ISSUE 80
30 MARCH 2026 | READ ONLINE
Hi Reader,
Tomorrow is the last day of Q1. And I just found my January list.
It was folded inside a notebook, under another notebook that has barely moved since February.
Reading it felt like finding a note from a stranger.
Not because I gave up on everything on it. But because the version of me who wrote that list had no idea what Q1 would actually ask of her.
I had a plan. Three big moves. Two new habits. One overdue conversation I kept saying I’d get to.
Q1 had other ideas.
One project ballooned in scope. One relationship got more complicated, not less. The habits lasted about 11 days before life got loud. And the conversation? Still waiting.
Here’s what I keep noticing with the people I coach: most of them are sitting in exactly this place right now.
They set a Q1 plan in January. January-them was optimistic, rested, and completely unaware of what February would bring. Now it’s late March, and they’re measuring the actual quarter against a ghost.
What we actually do in January
We don’t plan. We project.
We project the next three months based on the assumption that we’ll have the same energy on March 1 as we did on January 1. We assume the environment stays stable. We assume the unexpected won’t show up.
And then it does. Because it always does.
Here’s the thing research is now confirming: updating your plan isn’t the problem. Refusing to update it is.
A 2025 study published in Educational Psychologist looked at how people revise goals after success and failure. The finding that matters for you: rigidly sticking to unrealistically high goals, rather than revising them when conditions change, actually impairs performance. Adaptive goal revision, driven by honest feedback, is what allows people to stay effective over time. Not white-knuckling the original plan.
And a 2026 review in Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being found that psychological flexibility, the capacity to keep pursuing what matters despite obstacles and setbacks, is one of the strongest buffers against burnout at work. Rigid, inflexible goal pursuit is listed as a risk factor. Not a virtue.
In other words, the people who finish the year well aren’t the ones who executed the plan perfectly.
They’re the ones who can honestly look at the gap between the plan and reality and update without spiraling.
The Q1 audit reframe
The question most people ask right now: why didn’t I do what I said I would?
The better question: what did Q1 actually teach me about what this year wants to be?
Because sometimes the project that stalled was stalling for a reason.
Sometimes the habit that didn’t stick was telling you something real about your actual capacity.
Sometimes, the overdue conversation you kept postponing is asking you to think harder about what you actually want to say.
The plan wasn’t wrong. Your calibration just didn’t have all the data yet.
Now it does.
And that’s the part most people skip. They either white-knuckle Q2 with the same January plan, or they scrap everything and start over. Neither one is the move.
The move is the audit. Honest. Fast. Forward-facing.
A Small Experiment for This Week
Don’t wait for April 1 to start fresh. Do this today, with five minutes and honest eyes.
Option A: The 10-minute Q1 audit
Grab a piece of paper. Finish these sentences:
The thing I thought Q1 would be about: ____
What Q1 was actually about: ____
What that tells me to stop carrying into Q2: ____
What that tells me to double down on: ____
Option B: The “what does the year actually want” reset
Look back at everything you showed up for in Q1. Not what you planned. What you actually did.
Then ask: if I described this quarter to someone who didn’t know my January plan, what would they say I was prioritizing?
Sometimes your actual Q1 reveals a truer version of your values than the list you wrote in January.
I hope this is helpful. And I’ll see you in Q2,
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