When most people think about goal setting, they take an annualized approach and plan out 12 months in advance. This practice has several steep pitfalls. One of the most significant is the procrastination it causes as people think they have more time than they do to put things in motion and crush their goals. Another major factor is moving the goalposts of your vision over the course of such a long time frame like 12 months. 12 months is a long time for things to change and visions to be adjusted. In order to combat that, a shorter timeframe is needed. Enter the 12 week approach, or The 12 Week Year. The 12 Week Year in premise as explained in the book by Brian P. Moran conceptualizes the year as 12 weeks in which you set goals and timelines accordingly. This approach allows you to emphasize the importance of each day as there isn’t much time to procrastinate in 12 weeks if you want to hit your goals. Execution on your vision is the key to make this approach a success. It does so by harnessing 4th quarter urgency and applying it across the entire year.
4th quarter urgency
When the 4th quarter of the year comes around, people begin to get more productive. They feel the pressure of the impending end of year deadline to hit their numbers and all of a sudden, the procrastination that plagued the previous 9 months subsides. This teaches us a very powerful lesson. Setting impending deadlines is a key driving force to productivity. If we have a deadline within 90 days, it gives us a long enough runway to get it done, but it also makes sure we’re on our horses about it so we can complete the task within that timeline. The 12 Week Year replicates that urgency and sprinkles it throughout the calendar year. Instead of a quarterly approach, now every 12 weeks equals a year. This concept creates urgency for you that otherwise wouldn’t exist. It also forces you to be meaningful, purposeful, and realistic about your goals that you are pursuing. Not being able to accomplish your goals is commonplace in the regular calendar year which can be demoralizing. The 12 Week Year erases this as long as you stay on track by forcing yourself to be reasonable about your goals so they can be attainable yet difficult.
Your personal vision
Why are our goals our goals? What are we working towards? What’s our grand vision we are building up to? These are some of the questions we should be asking ourselves when planning our 12 Week Year goals. Getting emotionally tied to our visions allows us to retain the motivation and discipline required to stick through the discomfort and pain that comes along with accomplishing something worthwhile. Emotions are extremely powerful. As we’ve talked about in previous blog posts, using emotions to make decisions can be detrimental to our success. However, using emotions in a way that motivates us to complete our goals as we work to a greater vision is one of if not the most powerful sparks you can get. Leaning on this vision and making it as emotionally appealing as possible will go a long way to staying accountable to your goals.
Execution
Having a vision and goals are great, but without execution, they are just ideas. Putting things into motion and developing a plan and timeline that is concise yet reasonable to do so will force you to take the actions necessary to complete your goals. So many people have big lofty ideas and goals. This is an amazing start because your thoughts control your actions and if you can align your thoughts with your goals you’ll be a step ahead. However, this is all meaningless without the all important step of execution. Taking a 12 week approach to your goals puts an emphasis on execution. It eliminates the excess time for procrastination, necessitates creating reasonably attainable yet challenging goals, and creates an urgency similar to that of the 4th quarter of the regular calendar year for most people. This approach is like unlocking a productivity superpower that will explode your growth and propel you towards your vision in every way possible!