
Sometimes the New Year hype is just too strong and we all set aspirations that are unrealistic for ourselves, unreasonably challenging in current circumstances, or simply unhelpful. These may represent opportunities for strategic divestment. Being able to identify those when they emerge, especially early on, gives you time and space to thank that big, hairy, audacious goal (BHAG) for its time, set it free, and re-focus around a new priority for the year while there’s still plenty of time left.
A couple years ago, I set a goal to read and complete the activities in Design Your Life, which is a guidebook to using design thinking to reimagine your life where you shape three potential odysseys. I lost steam midway through the book’s activities, but I didn’t abandon the goal. I powered through the remaining chapters in the last few days of the year to check the box, but in hindsight, I would have been better off pivoting months earlier to a new framework.
5. Sharing goals with a friend
Sharing your progress, whether that includes little victories, minor adjustments, or a big overhaul, is a great way to rally your support network and build accountability for yourself. This represents narrative reinforcement of your personal strategy. This might look like a weekly text, monthly coffee chat, or update at a family gathering. I’m always much more accountable to a goal when I’ve been sharing progress updates along the way. Find your person and loop them in.
Bonus Tip: Start fresh at any point in the year
There’s still plenty of time left in the year to reconsider goals for the coming year if January just didn’t happen. Any day can be the day to start moving in a new direction. When I’m considering a new set of goals or a seismic shift away from an old set, I aim to start operationalizing the goals at the beginning of a new week or a new month for some early momentum. This week could be your week!
In closing, an invitation
Over time, these updates, alongside your visual artifacts and lived experiences, become part of your personal strategic narrative. The same review cadence that keeps organizational strategies directional and relevant works for personal goals as well. Applying the same disciplined approach to personal goals positions you for a year of understood progress and deliberate momentum.
Keep an eye out for the next personal strategy article on Strategy Stories in early summer! The summer check-in will go deeper on mid-year pivots and strategic reinvention. Subscribe for free below to make sure you don’t miss it.
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About Strategy Stories
Strategy Stories is the insights vertical of Lavorgna Strategy Studio, a consultancy helping leaders, teams, and organizations prepare and plan for the future through strategic planning and strategic foresight.
Curious how these frameworks translate into practical strategy for your organization? Connect with Jackie Lavorgna, Founder and Principal, to learn more.