Weekly Retrospective for Successful Fitness Business Owners

It’s been said that REVIEW is the most powerful word in business.

I would agree with that statement.

Success in ANY endeavor is never a straight line.

We operate in a fast-moving, constantly changing, environment of business (and life) today.

Things change.

Often.

And quickly.

If you’re not reviewing your goals, adjusting your plans, and adapting as necessary… well it’s highly unlikely that you’re going to get very far.

NOTE: This article assumes you’ve got a dream(s), set goals, defined priorities, and created a plan. If you haven’t taken each of THOSE steps yet, then go back and start there. 

I’ve made a weekly review a habit for several years now and it’s served me incredibly well. I prefer to do mine on Sundays as it’s a great day to hit the “reset” button and prep for the week ahead, but you can do this any day of the week.

I know some executives that prefer Fridays so their mind is clear over the weekend. Others prefer Monday morning to start the week off right (which in my opinion is too late – come Monday morning if you’re not already off to the races… well, you’re likely behind). The point is you do it. Consistently. Have a set time, each week, to make this a routine habit.

I’ve shared that we used a project management software called Asana with the entire team at NPE. I also have kept a personal account on the Asana platform, and used it for all personal/home items as well.

In fact, I had a project called “Sean Weekly Review” where I keep everything organized in one place for my review process each week. I find doing it this way to be incredibly effective and efficient.

Sometimes a good review takes 10-15 min, other times it may take up to an hour if you have a ton on your plate.

In general though, I’d budget 30 minutes for this.

If it consistently takes you longer than that, you aren’t doing it right.

Get organized and this process will be fast and on point each time.

Ok, here are five key steps to a ensure a powerful weekly review that sets you up to CRUSH each and every week ahead:

1. Positive focus: what went right this week?

When you own a business, and a fast-growing business, you will be faced will challenges all the time.

You eat them for breakfast, and you have them again for dessert.

That requires a very different mindset, perspective, and attitude than the rest of the world.

It’s important to feed your mind with “good stuff” on a regular basis.

What we focus on grows.

Too many Type-A business owners and entrepreneurs live in a constant state of dissatisfaction with what they HAVEN’T done yet, rather than celebrating what they HAVE done (and I’m speaking from personal experience here too).

So, start off by reflecting on what you’re grateful for and the great things that you’ve accomplished.

Even in weeks where you’re dealing with a major setback of some kind, there are ALWAYS good things that you can celebrate.

Take time to focus on the good stuff and celebrate the wins.

2. Review progress towards goals.

Good goals are always S.M.A.R.T. goals.

Most importantly they have defined “measures of success” and a deadline.

And each of those will keep the pressure on you to continue moving forward in making them happen.

When things are on track, great. Keep them rolling.

Other times, they’ll be off track or worse…stuck.

In fact I’ve had goals that were stuck for up to three years in some cases, then things finally shifted… and I was able to knock them out.

Patience is tough sometimes, but necessary.

In any case, when things are off track with a goal, you get to decide how you want to handle the situation.

Can you shift resources from one area to another to pick up the slack?

Can you get additional support from someone (a friend, coach, mentor) to assist you in getting things back on track?

Does your goal need to be put on hold for now or does the timeline need to be adjusted?

Only you can make these types of calls.

And the more experience you gain, the better you will become at making the right calls.

But if you’re not reviewing your goals, you don’t get the opportunity to stay in the driver’s seat and make the important decisions.

So stay on it!

3. Review progress with current projects.

Most (big) goals require a number of projects to make them happen.

Often projects have a number of tasks and multiple players involved in their successful completion.

Even if you’ve delegated ownership of a project to someone else, if you own the goal then it’s important you check in on the progress.

Is each of the steps on track?

If the projects are on track, but the goal is not, does the strategy need to be adjusted? Another project added to the mix perhaps?

If you’ve got a project management system like Asana, it’s easy to simply scan down the list of tasks and see which are on track (in green) and which are overdue and incomplete (in red).

Adjust as necessary (resources, timelines, etc.) to keep things moving forward towards achievement of your goals.

4. Review the calendar.

In my world, managing the calendar is a big job.

Coordinating regular international travel, time zones, meetings, personal time, and more… is a major undertaking.

Fortunately, I’ve got an incredible assistant who manages it all like a champion (thank you, Sandra!).

SIDE NOTE: I remember having a great conversation with Tony Horton at his home in Santa Monica a couple years ago when we were filming a promotion for MEGA TRAINING^®.

Tony makes it a rule to schedule out all his workouts 30 days in advance on the calendar, and swears by this method for staying on track with his fitness despite a very busy schedule – which at 57 years young now, is remarkable. I saw him put every fitness professional (many half his age) to shame in the Hilton hotel gym at Disney World that year with a brutal 3-4 hour workout… that even continued with gymnastics in the lobby late into the evening.

Anyway, the calendar is where “the rubber meets the road” as they say.

You either run the day or the day runs you.

And running the day is all about good planning with blocks of time.

Whether you’re in one city, or on a world tour this week like I often am… we all have the same 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week to eat, sleep, workout, spend time with friends and family, and work on our priorities.

The more you’ve got on your plate, the more looking ahead and adjusting things as needed to stay on track is required.

The most successful people I know and admire all have some good “unbreakable rules” with their calendar they’ve established over the years.

BTW… each of them established these rules after going through some form of challenge and pain. You generally don’t learn these lessons the easy way, you learn them the hard way unfortunately.

One of those I practice is no work on Sundays.

Others have “date night” with spouses on Fridays.

Or activities with kids on a Monday night or other weeknight.

We all get to define what boundaries and limits we want to set on balancing our work and home life.

And in some cases, where you bring the two together.

Each of which are important to our happiness, success, and personal fulfillment.

5. Review additional items.

There are almost always “additional items” to cover.

This is a placeholder where I dump things during the week that come up unrelated to a priority or project I’m working on, but that need my attention or review.

Here these items get that attention and you get to decide what you want to do (if anything) with them.

Things that go here for me are often reviewing some personal mail that usually gets backed up when I’m busy during the week (or when I’m on the road, gets scanned and sent to me).

Perhaps paying a bill or two that isn’t on auto-payment with my bank in Florida.

I generally see the dentist every few months and usually set the next appointment before I leave a current one. But, for some reason I didn’t do that last time, so I got one of those little reminder cards in the mail to schedule a visit.

So, I simply schedule a task for Sandra (my assistant) to call and book me in for a visit one morning.

Summary

Alright, the most important part of this article is that you put it to good use.

Take out your calendar (or open up the program assuming you use a digital one) and pick a time that you can commit to doing a weekly review – ideally the same time each week.

Set it as a recurring appointment.

And do it!

It will likely take a little setting up and perhaps a few weeks to get into the rhythm of flying through it.

That’s ok.

Just commit to the process and working on it to be a little better each week.