The Quarter Is Closing. Are You?

What's Good Friend!

It's the last Sunday of March.

The last Sunday of the first quarter of the year.

And I just want to pause here for a second; not to evaluate, not to grade ourselves, but to simply acknowledge that we made it through.

Q1 is not for the faint of heart. It never is. It asks a lot of us before the year even finds its rhythm. It's the quarter that tests whether our intentions were real or just pretty words we wrote in a journal on December 31st or January 1st. It's the quarter that asks you to prove it…  not to anyone else, but to yourself. Where life interrupts the plan and we have to decide, again and again, if we still mean it, if we’re truly standing on business.

And here we are. Still here. Still building. Still standing on business!

I want to name something before we turn the page: closing a chapter is not the same as completing one. Completing sounds like a finish line,  like you either crossed it or you didn't. But closing? Closing is active. Closing is intentional. It says: I am choosing to mark this moment and be done with it. I am not just letting time drag me into the next season. I am stepping into it, chin up - chest out, lips glossed, fade crisp, sneakers or heels fresh!

And for me I believe I owe it to myself. Recently celebrating my 35th birthday on Tuesday, March 24 I’ve been able to reflect on what God has truly done in my life. Q1 for me personally was about obedience, trusting the plans, letting God be good to me and me not getting in the way. As I’m celebrating my New Year I’m doing it with a new type of confidence and trusting that everything does not have to be perfect, I trust the work I’ve done. I trust my foundation. I’m fully in my great integration year that year where everything converges.

Fully. Intentionally. Gratefully.

That's the energy I'm bringing into Q2. And I hope you'll bring it with you too.

CLOSING WITH INTENTION

There's a difference between a quarter that passed and a quarter that was lived.

One just happened. The other was participated in; even in the messy, inconvenient, “oops” that didn't-go-as-planned parts.

I've been thinking about what Q1 actually asked of us this year. Not what we wanted it to be. What it was.

For a lot of us, it asked for patience. It asked us to do the quiet work without applause. It asked us to rebuild things that had no audience — habits, boundaries, internal standards, the way we talk to ourselves when no one is watching.

That's not glamorous. But it is foundational.

And here's what I know about foundations: you don't get to skip them. Chile, you can try. You can try to rush past them. Shoot, you can tell yourself you'll go back and reinforce later. But eventually, everything built on an incomplete foundation will ask you to return and do the work you skipped. Trust me… I know all to well…

I think Q1 gave us the gift of the foundation. Whether we want to recognize it as a gift yet or not.

So as we close this quarter, I don't want you measuring yourself against a highlight reel you imagined in January. I want you to look at what you actually did. The decisions you made. The things you chose not to do. The moments you held your peace when you could have let it go. The times you kept showing up for something that hadn't paid off yet.

That is the work. And it counts.

Know this… Q2 is not asking you to start over. It's asking you to build on top of what you laid in Q1. This is the season where the foundation becomes a floor. Where quiet work starts to take shape. Where what was invisible starts to become visible.

And as a simple reminder: You're not behind. You're building. Intentionally

MY INTERNAL AUDIT

Before you step all the way into April, sit with these:

1. What did Q1 actually build in me? Not what I planned, but what was formed through what I went through?
   

2. What am I releasing as this quarter closes? A habit, an expectation, a version of myself that served a season but not the next one?
   

3. What am I carrying forward? One thing… just one, that I am committed to taking into Q2 with more intention than I had in Q1.

Don't rush this. Let it be a real conversation with yourself.

MY INTENTIONAL PULSE

Q1 is closing.

And you are still here… still building, still becoming, still choosing to show up for the life you're architecting. 

That is not small. That is everything.

So pause, consider your foundation, and then… FORGE

Spring is not asking you to hustle. She's asking you to grow. And you are more than ready.

Here's to closing Q1 with grace. 

Not perfectly. Not completely. But intentionally. 

We did the work. We laid the floor. And now? Q2 gets to be the season where we finally get to see what we built. I'll be right here with you every step of the way.

Until next time :)

With love + intention,
Shakeyla M. Ingram

P.S. Q2 is going to be a whole season, friend. New conversations, new reflections, some travel content, and even a really special feature coming in April that I think is going to hit differently. Stay close. 🌿✨