The 12 Week Year PDF

Additional Praise for The 12 Week Year “Time is the single biggest roadblock that restricts human progress. The 12 Week Year provides a roadmap to drive velocity, output, and results. Speed of execution is the driving force to success, and Brian Moran and Mike Lennington help you win this race. A must-read for those seeking to reach their full potential.” —Josh Linkner, New York Times bestselling author of Disciplined Dreaming “Moran and Lennington’s view of accountability is a game changer. If we all wake up to the fact that freedom of choice is the foundation of accountability, the word will take on a whole new meaning.” —Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson, coauthors of Why Managing Sucks and How to Fix It “Using the 12 Week Year has been the single best thing I have done per- sonally and professionally!” —Wicho Hernandez, President, LINQ Financial “What I like about The 12 Week Year is that it helps you produce results! Ideas are great—and this book has plenty of them—but they aren’t worth a hill of beans until you act on them. I’ve been endorsing Moran and Lennington’s work to my clients for years. Why? The system works!” —Bill Cates, author of Beyond Referrals; How to Use the Perpetual Revenue System™ to Turn Referrals into High-Value Clients “The 12 Week Year is by far the most practical book on what it takes to execute well that I have ever encountered. If you really read this book, if you study it, if you commit yourself to apply it—it will transform your results in business and in life.” —James Shoemaker, CEO, Shoemaker Financial “Over two decades running businesses, teaching others to do it, writing and speaking about it, day-to-day execution remains the toughest part of the code to get right. In one book Brian and Mike have put everything before it to shame.” —Dick Cross, author of Just Run It! “The 12 Week Year is one of the best ‘how-to’ books I’ve ever read. It will work for you!” —Jack Krasula, Host of “Anything is Possible,” NewsTalk 760 WJR “The 12 Week Year is a must-read for anyone who is seeking a more balanced and successful personal and professional life. Not only does it introduce many great and practical ideas for improving your performance in business, it also includes step-by-step action items to actually implement those ideas.” —Robert Fakhimi, CEO and President, Mass Mutual San Francisco “In my career I have only experienced two different things that I con- sider to be game changers, and The 12 Week Year process is one. It has transformed our agency from top to bottom.” —Gregory A. McRoberts, Managing Partner, WestPoint Financial Group “The 12 Week Year is genius! The only way I can stay on schedule, as an author, speaker, business-owner, husband, and father of four is by subscribing to this simple, yet brilliant strategy. Don’t let another year go by without dis- covering the power of this fantastic program. It will revolutionize your life, turning dreams into reality!” —Patrick Kelly, author of national bestseller, Tax-Free Retirement “The principals and disciplines of high performance outlined in this book will change your personal and business life and will create a sense of urgency.” —Harris S. Fishman, President, First Financial Group “Brian and Mike are onto something truly empowering, sometimes life does get in the way, but if you think about the long-term benefits of your actions, you will never disappoint yourself or others around you. The exercises and life plans that are in this book make it a must-read for everyone, professionally and personally.” —Michael Vesuvio, President, Emerald Financial GET MORE DONE IN 12 WEEKS THAN OTHERS DO IN 12 MONTHS BRIAN P. MORAN MICHAEL LENNINGTON Cover design: Paul McCarthy Copyright © 2013 by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington. All rights reserved. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey. Published simultaneously in Canada. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at www.wiley.com/go/permissions. 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Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you pur- chased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: Moran, Brian, 1959– The 12 week year : get more done in 12 weeks than others do in 12 months / Brian Moran and Michael Lennington. pages cm ISBN 978-1-118-50923-4 (cloth); ISBN 978-1-118-61629-1 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-61636-9 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-61642-0 (ebk) 1. Success in business. 2. Success. 3. Organizational effectiveness. I. Lennington, Michael, 1958- II. Title. III. Title: Twelve week year. HF5386.M753 2013 650.1—dc23 2012049843 Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents Chapter 1 The Challenge 1 PART I THINGS YOU THINK YOU KNOW 7 Chapter 2 Redefining the Year 9 Chapter 3 The Emotional Connection 19 Chapter 4 Throw Out the Annual Plan 25 Chapter 5 One Week at a Time 29 Chapter 6 Confronting the Truth 33 Chapter 7 Intentionality 39 v vi Contents Chapter 8 Accountability as Ownership 45 Chapter 9 Interest versus Commitment 49 Chapter 10 Greatness in the Moment 55 Chapter 11 Intentional Imbalance 61 PART II PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER 65 Chapter 12 The Execution System 67 Chapter 13 Establish Your Vision 77 Chapter 14 Develop Your 12 Week Plan 89 Chapter 15 Installing Process Control 105 Chapter 16 Keeping Score 117 Chapter 17 Take Back Control of Your Day 127 Chapter 18 Taking Ownership 143 Chapter 19 12 Week Commitments 153 Contents vii Chapter 20 Your First 12 Weeks 169 Chapter 21 Final Thoughts and the 13th Week 187 References 189 CHAPTER 1 The Challenge How is it that some people seem to accomplish so much while the vast majority of people never accomplish what they are capable of? If you could fully tap your potential, what might be different for you? How would your life change if each and every day you performed up to your full potential? What would be different six months, three years, and five years down the road if each day you were at your best? That set of questions, that core concept, is what the past dozen years or so have been about for Mike and me. For years, we have been helping our clients to execute more effectively. We work with individuals, teams, and corporations to make plans to help them achieve their goals. Our quest has been to unlock the secret to helping individuals and organizations perform at their best and live the life they are truly capable of. “If we did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.” —Thomas Edison I agree with Steven Pressfield, author of The War of Art, that most of us have two lives: the lives we live and the lives we are capable of living. It’s the latter that intrigues me. It’s the life, 1 2 The 12 Week Year I believe, that we all deeply desire. It’s the life that we know exists somewhere deep inside us that we wish we could actualize. This life isn’t driven by the you who settles or gives in to pro- crastination and doubt, but by the optimal you, the best you, the confident you, the healthy you. The you who shows up with your best stuff, making things happen, making a difference, living a life of significance. Being your optimal self sounds great doesn’t it? But how do you become that other you? What does it take to be your best? That’s an interesting question, and as I’ve had the opportunity to travel and meet thousands of people, I often ask them, “What does it take to be your best, to be great?” As you might imagine, I get a lot of different answers. In this book we will show you how to increase your current results by four times or more, in a very short period of time. You will learn exactly what it takes to perform at your best every day. We will unwrap the secrets of top performers in a way that allows you to align your thinking and your actions to produce staggering results. You are about to learn that creating greatness in your life or in your organization isn’t com- plicated. In fact, it’s quite uncomplicated, but that doesn’t mean that it’s easy. The number-one factor holding people back from achiev- ing what they are truly capable of is not a lack of knowledge, intellect, or information. It’s not a new strategy or idea. It’s not a larger network of connected people. It’s not hard work, natural talent, or luck. Of course all these things help, they all play a fac- tor, but they are not the factors that make the difference. You’ve no doubt heard the saying knowledge is power. I dis- agree. Knowledge is only powerful if you use it, if you act on it. People spend lifetimes acquiring knowledge, but to what purpose? Knowledge alone benefits no one unless the person acquiring it does something with it. And great ideas are worthless unless The Challenge 3 they are implemented. The marketplace only rewards those ideas that get implemented. You can be smart and have access to lots of information and great ideas; you can be well con- nected, work hard, and have lots of natural talent, but in the end, you have to execute. Execution is the single greatest market dif- ferentiator. Great companies and successful individuals execute better than their competition. The barrier standing between you and the life you are capable of living is a lack of consistent execution. Effective execution will set you free. It is the path to accomplish the things you desire. Think about the areas in your life where you’ve fallen short, accomplished less than you desire, or less than you feel you’re capable of. In each of those scenarios, if you look critically, the breakdown is most often in the execution. Take for instance a new idea that someone else has used to create success. How often does that idea fail when a different person tries it? One of our clients is a large insurance company with more than 2,000 agents. Within the company there is one agent who is a perennial top producer year-in and year-out. As you might expect, over the years, other agents have asked him if he would share his approach with them. Without hesitation the top pro- ducer would take time out from his busy schedule to walk them through exactly what he did to create his success. Do you know how many people replicated his success? You guessed it, zero. He now refuses to share his secret because no one follows through with what he teaches them. Sixty-five percent of Americans are overweight or obese. Do you think there is some secret to losing weight and getting fit? The diet and fitness industry is a $60 billion industry. Each year new books are published on diet and exercise. When I searched “diet books” on the Internet my search came back with 45,915 results. Almost 46,000 books; some with familiar titles like The Atkins Diet, or South Beach Diet, some with less familiar titles 4 The 12 Week Year like Run Fat B!tch Run. Yet Americans continue to be over- weight and out of shape. Most people know how to get back in shape—eat better, exercise more—they just don’t do it. It’s not a knowledge problem; it’s an execution problem. Our experience has shown that most people have the capacity to double or triple their income just by consistently applying what they already know. Despite this, people continue to chase new ideas thinking that the next idea is the one that will magically make it all better. Ann Laufman is a great example of the benefits of executing the right idea. Ann is a financial advisor with Mass Mutual in Houston. Ann had always done well and by any measure was successful, yet she felt like she was capable of more but was not quite sure how to get there.When her managing partner introduced The 12 WeekYear to the agency, Ann got involved. In the end, Ann experienced a 400 percent increase in production and became the first female asso- ciate of the year in the 103-year history of Mass Mutual Houston. What is interesting about this is that Ann didn’t start to work with more affluent clients, write bigger cases, or expand her target market—all things that most advisors would pursue to increase their production. Instead, Ann focused on improving her exe- cution by doing what she had already been doing, just doing it more steadily. By consistently executing the critical few tasks and strategies that most supported her success, she was able to create a huge increase—and all of this without working longer hours. Ann’s situation is not unique. We have thousands of examples where individuals and entire organizations have experienced amazing results by simply learning to execute. “It’s not what you know; it’s not even who you know; it’s what you implement that counts.” The Challenge 5 In The 12 Week Year, we will show you how to perform at your best and achieve the things in life that matter most to you through effective execution. Most of the stuff that we’ll discuss, you already know, but as I mentioned earlier, there is a big dif- ference between knowing and doing. We will teach you how to consistently take action on the things that will shape your success. The concepts in this book have been developed and proven in the field through our ongoing execution work with clients. We’ve included only what works, and have eliminated the rest. The final product is a concise but powerful book that delivers. While we do hope the book is thought-provoking, it’s more important to us that it inspires you to action. We have written The 12 Week Year to close the execution gap. It is written in a way that allows you to understand the fundamental concepts of execution and actually apply them right away. The book is split into two parts. Part I helps you understand the process to achieve your most valuable goals in only weeks. Part II is all about making your goals happen. It gives you the specific tools and tips needed to support the ideas in Part I of the book. Our 12 week execution system is both flexible and scal- able. The concepts apply equally well for individuals as well as groups, both personally and professionally. We have had entire organizations as well as individuals apply the 12 Week Year with great success. While the book is concise, the concepts it contains are pow- erful. It is possible for you to dramatically improve your results by applying them. We know this to be true because of the thou- sands of responses from the readers of our first edition. In this book, we will show you how to substantially increase your current results, lower your stress, build your confidence, 6 The 12 Week Year and feel better about yourself. Not by working harder, but by focusing on the activities that matter most, maintaining a sense of urgency to get those things done, and shedding the low- value activity that keeps you stuck. Get ready: You are about to experience the 12 Week Year! —Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington Part I Things You Think You Know Part I will provide fresh insights regarding what it takes to be great and challenge what you think you know about what it takes to perform at your best and achieve your potential. “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.” —John Wooden 7 CHAPTER 2 Redefining the Year Most people, and most organizations for that matter, don’t lack ideas.Whether they’re effective marketing techniques, sales ideas, cost-cutting measures, or customer service enhancements, there are always more ideas than you can effectively implement. The breakdown is not in knowing, but in applying. “You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do.” —Henry Ford One of the things that gets in the way of individuals and organizations achieving their best is the annual planning pro- cess. As strange as this is going to sound, annual goals and plans are often a barrier to high performance. I’m not saying that annual goals and plans don’t have a positive impact; they do. There is no question you will do better with annual goals and plans than without any goals or plans; however, we have found that this annual process inherently limits performance. As we worked with clients over the years, we noticed an inter- esting pattern emerging. Most of them believed, either consciously or unconsciously, that their success and failure was determined by what they had achieved over the course of a year. They set 9 10 The 12 Week Year annual goals, created annual plans, and in many cases broke the goals down into quarterly, monthly, and sometimes even weekly plans. But in the end, they evaluated their success annually. The trap is what we call annualized thinking. Discard Annualized Thinking At the heart of annualized thinking is an unspoken belief that there is plenty of time in the year to make things happen. In January, December looks a long way off. Think about it; we begin the year with big goals but by the end of January we usually find ourselves slightly behind where we need to be. While we’re certainly not pleased, we’re not too worried, either, because we think to ourselves: “I’ve got plenty of time. I’ve got 11 more months to catch up.” At the end of March we’re still a bit behind, but again we’re not too worried. Why? Because we still think we’ve got plenty of time to catch up. And this thought pattern prevails late into the year. We mistakenly believe that there is a lot of time left in the year, and we act accordingly. We lack a sense of urgency, not realizing that every week is important, every day is important, every moment is important. Ultimately, effective execution happens daily and weekly! Another flawed premise with annualized thinking is the notion that, sometime later in the year, we will experience a significant improvement in results. It’s as if something magical will happen in late September or October that will result in a substantial increase. If we can’t produce a substantial increase this week, why do we think we can do it for the entire year? The fact is every week counts! Every day counts! Every moment counts! We need to be conscious of the reality that execution happens daily and weekly, not monthly or quarterly. Redefining the Year 11 Annualized thinking and planning more often than not leads to less than optimal performance. In order to perform at your best you will need to get out of the annual mode and scrub your annualized thinking. Stop thinking in terms of a year; instead focus on shorter time frames. The annual execution cycle blinds people to the reality that life is lived in the moment and that ultimately success is created in the moment. It lulls people into believing that they can put things off—critical activity—and still accomplish what they desire, still achieve their goals. At this point, you might argue that almost every organization operates this way and many of them hit their goals and make plan. I would argue back that making plan does not mean that they are accomplishing what they are capable of. We’ve had successful organizations increase their results by 50 percent in just 12 short weeks. In one example, we helped a billion dollar brokerage operation double its sales produc- tivity in six months. That is just not possible operating in an annual execution cycle. However organizations or individu- als are performing, they will perform better in a nonannualized environment. Discard annualized thinking and watch what happens. Great Things Happen at Year-End You’ve probably seen advertisements or heard the pitches pro- claiming “unbeatable deals” as the end of the year approaches. The fact is, these end-of-year pushes get results and are standard practice in many industries. If you’ve ever been part of a year-end push, you know that everyone is focused on getting business in and completing important tasks. The difference between success and failure for the whole year can hang in the balance during the last 60 days. 12 The 12 Week Year More often than not, results spike upward as the days left in the year dwindle toward zero. “There’s nothing like a deadline to get you motivated.” It happens all the time in the insurance and financial services industries. For many agents and firms December is traditionally the best month of the year, and the fourth quarter often rep- resents 30 to 40 percent of the annual sales. It is amazing what happens when people have a goal and a deadline. Year-end is certainly a rousing time in most industries. Activity is up and people are focused. With little time to waste and with clear objectives to meet, workers focus on the critical projects and opportunities. Tasks that are not directly related to driving results are pushed aside for what really matters in the short-term. At this time of year there also seems to be an increase in performance-related conversations. Management, focused on achieving their own performance goals, spends more time with associates reviewing results and encouraging them more than at any other time of the year. What is it about year-end? Why do people behave differently in November and December than they do in July and August? Inevitably, it is because there is a deadline, which for most peo- ple is December 31. The end of the year represents a line in the sand, a point at which we measure our success or failure. Never mind that it’s an arbitrary deadline; everyone buys into it. It is the deadline that creates the urgency. Whether self-imposed or company-driven, November and December is crunch time. People procrastinate less at this time of year. Recognizing that time is running out, people address barriers and tasks that they had been avoiding earlier in the year. Redefining the Year 13 In these remaining days, a strong sense of urgency replaces dif- fusion and downtime. People pull out all the stops to get busi- ness placed before the year ends and there is a strong surge to cross the finish line before time runs out. In addition, there is a feeling of excitement that comes with the anticipation of a new year. Regardless of how you per- formed this year, you’re hopeful that next year will be better. If you had a tough year, the coming year provides you an oppor- tunity to start fresh. If you’ve had a great year, you get a chance to build off of that. Either way, a new year holds lots of hope and high expectations of good things to come. Year-end is an exciting and productive time. The final five or six weeks of the year are the most fascinating time of the entire year. During this period there is a frantic rush to end the year strong and to kick off the new one with gusto. The problem is that this urgency exists for just a handful of weeks. Wouldn’t it be great if you could create that energy, focus, and commitment every week throughout the year? Well, you can! The 12 Week Year and the concept of periodization will show you how. Periodization Periodization began as an athletic training technique designed to dramatically improve performance. Its principles are focus, concentration, and overload on a specific skill or discipline. Periodization in sports is a focused training regimen that con- centrates on one skill at a time for a limited period, usually four to six weeks. After each four- to six-week period, the athlete then moves to the next skill in sequence. In this way, capacity in each skill is maximized. Eastern European athletes were the first to apply this technique in their Olympic train- ing in the 1970s. Periodization is still widely used today in various training regimens. Redefining the Year 15 In the long run, your actions are always congruent with your underlying thinking. When you focus on changing your actions, you experience incremental improvements; however, when your thinking shifts—everything changes.Your actions naturally realign with your new thought patterns. This is how breakthroughs are created. Breakthrough results don’t start with your actions, they are first created in your thinking. Herein lies the power of the 12 Week Year; it shifts your mind-set, thereby creating opportu- nities for breakthrough. The result is a heightened sense of urgency and an increased focus on the critical few, those important core activities that drive success and fulfillment, and the daily execution of those items to guarantee the achievement of your long-term objectives. The 12 Week Year provides the tools and focus for individuals and organizations to be highly successful. It creates a sense of clarity regarding what is important, and a sense of urgency each day to do what is necessary. Furthermore, it addresses harvesting today’s opportunities and also planting the essential seeds neces- sary to ensure continued success. 12 Weeks Equals a Year Forget about a year. By now you can see the pitfalls associated with annualized thinking. Let’s redefine a year: A year is no lon- ger 12 months, it is now only 12 weeks. That’s right, a year is now a 12 week period. There are no longer four periods in a year; that’s old thinking. Now, there is just a 12 Week Year, fol- lowed by the next 12 Week Year, ad infinitum. Each 12 week period stands on its own—it is your year. Think about the implications of a 12 Week Year. The excite- ment, energy, and focus that happen every December now hap- pen continuously. The year-end push to hit your goals now happens not once every 12 months, but all the time. The reason 16 The 12 Week Year people start to behave differently in November and December is because they know that come December 31, they will mea- sure their success or failure. As I pointed out earlier, December 31 is an arbitrary date, but since it marks the end of the calen- dar year it seems like a good time to take stock. There is noth- ing magical about this date other than the significance we give it. We have clients whose fiscal year ends on June 30 and they experience a surge in June as the organization strives to close out the year with a strong finish. The date is largely immate- rial; what matters is that there is a point in time where the game ends and success or failure is proclaimed. The 12 Week Year creates a new endgame date for you to assess your success (or lack thereof). The great thing about hav- ing a 12 Week Year is that the deadline is always near enough that you never lose sight of it. It provides a time horizon that is long enough to get things done, yet short enough to create a sense of urgency and a bias for action. It’s human nature that we behave differently when a deadline approaches.We procrastinate less, we reduce or eliminate avoidance activity, and we focus more on the things that matter. The 12 Week Year also forces you to confront your lack of execution. After all, how many bad weeks can you have in a 12 Week Year and still have a great year? Since you can’t afford to have more than one or two bad weeks, every day of the week automatically becomes more important. The 12 Week Year narrows your focus to the week and, more to the point, the day, which is where execution occurs. You no longer have the luxury of putting off the critical activities, imagining that there is plenty of time left in the year. Effective execution does not happen monthly, quarterly, or semi-annually; it happens daily, ultimately moment by moment. The 12 Week Year brings that reality front and center. Redefining the Year 17 In addition, you now experience the anticipation of a new year every 12 weeks. In the past if an individual had set a stretch goal for the year that by the third quarter had clearly become unat- tainable, the lack of achievement became demoralizing. It’s not uncommon for individuals and even entire teams to have men- tally given up on their goals before October. With the 12 Week Year, that will never happen again. Every 12 weeks you get a fresh start—a new year! So if you’ve had a tough 12 Week Year you can just shake it off, regroup, and start again. If you’ve had a strong 12 Week Year you can build on that momentum. Either way, every 12 weeks is a new start. “The 12 Week Year changes everything!” And just like you do at the end of a calendar year, every 12 weeks you take a break, celebrate, and reload. It might be a three-day weekend or a weeklong vacation; the important thing is that you take time out to reflect, regroup, and reenergize. For success-oriented people it’s easy to look at what lies ahead and not fully appreciate the ground already covered. The 12 Week Year presents, at a minimum, four times as many opportunities to recognize and celebrate your progress and accomplishments. Focusing on a 12 Week Year keeps you from getting ahead of yourself and ensures that each week counts. CHAPTER 3 The Emotional Connection Effective execution isn’t complicated, but it’s not necessarily easy, either. In fact, most people and companies struggle to exe- cute well. Execution invariably requires taking new actions, and new actions are often uncomfortable. When faced with a course of action that includes difficult or uncomfortable tasks, the short-term costs of taking action can seem so much greater than the long-term benefits of reaching the goal. Because of this, individuals and entire organizations often abandon both the tasks, and ultimately, the entire strategy. We have found from experience that to execute successfully it is essential to have a strong emotional stake in the outcome. Without a compelling reason to choose otherwise, most peo- ple will take comfortable actions over uncomfortable ones. The issue is that the important actions are often the uncomfortable ones. In our experience, the number-one thing that you will have to sacrifice to be great, to achieve what you are capable of, and to execute your plans, is your comfort.The secret to living your life to its potential is to value the important stuff above your own comfort. Therefore, the critical first step to executing well is creating and maintaining a compelling vision of the future 19 20 The 12 Week Year that you want even more than you desire your own short-term comfort, and then aligning your shorter term goals and plans, with that long-term vision. Think about what you truly want to achieve. What legacy do you want to create? What do you want for yourself and for your family? What do you want spiritually? What level of secu- rity do you seek? What level of income and fulfillment do you want from your career? What interests do you wish you could pursue? What do you really want to do with the time you have been allotted? If you are going to perform at a high level, take new ground, and be great, then you better have a vision that is compelling. In order to achieve a level of performance that is greater than your current performance, you will need a vision of the future that is bigger than the present.You must find a vision with which you are emotionally connected. Without a compelling vision, you will discover there is no reason to go through the pain of change. “Behind every impossible achievement is a dreamer of impossible dreams.” —Robert K. Greenleaf Vision is the starting point of all high performance. You create things twice; first mentally, then physically. The biggest barrier to high performance is not the physical manifestation but the mental creation. You will never outpace your mental models.Vision is the first place where you engage your thinking about what is possible for you. You must be clear on what it is you want to create. Most people focus primarily on their business or career, but business is just part of life, and it is actually your life vision that gives The Emotional Connection 21 traction and relevance to your business. That is why we begin with your personal vision, what you want your life to look like in the future. After that is established, we move on to what your business needs to look like in order to align with and enable your personal vision. The more personally compelling your vision is, the more likely it is that you will act upon it. It is your personal vision that creates an emotional connection to the daily actions that need to take place in your business. In order to tap the incredible power of your vision you need a future that is bigger than the present. If you’re going to create a breakthrough—if you’re going to reach the next level—you will need to move through fear, uncertainty, and discomfort. It is your personal vision that keeps you in the game when things become difficult. A compelling personal vision creates passion. Think about something that you are passionate about, and you will always find a clear vision behind it. If you find you’re lacking passion in either your business or in a relationship, it’s not a crisis of passion; it’s a crisis of vision. We will show you how to craft a compelling personal vision and a business vision that aligns with and supports your life goals. “All my life I wanted to be somebody. Now I see I should have been more specific.” —Lily Tomlin The first step is to create a personal vision, a vision that clearly captures and articulates what you want in life. The personal vision should define the life you want to live in all areas, includ- ing spiritual, relationships, family, income, lifestyle, health, and community. The personal vision creates the foundation for an emotional link to your business and career objectives so that 22 The 12 Week Year there is a strong alignment between what you pursue in your business and the life you desire to live. Your business vision is most powerful when it is developed in light of your personal vision. The reason so many people fail to follow through when things become difficult is due to this lack of connection with their personal lives. Your business objectives are not the end in themselves, but the means to an end. Too often, managers and associates plan for business success but fail to connect with the real power source that will enable them to achieve that success. In essence, the personal vision is the reason why we work in the first place. Once you understand the linkage between your life vision and your business success, you can define exactly what level of income or production your business must deliver in order to support your complete vision. Vision provides you with that line of sight, that emotional link, to help you overcome the challenges and execute. When the task seems too difficult or unpleasant, you can reconnect with your personal objections and vision. It is this emotional connection that will provide you with the inner strength to forge ahead in spite of any difficulties, thus enabling you to achieve your dreams and desires. Your Brain and Vision The brain is an amazing organ. As David Frost once pointed out “It starts working the moment you get up in the morning and doesn’t stop until you get into work.” Our brains are wonderful, powerful, and inconsistent. Due to its multiple functions, sometimes your brain can seem to be working at cross-purposes with itself. Have you ever felt like your brain was in conflict with itself? If so, you’re not alone (or crazy). There is some groundbreaking research that explains The Emotional Connection 23 what you’re experiencing and offers powerful insights on how you can use your brain more effectively to live the life you desire. Researchers have found that a portion of the brain, the amygdala, reacts negatively when we are facing uncertainty and risk. This response is quite helpful in avoiding danger and stay- ing alive. Unfortunately, when we imagine the future as being vastly different from today, we experience uncertainty because we don’t know how to create and maintain the future we are imagining. When this happens the amygdala kicks in. That’s when the part of our brain that avoids risk gets in our way. It seeks to keep us out of uncertain and risky situations. When you start to envision a future that stretches your com- fort zone and is significantly bigger and bolder than what you are currently living, the amygdala tries to shut down the process before you do anything that could be detrimental. That’s the bad news. At one level we are all wired to resist change and postpone greatness. The good news is there is also a portion of your brain, called the prefrontal cortex (PFC) that acts as a counterbalance to the amygdala. The PFC lights up when you look out over open vistas, and interestingly, when you imagine greatness for yourself in the future. Scientists can track increased electrical impulses in the PFCs of test subjects when they think about a compelling future. Research has also shown that our brains have a power- ful capacity to change. In the past, scientists thought that our brains were essentially static after we became adults, but they now know that the brain can change over time. The areas that we use frequently actually grow in the density of neural con- nections and in size. This capacity for our brains to change is called neuroplasti- city. Here’s why it’s such a big deal:Your brain has the ability to change and develop physiologically, and it does so based on how you use it. 24 The 12 Week Year That is good news and bad news. The bad news is that unless you intentionally engage the PFC, you are by default, relatively strengthening the portion of your brain that resists change and keeps you stuck. The good news is that you can change your brain simply by what you think about. You have the ability to strengthen and develop your brain by thinking about a com- pelling future for yourself, by regularly and repeatedly thinking about an inspiring vision where you emotionally connect with the life you desire. And here’s what may be the best part; when you think about a compelling vision, the neurons that fire in your brain are the same neurons that fire when you act on your vision. What that means is that you can literally train your brain to act on your vision just by thinking about it.The first step, though, is creating an inspiring vision and learning how to stay connected with it. “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” —Mary Oliver CHAPTER 4 Throw Out the Annual Plan Once you have a clear vision of where you want to go, you will need a plan to get there. Imagine yourself driving across country on a family vacation without a map. You will probably agree that this is not a good idea! “A vision without a plan is a pipe dream.” Having a plan to achieve your vision and your professional goals is even more essential than having a map to navigate a cross-country trek.Yet the sad truth is that most individuals spend more time planning a trip than they do planning their business. Working from a plan has three distinct benefits: 1. It reduces mistakes. 2. It saves time. 3. It provides focus. Planning allows you to think through in advance the best approach to achieving your goals. You make your mistakes on paper, which reduces miscues during implementation. 25 26 The 12 Week Year In addition, studies have shown that planning saves significant time and resources. This may seem paradoxical. In fact, many people feel that if they are not constantly doing, they are not productive. The reality is that planning is some of the most pro- ductive time you can have. Finally, planning—like a good road map—keeps you focused and on purpose. This is vital, as there are all kinds of day-to-day distractions to pull you off course. Your plan continually brings you back to the strategically important items. 12 Week Planning Like no other approach that we are aware of, 12 week plan- ning delivers these benefits and then some over traditional annual planning.We’re not talking about quarterly planning—remember, that’s part of the outdated annualized-thinking model. With 12 week planning, every 12 weeks stands alone; every 12 weeks is a new year and a fresh opportunity to be great. Twelve week planning also offers three additional and distinct differences from annual planning. The first thing that is differ- ent with 12 week planning is that it is more predictable than 12 month planning. The farther you plan into the future, the less predictability you have. With long-term plans, assumptions are stacked upon earlier assumptions, which are stacked upon even earlier assumptions. If you’re that good at predicting the future, call me; I’d love to talk to you about your stock picks! The reality is that it is very difficult, if not impossible, to determine what your daily actions should be 11 or 12 months into the future. That is why annual plans are generally objective-based. With a 12 week plan, predictability is much greater. You can define, with a high degree of certainty, what actions you need to implement each week over the next 12 weeks. Twelve week Throw Out the Annual Plan 27 plans are both numbers- and activity-based.They create a strong connection between the actions you take today and the results you want to achieve. The second difference with 12 week planning is that it is more focused. Most annual plans have too many objectives, which is one of the primary reasons execution fails. The reason most plans contain so much is because you’re planning for 12 months, laying out all the things you want to achieve over the next 365 days. It’s no wonder you become disillusioned and frustrated. You end up spread too thin and diffused—not a recipe for greatness. There will always be more opportunities than you can effec- tively pursue. With the 12 Week Year, the approach is to be great at a few things instead of mediocre at many things. In 12 week planning, you identify the top one to three things that will have the greatest impact, and pursue those with intensity.The 12 week plan focuses on a few key areas and creates the energy and urgency to act. The third thing that is different with 12 week plans is the struc- ture. In our experience, most plans are written with the unspoken goal of just developing a good plan. Most often these plans are then placed in a nice binder and rarely get implemented. Setting Goals The whole point of planning should be to help you identify and implement the critical few actions that you need to take to reach your goal. If planning didn’t help you execute better, there would be no reason to plan. However, the sad fact is that most plans are not written with implementation in mind. The way the plan is structured and how it is written impacts your ability to effectively execute. Effective planning strikes a work- ing balance between too much complexity and too little detail. Your plan should start by identifying your overall goal(s) for the 28 The 12 Week Year 12 weeks. The goal defines success for the 12 Week Year. It rep- resents a great 12 weeks, and also represents intentional progress toward your longer-term vision. “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” —Yogi Berra Once you have established your 12 week goals, tactics will then need to be determined.The easiest way to do this is to break your 12 week goal down to its individual parts. For example, if your 12 week goal is to earn $10,000 and lose 10 pounds, you should write tactics for your income goal and your weight loss goal separately. Tactics are the daily to-do’s that drive the attainment of your goals.Tactics must be specific, actionable, and include due dates and assigned responsibilities. We’ll have more to say on how to write effective tactics a little later in the application section. The 12 week plan is structured so that if the tactics are com- pleted on a timely basis the goals are achieved. Remember, in order to keep from losing your way with a 12 week focus, you will need to align your 12 week plan to your longer-term vision. A 12 week plan is powerful. It allows you to focus on what’s important now. Remember that the 12 week plan is not part of an annual plan; that’s old annualized thinking. Twelve weeks is long enough to get things done, and yet is short enough to create and maintain a sense of urgency. For top performers, 12 week plans provide a step-by-step road map that eliminates diffusion and delays, and demands immediate action. For actual examples of 12 week plans join the 12 Week Year community at www.12weekyear.com/gettingstarted. It’s free! CHAPTER 5 One Week at a Time Long-term results are created by the actions you take every day. Sir William Osler, founder of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, said that the secret of his success was living his life in “day-tight compartments.” What he found was that, while we plan for the future, we act in the day. To be truly effective, your daily activity must align with your long-term vision, strategies, and tactics. In the end, you have greater control over your actions than you do your results. Your results are created by your actions. That’s why it is so important to construct plans that are not only numbers-based, but also identify specific, critical activity. “The greatest predictor of your future are your daily actions.” The physical universe will not respond to your desires, no matter how passionate or intense they are. The one thing that moves the universe is action. As we discussed earlier, vision mat- ters in that it defines the end game and the overall direction you want to go.Vision also provides the motivation to act, but vision without action is just a dream. It is the consistent action that turns a dream into reality. 29 30 The 12 Week Year This is where progress most often breaks down. Most of us aspire to improve some area of our lives. Whether you want to earn more money, find a new job, meet the right mate, lose a few pounds, improve a relationship, or be a better golfer, parent, or person, desire alone is not enough. It’s not enough to have the intention of changing; you have to act on that intention for things to get better—and not just once, but consistently. As the ancient Roman philosopher Lucretius pointed out: “The fall of dropping water wears away the stone.” Consistent action on the critical tasks needed to reach your goal is the key to getting what you want in life. Your current actions are creating your future. If you want to know what your future holds, look to your actions; they are the best predictor of your future. You want to predict your future health, look at your current eating and exercise habits.You want to predict the health of your marriage, look at your interac- tions with your spouse. You want to predict your career path and future income, look at the actions you take each business day.Your actions tell the story. The Weekly Plan “An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson The weekly plan is a powerful tool that translates your 12 week plan into daily and weekly action. The weekly plan is the instrument that organizes and focuses your week. It becomes your weekly game plan. This will keep you on track with your core activity each day. Weekly plans allow you to structure your activities so that you are focused on both the long-term and short-term tasks that are truly important. This allows you One Week at a Time 31 to stay focused and productive in the moment instead of getting caught up in all the noise and distractions that easily derail you. The weekly plan is not a glorified to-do list; rather it reflects the critical strategic activity from your 12 week plan that needs to take place this week in order for you to achieve your goals. The starting point for an effective weekly plan is your 12 week plan.The 12 week plan contains all of the tactics you need to execute in order to achieve your 12 week goals. Each tactic has a designated week for completion, and these tactics drive your weekly plan by dictating your daily actions. The weekly plan then is simply a derivative of the 12 week plan—in essence a one-twelfth slice of the 12 week plan. To use your weekly plan effectively, you will need to spend the first 15 or 20 minutes at the beginning of each week to review your progress from the past week and plan the upcom- ing one. In addition, the first five minutes of each day should be spent reviewing your weekly plan to plan that day’s activities. A 12 Week Year creates greater focus by highlighting the value of each week. With the 12 Week Year, a year is now equivalent to 12 weeks, a month is now a week, and a week is now a day. When you look at it this way, the importance and power of each day becomes even greater.Your weekly plan enables you to focus your actions and be great at a few things rather than mediocre at many.To ensure that you get the most from your efforts, a weekly plan is a powerful and indispensable tool. Your weekly plan encompasses your strategies and priorities, your long-term and short-term tasks, and your commitments in the context of time. It helps you focus on the elements of your plan that must happen each week to keep you on track with your 12 Week Year goals. Your goals in turn keep you on track with your vision. Everything is powerfully aligned. To really benefit from this tool you will need to carry it with you and work from it on a daily basis. Start each day with your 32 The 12 Week Year weekly plan. Check in with it several times throughout the day. If you’ve scheduled a tactic to be completed that day, don’t go home until it is done. This ensures that the critically important tasks, your plan tactics, are completed each week. Visit our website at www.12WeekYear.com to see a sample of a weekly plan and the other tools in our Achieve! website. The weekly plan, more than any other tool, will help you execute on a daily and weekly basis and will help you achieve your vision! CHAPTER 6 Confronting the Truth Have you ever wondered why sports are so motivating? In fact, not only are they motivating to the players, but also to spec- tators. Can you imagine people—fans—coming to watch you work, paying for the privilege to see you in action? One of the key reasons sports are so stimulating is that we keep score. Scorekeeping is at the heart of competition. We keep track of scores, measurements, and stats to determine success and identify areas for improvement. At any point during a sporting event, every player, coach, and fan knows exactly where their team stands. This information provides a base of knowledge to guide decisions that lead to better performance and success. In other words, scorekeeping lets us know if what we’re doing is effective. Too often in business we fail to keep score, and with- out some objective measure, we cannot know for certain if we are being effective. Just as in athletics, measurement drives the business process. In the 1960s Frederick Herzberg, an industrial psycholo- gist, set out to determine what motivates people in the work- place. His extensive research identified the top two motivators as achievement and recognition.We contend that the only way to know if you are achieving is through measurement—that is, keep- ing score. A common misconception is that scoring damages 33 34 The 12 Week Year self-esteem, but research indicates the opposite: Measurement builds self-esteem and confidence because it documents prog- ress and achievement. Measuring Results Scorekeeping functions as a reality check, providing perfor- mance feedback and insight into your effectiveness. Effective measurement removes the emotion from the evaluation process and paints an honest picture of your performance. The data is not concerned with effort or intentions; it simply focuses on outcomes. We all have a tendency from time to time to rationalize lack- luster results, but with effective scorekeeping we are forced to confront the reality of our situation, even when it’s uncomfort- able.While this can be difficult, the sooner we confront real- ity, the sooner we can shift our actions toward producing more desirable results.That’s what effective measurement does; it demands our attention and causes us to respond more immediately, increas- ing the likelihood of success down the road. “In God we trust; all others must bring data.” —W. Edwards Deming Measurement drives the execution process. It is the anchor of reality. Can you imagine the CEO of a large corporation not knowing the numbers? It’s no different for you and me. As the CEO of your own life and business, you need to know the numbers. Measurement provides important feedback that allows you to make intelligent decisions. Effective measurement captures both lead and lag indicators that provide comprehensive feedback necessary for informed Confronting the Truth 35 decision making. Lag indicators—things like income, sales, com- mission dollars, pounds lost, body fat percentage, overall cho- lesterol levels—represent the end results that you are striving to achieve. Lead indicators are the activities that produce the end results—for instance the number of sales calls, or referrals are lead indicators in the sales process. While most companies and individuals effectively measure lag indicators, many tend to disregard lead indicators. An effective measurement system will have a combination of complementary lead and lag indicators. The most important lead indicator you have is a measure of your execution. Ultimately, you have greater control over your actions than over your results. Your results are created by your actions. An execution measure indicates whether you did the things you said were most important to achieving your goals. Keep in mind that you started with a vision, a compelling vision of the future that is bigger than the present. Then you established a set of 12 week goals that are aligned with that vision. For each goal, you developed actions or tactics that describe the steps that you must take to achieve your goals. The element you have the most direct control over is the execution of your tactics. Knowing to what degree you followed through on those tactics is the execution measure. Because your 12 week goals were established in light of your longer-term vision, the execution measure also represents progress toward your vision. Having a way to measure your execution is critical because it allows you to pinpoint breakdowns and respond quickly. Unlike results, which can lag weeks, months, and in some cases years behind your actions, an execution measure provides more immediate feedback, which allows you to make game-time adjustments much faster. An execution measure is important for another reason as well. If you are not hitting your goal, you need to know whether it is due to a flaw in plan content or in 36 The 12 Week Year execution, because there is a big difference in how to handle these two breakdowns. A breakdown in plan content occurs when strategies and tactics are not effective, while a breakdown in execution occurs when you fail to fully implement the plan tactics. More than 60 percent of the time the breakdown occurs in the execution process, but usually people assume the plan is at fault and change it. This is a mistake, because you don’t know if the plan doesn’t work if you’re not working the plan. Effective mea- surement will help you pinpoint the source of the breakdown so that you can address it head-on. In most cases, unless you are executing at a reasonably high level, there is no need to change or adjust your plan. The great thing is that every time you exe- cute, you get feedback. If your actions don’t produce what you expected, you can make the necessary adjustments to your plan based on market feedback—but first you must execute the plan. Too often people want to change the plan before they’ve really executed it. As a general rule, you should rarely change the plan unless you’ve been effectively completing your plan tactics and it is still not producing.You could have created an awesome plan, but you’ll never know unless you actually implement it. However, if you are executing at a high level and the results you want are not coming, then it’s time to go back and adjust the plan. Physics tells us that for every action there is a reaction, so the good news is that every time you execute, you produce something— it may not be what you expected, but something will happen. This something is market feedback, and it’s impossible to effectively adjust your plan without it.Without knowing what tactics you executed, any changes you make will be based purely on guesswork. “Truth is the only safe ground to stand on.” —Elizabeth Cady Stanton Confronting the Truth 37 Weekly Scorecard The best way to measure your execution is to work from a weekly plan (based upon your 12 Week Plan) and evaluate the percentage of tactics completed. For the 12 Week Year we’ve developed a tool called the Weekly Scorecard. If you’ve followed the process thus far, you understand that the weekly plan rep- resents the critical activities that you need to accomplish each week to achieve your overall goals. The weekly scorecard then provides an objective measure of how well you executed your weekly plan. With the weekly scorecard you measure execu- tion, not results. You score yourself on the percentage of activi- ties you complete each week. We urge you to strive for excellence, not perfection. We have found that if you successfully complete 85 percent of the activi- ties in your weekly plan, then you will most likely achieve your objectives. Remember that your plan contains the top prior- ities that will add the most value and have the greatest impact. In other words, you only need to be 85 percent effective on the top priorities to achieve excellence! A word of caution: Scorekeeping is not for the faint of heart. There will be times when you don’t execute well and score poorly. People often drop out when they reach this point because they lack the courage to face the reality of their actions. Instead of scoring their performance, they distract themselves with other things that seem important in the moment. With the 12 Week Year there is nowhere to hide. It shines a light on where you are performing and where you are not. All of us, from time to time, will struggle to execute. The 12 Week Year system forces you to confront your lack of execution—and it’s uncomfortable, but it is the very thing that is required if you’re going to perform at your best. We call this discomfort produc- tive tension. 38 The 12 Week Year Productive tension is the uncomfortable feeling you get when you’re not doing the things you know you need to do. Our natural inclination when confronted with discomfort is to resolve it. In an effort to do this, people generally go one of two ways. The easy way out is to simply stop using the system and turn off the light that is shining on your performance break- downs. Typically, this takes the form of passive resistance and you put off scoring your week and tell yourself that you’ll get to it later, but later never comes. The other way is to use productive tension as a catalyst for change. Instead of responding to the discomfort by bailing out, high achievers use the tension as an impetus to move forward. If you decide that quitting is not an option, then the discomfort of productive tension will eventually compel you to take action on your tactics. This encourages you to move forward by exe- cuting your plan. Even with a weekly score of 65 to 70 percent you will do well if you stay in the game. You won’t accomplish what you are capable of, but you will do well. It’s important to remember that the process is not about being perfect, but rather about get- ting better and better. Measurement drives the process. Effective scorekeeping is essential if you want to execute well and perform at your best. Take time to establish a set of key measures that include lead and lag indicators and, most importantly, be sure to score your execution. Have the courage to measure your performance! CHAPTER 7 Intentionality Everything you want to accomplish in life requires an invest- ment of your time, so when you want to improve your results, you must face the fact that your supply of time is completely inelastic—and perishable. Even in this era of rapid innovation and technological advance- ment, time, more than any other resource, still limits our results. When we ask our clients what keeps them from achieving more, most often we hear that it’s a lack of time—and yet, time is the most squandered of all personal resources. A study conducted a few years ago by Salary.com found that the average person wastes nearly two hours of every working day! The Importance of Yes and No The reality is that if you are not purposeful about how you spend your time, then you leave your results to chance. While it’s true that we control our actions and not our outcomes, our results are created by our actions. It stands to reason that the actions that we choose to take throughout our day ultimately determine our destiny. In spite of the priceless value of time, many people engage each day on its own terms. In other words, they satisfy the various 39 40 The 12 Week Year demands of the day as they are presented, spending whatever time is needed to respond without giving much thought as to the relative value of the activity. This is a reactive approach in which the day is controlling you, and prevents you from performing at your best. To realize your potential, you must learn to be more mindful about how you spend your time. Living with clear intention goes against the powerful natural tendency to be reactive because it requires you to organize your life around your priorities and consciously choose those activities that align with your goals and vision. When you spend your time with intention, you know when to say yes and when to say no. You are probably aware when you are procrastinating or engaging in low-level activity to avoid tackling a less comfortable high-payoff activity. When you use your time intentionally, you waste less of it and spend more of it on your high-value actions, but to do this you must be willing to be disciplined and structure your days and weeks. The best way to do this is to use your 12 week plan to drive your activity so that in the end, you set your goals for the day instead of let- ting the day direct you. Intentionality is your secret weapon in your war on mediocrity. “It’s not enough to be busy; so are the ants.The question is: What are we busy about?” —Henry David Thoreau Blocking Your Time Benjamin Franklin said, “If we take care of the minutes, the years will take care of themselves.” That is wise counsel. The challenge in applying this wisdom is that throughout the day things come up—things that you didn’t anticipate that will eat up your valuable minutes. Intentionality 41 Trying to reduce these interruptions usually doesn’t work well and it can be more difficult than just dealing with them. In our opinion, the key to successful time use—intentional time use—is not trying to eliminate these unplanned interruptions, but instead to block out regular time each week dedicated to your strategically important tasks. We call this Performance Time and find that it is the best approach to effectively allocating time that we have ever encountered. It utilizes a simple time-block- ing system to regain control of your day and maximize your effectiveness. There are three primary components of performance time: strategic blocks, buffer blocks, and breakout blocks. Strategic Blocks: A strategic block is a three-hour block of uninterrupted time that is scheduled into each week. During this block you accept no phone calls, no faxes, no emails, no visitors, no anything. Instead, you focus all of your energy on preplanned tasks—your strategic and money-making activities. Strategic blocks concentrate your intellect and creativity to produce breakthrough results.You will likely be astounded by the quantity and quality of the work you produce. For most people, one strategic block per week is sufficient. Buffer Blocks: Buffer blocks are designed to deal with all of the unplanned and low-value activities—like most email and voicemail—that arise throughout a typical day. Almost nothing is more unproductive and frustrating than dealing with constant interruptions, yet we’ve all had days when unplanned items dominated our time. For some, one 30-minute buffer block a day is sufficient, while for others, two separate one-hour blocks may be neces- sary. The power of buffer blocks comes from grouping together activities that tend to be unproductive so that you can increase 42 The 12 Week Year your efficiency in dealing with them and take greater control over the rest of your day. Breakout Blocks: One of the key factors contributing to performance plateaus is the absence of free time. Very often entrepreneurs and professionals get caught up in working longer and harder, but this approach kills your energy and enthusiasm. To achieve greater results, what’s often necessary is not actually working more hours, but rather taking some time away from work. It’s not by chance that people often quote the famous proverb “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” When we don’t take time off from work, we can lose our creative edge. An effective breakout block is at least three-hours long and spent on things other than work. It is time scheduled away from your business during normal business hours that you will use to refresh and reinvigorate your mind, so that when you return to work, you can engage with more focus and energy. “If you are not in control of your time, you are not in control of your results.” Performance time applies to more than just strategic, buffer, and breakout blocks. The more you can create routine in your days and weeks, the more effective your execution will be. The best way to accomplish this is to create a picture of an ideal week. The concept of an ideal week is to plan on paper all the criti- cal tasks that occur in a typical week and organize them so you can be most productive. If you can’t fit all the things you do on paper, there is no way you will get them done in reality, so the exercise of strategically planning your week will cause you to make some hard choices about how you use your time. As you create your ideal week, it helps to schedule routine tasks at the same time, on the same day each week, if possible. Intentionality 43 Consider when you tend to be at your best. Are you a morning person or are you better in the afternoon or evening? Schedule your most important activities during your prime time. We will walk you through how to create your model week in Chapter 17. For many of our clients, performance time has had an imme- diate impact on results. Just gaining control over a few hours each week often has a dramatic effect. Learn to use your time with greater intention and you will not only be more effective, but you will also feel a greater sense of control, less stress, and increased confidence. For more on time blocking join the 12 Week Year community at www.12weekyear.com/gettingstarted. It’s free! CHAPTER 8 Accountability as Ownership Accountability is perhaps the most misunderstood concept in business and life. Most people equate it with bad behavior, poor performance, and negative consequences. As an example, when an athlete does something in violation of the league’s conduct policy, the commissioner will state publicly that the league will hold this athlete accountable and then issues a fine or suspension. It’s no wonder that most people want nothing to do with accountability. “Our last free act—after which no further free acts are possible—is to deny that we are free.” —Peter Koestenbaum People often talk about holding others accountable, especially in business situations. Often you’ll hear management say some- thing like, “We need to do a better job of holding people account- able.” I’ve even heard individuals who truly desire to perform better say, “I just need someone to hold me accountable.” These types of statements reflect the mistaken notion that account- ability is something that can and must be imposed; that’s not accountability, that’s consequences. In fact, it is impossible to hold 45 46 The 12 Week Year someone else accountable. I like to joke that you can hold a baby and you can hold a bag of groceries, but you can’t hold someone accountable. Accountability is not consequences, but ownership. It is a character trait, a life stance, a willingness to own your actions and results regardless of the circumstances. In the book Freedom and Accountability at Work: Applying Philosophic Insight to the Real World, the authors Peter Koestenbaum and Peter Block discuss accountability as follows: We have a small way of thinking about accountability. We think that people want to escape from being accountable. We believe that accountability is something that must be imposed. We have to hold people accountable, and we devise reward and punishment schemes to do this. These beliefs are so dominant in our culture that they are difficult to question, yet they are the very beliefs that keep us from experiencing what we long for. The very nature of accountability rests in the understanding that each and every one of us has freedom of choice. It is this freedom of choice that is the foundation of accountability. Accountability is the realization that you always have choice; that, in fact, there are no have-to’s in life. Have-to’s are those things we hate to do but do anyway because we have to. The fact is that there are no have-to’s. Everything we do in life is a choice. Even in an environment where there are requirements of you, you still have choice, but there is a big difference when you approach something as a choose-to versus a have-to. When something is a have-to it’s a burden, it’s cumbersome, and, at best, you meet the minimum standards; however, the realization that you ultimately have choice creates a very different scenario. When you choose to do something, you are able to tap your resources and give your best. It is a much more empowering stance. Ultimately, you choose your actions, your results, your consequences. Accountability as Ownership 47 “Accountability is not consequences; it’s ownership.” All of us have a tendency to look outside of ourselves for things to change and improve. We are waiting for the economy to pick up, for the housing market to turn around, or for our company to come up with a new product, more competitive pricing, or better advertising. It’s easy to become a victim to outside circumstances, spending time and energy hoping and imagining what our lives would be like if the world around us were different, believing that these are the keys to improving our results. The truth is you don’t control any of these things. The only things you control are your thinking and your actions. But those are enough if (and it’s a big if) you are willing to own them. Don’t get the wrong impression that somehow accountability as we’ve described it here is passive. It’s quite the contrary. True accountability actively confronts the truth, it confronts with freedom of choice and the consequences of those choices. In this way accountability is extremely empowering, but you must be willing to confront reality and the truth of your situation. How you view accountability and to what degree you embrace it affects everything you do, from your relationships to your ability to execute effectively. When you understand that true account- ability is about choice and taking ownership of your choices, everything changes. You move from resistance to empowerment, from limits to possibilities, and from mediocrity to greatness. At the end of the day, the only accountability that truly exists is self-accountability. The only person who can hold you accountable for anything is you, and to be successful you must develop the mental honesty and courage to own your thinking, actions, and results. CHAPTER 9 Interest versus Commitment Commitments are a powerful part of the 12 Week Year. An ability to make and keep commitments improves results, builds trust, and fosters high-performance teams, yet many of us avoid making commitments, and worse yet, we often break them when the going gets tough. To be truly great at what we do, we have to become better at keeping our promises. “Commitment is an act, not a word.” —Jean-Paul Sartre There is an old anecdote about commitments involving a chicken and a pig at breakfast time.The chicken has contributed the egg and is therefore merely interested in the breakfast; the pig, however, contributes the bacon, and is thus completely com- mitted. It’s a humorous story, but ultimately paints a negative picture of commitment. In reality, kept commitments benefit both parties involved by improving relationships, strengthening integrity, and building self-confidence. Commitments are power- ful and, oftentimes, life changing. 49 50 The 12 Week Year I’m sure you can recall a time when you were determined to accomplish something meaningful and you were willing to do whatever it took to make it happen. One of the most powerful commitments that I have ever made was to my father. It was the summer after my first year of college and I remember the con- versation like it was yesterday. The two of us were working in his garden, talking about my freshman year. It quickly became apparent to me during that conversation that my father and I had different perspectives on the purpose of college. The issue was my grades. I was on the dean’s list, but unfortu- nately for me, the dean kept two lists, and I was on the one for academic probation. My father explained that he was unwill- ing to continue helping with tuition unless my results improved. I felt terrible and made a commitment that day to my father and myself. I promised him that when I went back to school in the fall, I would get all A’s. He challenged me to meet my commit- ment by adding to the stakes: If I did get all A’s, he would give me $500; if I didn’t, I would owe him $500. When I went back to school that fall, I pulled out all the stops. I went to class, took notes in lectures, read the texts, and did the homework. I also stopped socializing as much as I had during my first year. In the end, I got the grades—straight A’s. The $500 is long gone, but that commitment changed my life. I started showing up on the real dean’s list and I never went back. My story is a great example of commitment. A commitment is a personal promise. Keeping your promises to others builds trust and strong relationships, and keeping promises to yourself builds character, esteem, and success. “Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes; but no plans.” —Peter Drucker Interest versus Commitment 51 A definition of commitment that I like is “the state of being bound emotionally or intellectually to a course of action...” (American Heritage Dictionary, Fourth Edition) From this perspective, a commitment is a conscious choice to act in order to create a desired result. We all know intuitively that an ability to keep commitments is fundamental to effective execution and high performance, but many of us fall short of our commitments on a regular basis. It seems that when things get difficult, we find reasons why we can’t keep our promises and we shift our focus to other activities. Often our interest wanes when things get tough. It is important to understand that there is a difference between interest and commitment: When you’re interested in doing something, you do it only when circumstances permit, but when you’re com- mitted to something, you accept no excuses, only results. When we commit to something, we do things that we would not ordinarily do. The question of if goes away and the only question you ask is how. Commitment is powerful, but there are times when all of us struggle to commit. Here are the four keys to successful commitments: 1. Strong desire: In order to fully commit to something, you need a clear and personally compelling reason. Without a strong desire you will struggle when the imple- mentation gets difficult, but with a compelling desire, seemingly insurmountable obstacles are seen as chal- lenges to be met. The desired end result needs to be meaningful enough to get you through the hard times and keep you on track. 2. Keystone actions: Once you have an intense desire to accomplish something, you then need to identify the core actions that will produce the result you’re after. In today’s world, many of us have become spectators rather 52 The 12 Week Year than participants. We must remember that it’s what we do that counts. In most endeavors there are often many activities that help you accomplish your goal. However there are usually a few core activities that account for the majority of the results, and in some cases there are only one or two key- stone actions that ultimately produce the result. It is critical that you identify these keystones and focus on them. 3. Count the costs: Commitments require sacrifice. In any effort there are benefits and costs. Too often we claim to commit to something without considering the costs, the hardships that will have to be overcome to accomplish your desire. Costs can include time, money, risk, uncertainty, loss of comfort, and so on. Identifying the costs before you commit allows you to consciously choose whether you are willing to pay the price of your commitment. When you face any of these costs, it is extremely helpful to recognize that you anticipated them and decided that reaching your goal was worth it. 4. Act on commitments, not feelings: There will be times when you won’t feel like doing the critical activi- ties. We’ve all been there. Getting out of bed at 5:30 a.m. to jog in the winter cold can be daunting, especially when you’re in a toasty warm bed. It is during these times that you will need to learn to act on your com- mitments instead of your feelings. If you don’t, you will never build any momentum and will get stuck con- tinually restarting or, as is so often the case, giving up. Learning to do the things you need to do, regardless of how you feel, is a core discipline for success. Many times commitments are made more arduous by the time frame for which they are made. It is difficult to commit to Interest versus Commitment 53 anything for a lifetime—even keeping a promise for an entire year can be challenging. With the 12 Week Year you are not asked to make lifetime or even annual commitments, but rather 12 week commitments. It is much more feasible to establish and keep a commitment for 12 weeks than to keep it for 12 months. At the end of the 12 weeks, you reassess your commitments and begin again. Our commitments ultimately shape our lives. They support sound marriages, create lasting relationships, drive our results, and help build our character. There is just something incredi- bly empowering about knowing if you say you’re going to do something that you can count on yourself, that you don’t need to hedge your bets. CHAPTER 10 Greatness in the Moment They say that with technology the world is now smaller; I think it’s also moving faster. Life seems to be getting busier and speeding up. Don’t get me wrong; technology is great. My phone now has way more computing capability and usefulness than the first laptop I purchased in 1988 for about six grand. The downside is that we now have very little downtime in our day. It used to be that on the drive to and from work you could ramp up and ramp down, but now most people spend that time on the phone. The natural margin in our day is disappearing but we still need time to mentally relax. In this hurried new world, multitasking has become a highly valued skill. The belief is that in order to get the most out of my day, I need to be fully scheduled, fully committed, and con- stantly on the run.The fear is that I might miss out on something good, so I hurry from one meeting or event to the next, squeez- ing in a phone call or two in between. When I’m in meetings, I’m constantly checking my email and messages because I don’t want to miss anything, and with texting I can carry on two or three conversations at one time. Not many people would admit 55 56 The 12 Week Year that this is the way they operate, but just look around you—this is the way most people behave. In our efforts to not miss anything, we unwittingly miss everything. Our attention is spread over various subjects and conversations, and when we strive to do so much, we actu- ally apply very little of ourselves to any individual activity. We feel stressed out, burned out, exhausted, frustrated, and discon- nected. In the end, this approach practically guarantees that we will be mediocre by virtue of the fact that nothing gets our full attention, not the important projects, not the important conver- sations, and not the important people. Most people are running so fast, they miss life. They are in one place physically and another place mentally. You are most effective when you are mentally where you are physically— when you are present in the moment. Athletes call it “playing in the zone.” When you’re present in the moment, your think- ing is clear and focused, decisions come easily, and you move through tasks almost effortlessly. When you are in the moment, you live with grace and ease.When you are totally present in the moment, when you connect with the now, life is more enjoyable. “The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.” —Abraham Lincoln You can’t change the past or act in the future. The cur- rent moment—the eternal right now—is all you have. Right now, you can affect what happens to you for the rest of your life. The future is created now, our dreams are achieved in the moment. My wife Judy and I are both cancer survivors. For those of you who have dealt with cancer, either yourself or with a family Greatness in the Moment 57 member, you know firsthand how quickly you gain an appre- ciation for the present moment. The fact is that life happens in the moment, life is lived in the moment, and ultimately, great- ness is created in the moment. Performing in the Moment Like many people around the world, every couple of years I tune into the Olympic Games to watch amazing athletes do incredible things. A few years back, as I watched the events, the following thought crossed my mind: When does a cham- pion become great? The obvious answer seemed to be when the individual achieves a high level of performance, such as winning a gold medal, but as I considered my own ques- tion further, I came to the conclusion that greatness is not achieved when the result is reached, but rather long before that, when an individual chooses to do the things that he knows he needs to do. Let’s stick with the Olympic athlete as an example. The ath- lete becomes great not when she breaks a world record and wins a medal. That’s when the world recognizes her, but in reality the event is just the evidence of her greatness. The ath- lete achieved greatness months, perhaps years, earlier when she decided to run the extra mile, swim the extra laps, or to per- form just one jump more. I would argue that Michael Phelps didn’t achieve greatness when he won his eighteenth gold medal or when he won his first. He became great when he decided to do the things that would allow him to win. He achieved greatness the moment he chose to put the effort into his training, spending the hours in the gym and pool and eating the foods his body needed instead of those he wanted, strengthening his men- tal resolve. The gold medal wins were simply the evidence of 58 The 12 Week Year his greatness. Michael Phelps had actually achieved greatness many years earlier. Results are not the attainment of greatness, but simply con- firmation of it. You become great long before the results show it. It happens in an instant, the moment you choose to do the things you need to do to be great. “Let him who would enjoy a good future waste none of his present.” —Roger Ward Babson What I find profound is that the difference between great- ness and mediocrity on a daily and weekly basis is slim, yet the difference in results down the road is tremendous. The differ- ence between greatness and mediocrity for a salesperson is two or three extra appointments a week, five or ten more calls a day, three hours out of a 45-hour workweek spent working on their business. For a manager or leader, it’s recognizing the good work of one more person each day, delegating a task instead of doing it themselves, spending three hours of their week on strategic priorities, giving verbal praise and encouragement to someone who’s struggling. On a daily and weekly basis these differences seem minor, but in the long run they are significant. Each and every one of us has the God-given ability to be great. What makes a champion is the discipline to do the extra things even when—especially when—you don’t feel like it. The encouraging news is that, regardless of how you’ve per- formed in the past or how you are performing currently, you can be great, beginning today, simply by choosing to do the things you know you need to do. It really is no more complicated than that. In the end, you are either great in the moment or not at all. Greatness in the Moment 59 In the first chapter I wrote about the two lives most of us have: the one we live and the one we are capable of living. Don’t settle for anything less than the life you are capable of. Make a commitment to be great each day and watch what can happen in just 12 short weeks. CHAPTER 11 Intentional Imbalance The 12 Week Year is powerful and life changing. Although the bulk of examples we use in this book address the application of the 12 Week Year for your business, it applies equally well in all areas of your life. One challenge most of us face is balancing our time and energy—between work and family, community service and recreation, exercise and relaxation, personal passions and obligations. Too much time and effort spent in a single area can create burnout and a lack of fulfillment overall.You can start to feel as if one area of your life is draining your energy, stealing your joy, and subverting your real purpose in life. It’s no wonder so many people are seeking ways to regain balance in their lives. “The challenge of work-life balance is without question, one of the most significant struggles faced by modern man.” —Stephen Covey If taken literally, the phrase life balance is something of a misno- mer. It is natural to think that the goal of life balance is to spend equal time and energy in the various areas of your life, but in real- ity, that is not practical and it would not necessarily create the 61 62 The 12 Week Year life you desire. Trying to spend equal time in each area is unpro- ductive and often frustrating. Life balance is not about equal time in each area; life balance is more about intentional imbalance. Life balance is achieved when you are purposeful about how and where you spend your time, energy, and effort. At differ- ent times in your life you will choose to focus on one area over another, and that’s perfectly fine, provided it’s intentional. Life has different seasons, each with its own set of challenges and blessings. “There’s no such thing as work-life balance.There are work- life choices, and you make them, and they have consequences.” —Jack Welch The 12 Week Year is a terrific process to help you live a life of intentional imbalance. Many of our clients use the 12 Week Year to focus on a few key areas in their lives and gain new ground. Think about what could be different for you if every 12 weeks you focused on a few key areas in your life and made significant improvement. Think about your health and fitness. What might be dif- ferent if for the next 12 weeks you made a commitment to improve in this area? One option is to set a 12 week goal in this area and build a 12 week plan. In this scenario, you would identify a handful of tactics that you would execute on a daily and weekly basis over the next 12 weeks. Your plan may include tactics like these: Do 20 minutes of cardio three times a week. Train with weights three times a week. Drink at least six glasses of water each day. Limit calorie intake to 1,200 daily. Intentional Imbalance 63 The other option is to again set a 12 week goal but, rather than building a tactical plan, you identify a keystone (or core) action and commit to completing it for the next 12 weeks. In certain instances a full plan works best, while in others a key- stone commitment is most productive. What about your relationships—your spouse or significant other, family, and close friends? You can use the 12 Week Year to build better relationships or create more romance or intimacy with your mate. How might those relationships be different if you committed yourself to making real progress over the next 12 weeks? This can be as simple as making an action commit- ment like having one date night or family night a week and following through for the next 12 weeks. It truly is incredible what you can accomplish in just 12 weeks when you commit to a specific action. Consider other areas like your spiritual, financial, emotional, intellectual, and community life. Maybe it’s time to get out of debt, or finish that degree you put on hold. Perhaps you’ve been thinking about writing a book, starting a foundation, or learn- ing a new language. You might not be able to complete goals like these in 12 weeks, but you can sure make significant prog- ress. Breaking your bigger goals into 12 week segments allows you to not only make consistent progress, but also to celebrate the milestones along the way. When you are making real prog- ress you feel greater satisfaction, feel more fulfilled, and stay motivated to see the project through to completion. To decide what to focus on, start with your vision, then rate yourself in the seven areas of life balance (i.e., spiritual, spouse/ partner, family, community, physical, personal, and business). I like to use a scale from 1 to 10 to rate my level of satisfaction. A score of 10 is the best that I can be in an area—in other words 10 is “great,” by my definition; conversely a score of 1 would be “terrible,” by my definition. Notice that I am using my definition 64 The 12 Week Year of success and satisfaction as the basis for my assessment. If you are single, for example, and you are happy with that, you might score yourself a 10 under the key relationship category. Each of these areas is either a source of energy or a drain of it. Think about it: If your work life is stressful, full of uncer- tainty, and unfulfilling, it is bound to affect your personal life. However, if your career provides you a nice income and you enjoy what you do, that creates energy and momentum across the other areas, and will have a positive effect. The 12 Week Year has the power to increase your income and material wealth two-, three-, or even fourfold. It also has the power to help you experience the same magnitude of improvement in any area you choose. Apply the 12 Week Year to all areas of your life and be prepared for some amazing things to happen! Be encouraged! PART II Putting It All Together Part II provides additional insights and captures more than a decade of learning about what it takes to consistently apply the fundamentals of execution. We provide proven tools, templates, and tips to help you apply the 12 Week Year in a powerful way and achieve your goals. “A year from now you’ll wish you had started today!” 65 CHAPTER 12 The Execution System The 12 Week Year is an execution system that helps you operate at your best each day by creating clarity and focus on what mat- ters most and a sense of urgency to do it now. As a result,

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