The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 Months

Metadata

• Title: The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 Months
• Author: Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington
• Book URL: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CU9P31K
• Open in Kindle: kindle://book/?action=open&asin=B00CU9P31K
• Last Updated on: Sunday, October 11, 2026

Highlights & Notes

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?

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

most of us have two lives: the lives we live and the lives we are capable of living.

You’ve no doubt heard the saying knowledge is power. I disagree. 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 they are implemented.

Execution is the single greatest market differentiator. 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.

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.

“It’s not what you know; it’s not even who you know; it’s what you implement that counts.”

“It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.” —John Wooden

“You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do.” —Henry Ford

As strange as this is going to sound, annual goals and plans are often a barrier to high performance.

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.

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.

“There’s nothing like a deadline to get you motivated.”

The 12 Week Year defines what’s important for you to do today so that your long-term objectives can be attained. The 12 Week Year is a structured approach that fundamentally changes the way you think and act. It’s important to understand that the results you achieve are a direct byproduct of the actions you take. Your actions, in turn, are manifestations of your underlying thinking. Ultimately, it is your thinking that drives your results; it is your thinking that creates your experiences in life.

The great thing about having 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.

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.

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.

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 people 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 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 security 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.

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.

“All my life I wanted to be somebody. Now I see I should have been more specific.” —Lily Tomlin

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.

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 comfort 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.

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” —Mary Oliver

“A vision without a plan is a pipe dream.”

Working from a plan has three distinct benefits: 1. It reduces mistakes. 2. It saves time. 3. It provides focus.

Twelve week planning also offers three additional and distinct differences from annual planning. The first thing that is different with 12 week planning is that it is more predictable than 12 month planning.

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.

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.

“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” —Yogi Berra

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.

Twelve weeks is long enough to get things done, and yet is short enough to create and maintain a sense of urgency.

Long-term results are created by the actions you take every 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.

“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.

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.

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.

“An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

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 upcoming one. In addition, the first five minutes of each day should be spent reviewing your weekly plan to plan that day’s activities.

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.

Measurement builds self-esteem and confidence because it documents progress and achievement.

Scorekeeping functions as a reality check, providing performance 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.

the sooner we confront reality, 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, increasing the likelihood of success down the road.

“In God we trust; all others must bring data.” —W. Edwards Deming

Effective measurement captures both lead and lag indicators that provide comprehensive feedback necessary for informed decision making. Lag indicators—things like income, sales, commission dollars, pounds lost, body fat percentage, overall cholesterol 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.

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 measurement will help you pinpoint the source of the breakdown so that you can address it head-on.

Too often people want to change the plan before they’ve really executed 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

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.

With the weekly scorecard you measure execution, not results. You score yourself on the percentage of activities you complete each week.

We have found that if you successfully complete 85 percent of the activities in your weekly plan, then you will most likely achieve your objectives.

Productive tension is the uncomfortable feeling you get when you’re not doing the things you know you need to do.

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.

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.

they satisfy the various 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.

When you spend your time with intention, you know when to say yes and when to say no.

“It’s not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?” —Henry David Thoreau

Benjamin Franklin said, “If we take care of the minutes, the years will take care of themselves.”

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.

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.

To achieve greater results, what’s often necessary is not actually working more hours, but rather taking some time away from work.

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.”

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 critical tasks that occur in a typical week and organize them so you can be most productive.

As you create your ideal week, it helps to schedule routine tasks at the same time, on the same day each week, if possible.

“Our last free act—after which no further free acts are possible—is to deny that we are free.” —Peter Koestenbaum

These types of statements reflect the mistaken notion that accountability is something that can and must be imposed; that’s not accountability, that’s consequences.

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.

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 is not consequences; it’s ownership.”

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.

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.

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

kept commitments benefit both parties involved by improving relationships, strengthening integrity, and building self-confidence. Commitments are powerful and, oftentimes, life changing.

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

A definition of commitment that I like is “the state of being bound emotionally or intellectually to a course of action…”

When you’re interested in doing something, you do it only when circumstances permit, but when you’re committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results.

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 implementation gets difficult, but with a compelling desire, seemingly insurmountable obstacles are seen as challenges 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 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 keystone 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 activities. 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 commitments instead of your feelings. If you don’t, you will never build any momentum and will get stuck continually 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.

In our efforts to not miss anything, we unwittingly miss everything.

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.”

“The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.” —Abraham Lincoln

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.

Results are not the attainment of greatness, but simply confirmation 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

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.

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.

“The challenge of work-life balance is without question, one of the most significant struggles faced by modern man.” —Stephen Covey

Life balance is achieved when you are purposeful about how and where you spend your time, energy, and effort.

“There’s no such thing as work-life balance. There are work-life choices, and you make them, and they have consequences.” —Jack Welch

“A year from now you’ll wish you had started today!”

In fact, there are eight elements that we believe are fundamental to high performance in any endeavor. Those eight elements are: Vision Planning Process Control Measurement Time Use Accountability Commitment Greatness in the Moment

The 12 Week Year builds on a foundation of three principles that in the end determine an individual’s effectiveness and success. These principles are: 1. Accountability 2. Commitment 3. Greatness in the Moment Let’s take a closer look at each one. Accountability: Accountability is ultimately ownership. It is a character trait, a life stance, a willingness to own actions and results, regardless of the circumstances. The very nature of accountability rests on 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. The ultimate aim of accountability is to continually ask one’s self, “What more can I do to get the result?” Commitment: Commitment is a personal promise that you make to yourself. Keeping your promises to others builds strong relationships, and keeping promises to yourself builds character, esteem, and success. Commitment and accountability go hand-in-glove. In a sense, commitment is accountability projected into the future. It is ownership of a future action or result. Building your commitment capacity has a dramatic effect on your personal and business results. The 12 Week Year helps you to build the capacity to follow through on critical commitments and achieve breakthrough results in all areas. Greatness in the Moment: As I wrote in Chapter 10, greatness is not achieved when a great result is reached, but long before that, when an individual makes the choice to do what is necessary to become great. The results are not the attainment of greatness, but simply confirmation 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, and each moment that you continue to choose to do those things.

These five disciplines are: 1. Vision 2. Planning 3. Process Control 4. Measurement 5. Time Use

Vision: A compelling vision creates a clear picture of the future. It is critical that your business vision aligns with and enables your personal vision. This alignment ensures a powerful emotional connection that promotes a sustained commitment, and continual action. Planning: An effective plan clarifies and focuses on the top-priority initiatives and actions needed to achieve the vision. A good plan is constructed in a manner that facilitates effective implementation. Process Control: Process control consists of a set of tools and events that align your daily actions with the critical actions in your plan. These tools and events ensure that more of your time is spent on strategic and money making activities. Measurement: Measurement drives the process. It is the anchor of reality. Effective measurement combines both lead and lag indicators that provide comprehensive feedback necessary for informed decision making. Time Use: Everything happens in the context of time. If you are not in control of your time, then you are not in control of your results. Using your time with clear intention is a must.

Uninformed Optimism II. Informed Pessimism III. Valley of Despair IV. Informed Optimism V. Success and Fulfillment

Wanting passionately to reach your vision, combined with commitment and the tools and events of process control, is the way through the valley to the next stage of change.

Many people miss out on the potential of vision to create the emotional energy needed to inspire positive action even in an environment of charred earth.

The most powerful visions address and align your personal aspirations with your professional dreams. In the end, your professional vision often funds and enables your personal vision. For your vision to help you to push through the discomfort of change, you must be clear on what it is you want to create in life. Most people focus primarily on their business or career, but your business is just part of your life, and it is actually your life vision that gives traction and relevance to your business.

Your vision should be big enough that it makes you feel at least a little bit uncomfortable.

The fact that you don’t know how to do it creates the perception that it is impossible, at least for you, and it makes you think of new goals on a sliding scale of impossibility to certainty. Your ability to do something is malleable in this mind-set. The problem is that, if you think something is impossible, you will never attain it. Henry Ford said, “If you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.” The first step, then, to reaching your biggest dreams is to shift from impossible thinking to possible thinking. You do this not by asking How? but by asking What if

If the question of what if ? is the visioning question, then the question of how is the planning question.

Your vision provides you with a line of sight, an emotional link to help you overcome the challenges and execute. When the task seems too difficult or unpleasant, you can reconnect with your vision. It is this emotional connection that will provide you with the inner strength to forge ahead in spite of any difficulties, enabling you to achieve your dreams and desires.

There are three time horizons that you’ll want to focus your vision on: 1. Long-term aspirations 2. Mid-term goals, about three years into the future 3. 12 Weeks (covered in the next chapter)

Aspirational Vision So let’s start with the long-term aspirational vision. In formulating your vision, you must let your mind expand to imagine and even embrace the possibilities that often get pushed aside in our daily lives as being not immediate enough to command our attention, impractical, or too audacious to even consider, let alone pursue. Take a few minutes right now and think about all of the things that you want to have, do, and be in your life. What is most important to you physically, spiritually, mentally, relationally, financially, professionally, and personally? How much time freedom do you want? What income do you desire? Write everything you can think of on a sheet of paper; leave nothing off the page. Now, take the items from your page that you connect with emotionally and construct a vision for your life 5, 10, 15 years into the future. Be bold, be courageous; create a life vision that inspires you and fulfills your purpose. There are no right or wrong answers. This is the life you deeply desire.

Three-Year Vision Now that we’ve got you thinking about the possibilities in your life, let’s get specific. Based on your long-term vision, what do you want to create over the next three years? Describe in as much detail as possible what a great personal and professional life would look like three years from today. The more specific you are at this stage, the easier it will be to create your 12 week goals and your plan.

Vision, when engaged properly, is the ignition switch and power source of high performance. It is the all-important why behind the things you do. When viewed in this light, vision has the power to enable one to confront and conquer fears, take bold consistent action, and live a life of significance.

When you understand the true power of vision, you will want to spend more time connecting with your own vision to begin to free yourself from the self-imposed limitations that have held you back. Vision is the starting point of all high performance.

Review the visions of your team in individual one-on-one sessions. Ask permission to review their professional visions with them. Dig into why the business vision they have is important to them. Explore what achieving their business goals enables in their personal lives. Inquire about the level of ownership and emotional connection they have for their vision. Questions That Uncover the Degree of Ownership Why are the elements of your vision important to you? What will you be able to do if you reach your vision that you cannot do now? What will be different for you, your family, your friends, your peers, your clients, your community, if you reach that goal? Are you willing to commit to the actions needed to reach your vision? Who have you shared your vision with? How often have you looked at your vision since you wrote it? What actions do you have to take to make progress on your vision and reach your 12 week goal? What risks or barriers exist that may get in the way of you reaching your vision and goals? How can I best support and help you achieve your goals and vision? Once they have clear ownership of their visions, the next step is to help them build an action plan to achieve them.

When an individual is reluctant to take the necessary actions required to accomplish a goal, it is an indication that they own their current comfort more than they own the future described in their vision. In these cases, people have a couple of choices: They can either lower their expectations in life, or find the courage and discipline to execute the plan tactics consistently. The good news is that many times when confronted with this choice, your team members will reconnect and choose their aspirational vision over mediocrity.

Pitfall 1: You don’t take the power of vision seriously. Some people, especially type-A people, think that vision is fluff. Those who think about vision this way tend to leap past the question of purpose and dive into action. The problem is that when the going gets difficult, it is harder to stay committed to the work in the long run because there is no compelling reason, no persuasive why. The behaviors associated with this pitfall are not keeping your vision in front of you, not aligning your plans with it, and not remembering what is in it. Pitfall 2: The vision isn’t meaningful to you. Sometimes we are superficial in crafting our vision. We capture what we think we want—what we think we are supposed to want—rather than capturing what is meaningful to us. Visioning takes time. Keep working on it until you have something that connects emotionally. Pitfall 3: Your vision is too small. A small vision doesn’t call on our best efforts. We don’t have to reach and we don’t sacrifice our comfort. A small vision might be achievable, but we leave our best undelivered. To be most effective, your vision should make you feel uncomfortable and challenge you to do things differently—and do different things. Pitfall 4: You don’t connect your vision to your daily actions. Each day is an opportunity to either make progress on your vision or tread water. If you work from a plan that is aligned with your vision, you can be sure that you are acting on the most important things every day.

Success Tip 1: Share it with others. Sharing your vision increases your commitment to it. When you tell someone else what you want in life, you feel more responsibility to act. Success Tip 2: Stay in touch with your vision. Print it out and keep it with you. Review it each morning and update it every time that you discover ways to make it more vivid and meaningful to you. Success Tip 3: Live with intention. At the end of each day, take a few minutes to reflect on the progress that you made today. Did it move you forward, or was it filled with activity that wasn’t related to your vision? Resolve to be intentional in your actions to make progress on your vision. What action will you take tomorrow?

Planning enables you to allocate your time and resources to your highest-value opportunities, it increases your odds of successfully hitting your goals, it helps you to coordinate your team, and it creates a competitive advantage.

That’s because simply knowing what to do just isn’t enough. The world is noisy, the unexpected happens, distractions arise, our innate desire for comfort tugs at us, and we lose focus on the things that we know we should do. That’s why to increase your odds of success, one of the most powerful things you can do is to create, and work from, a written plan.

With an action-based plan, you don’t have to rely on input triggers to initiate your actions; instead, your plan triggers your actions. Your action choices are made proactively at the beginning of the 12 weeks when you create your plan.

Annual plans are typically not action-based because it is nearly impossible to predict the action needed four or more months out.

Due to increased uncertainty, most annual plans are objective-based and cannot be executed as written. Typical annual plans tell you what has to be achieved but they don’t specify how. When the how is not clearly defined you lose a sense of scope and can easily take on more than you can physically execute.

Plans can both build capacity for the future and drive short-term results. Every plan should have a goal to drive results in the current 12 weeks. If the plan is for your business, this means that it should always target income to be realized in the current 12 weeks. Some plans may also target building future capacity. Capacity objectives include such things as pursuing education, hiring staff, updating technology, implementing new systems, and so on. Effort and resources expended to build capacity happens immediately, while the benefits are realized sometime in the future. That’s why it’s important to always have activity in your plan that creates required short-term results.

Many 12 week efforts are comprised of two or three goals.

Each of these goals then becomes a planning target for which you need to write tactics.

There are five criteria that will help you create better 12 week plans when you are writing goals and tactics: Criteria 1: Make them specific and measurable. For each goal and/or tactic, be sure to quantify and qualify what success looks like. How many calls will you make? How many pounds will you lose? How far will you run? How much income will you earn? The more specific you can be, the better! Criteria 2: State them positively. Focus on what you want to happen that is positive. For example, rather than focusing on a 2 percent error rate, you would target a 98 percent accuracy rate. Criteria 3: Ensure they are a realistic stretch. If you can accomplish the goal without doing anything differently, then you probably need to stretch more. If it is absolutely impossible, then factor it back a little. If you have never asked for a business referral in your life, a tactic like “Ask for referrals in every client interaction” might be a bridge too far. A more realistic tactic that will still be a stretch might be “Ask for a referral in at least one client meeting each week.” Criteria 4: Assign accountability. This applies to people who are executing as part of a team (if you’re on your own, the accountability is all yours). Individual accountability for each goal and tactic is critical! Everyone’s challenge is no one’s challenge. Criteria 5: Be time-bound. There is nothing like a deadline to get things started and keep them moving. Make sure to include a date by which the goal is to be reached, or the tactic is to be executed.

Deciding where you are going is the first step to getting there. Effective planning absolutely begins with a well-written, specific, and measureable 12 week goal—a goal that you own, that, if you hit it, creates meaningful benefits for you—a goal that makes a difference. The 12 week goal is the bridge between your vision and your 12 week plan. Your 12 week goal should be a realistic stretch for you. If it isn’t realistic, you will become discouraged. If it isn’t a stretch you don’t need the 12 Week Year because your current way of operating will achieve your goal.

Why is your 12 week goal important to you? If you hit it, what will be different?

The best plans are focused on one or two things that you want to make progress on in the next 12 weeks. The fewer goals and weekly actions there are, the easier the plan will be to execute.

“A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow.” Don’t overanalyze the content of your plan. Don’t be concerned that your plan isn’t perfect—there are no perfect plans. Once you have a good plan, your execution of the tactics will help you to learn what works best so you can refine your plan from there. Keep in mind that at its most basic level, planning is just problem solving. Your plan solves the problem of how to close the gap between your results today and your 12 week goal.

To get started, write your first 12 week goal as Goal 1. Write each additional goal separately. You may find that you have just one goal; that’s fine. Next, for each of your goals, define the highest-priority daily and weekly actions that you must take to reach that goal.

For those actions you decide to implement write them as full sentences that start with a verb and describe the action that you intend to take. Finally, specify in the “Week Due” column the week (1 through 12) in which you intend to execute each action.

Before you put your plan down, ask yourself these questions: What actions will you struggle with?

What will you do to overcome those struggles?

If you take time to plan before engaging with a complex task, you reduce the overall time required to complete the task by as much as 20 percent.

As you conduct these meetings with your team, start the conversation by focusing on their 12 week goals. Do they own the goal or are they just interested in it? Is the goal realistic and still a stretch for them? Do they believe that they can reach their goal? Make appropriate suggestions for changing their goal if necessary, but make sure that the goal remains theirs, not yours, if you want them to own it.

The process of team planning is similar to the individual process except that the team sets a goal and builds a plan jointly. Ask for participant input toward the overall goal for the 12 weeks. Finalize the goal with the team and ensure that they own the goal jointly and individually. Next, brainstorm the tactics needed to reach each goal; then, select the smallest possible number of the brainstormed tactics that, when executed, will attain the goal.

It is important that each tactic be assigned to one individual even if several people will work on it. Individual accountability for tactics is critical to drive the team execution process. However, if one of the team tactics will be completed individually by multiple team members, you will be better served by assigning a subset of the team goal to each team member.

There are two last bits of advice when planning for teams: First, don’t overestimate the capacity of your team. The best team plans are succinct and contain the minimal amount of activity to reach the team goal—no more. Second, don’t front-load the plan;…

Pitfall 1: Your 12 week plan does not align with your long-term vision. It is important that your 12 week goals and your plan are aligned with, and an extension of, your longer-term vision. When you set your goals, be certain that they are connected to your vision and determine where you…

Pitfall 2: You aren’t staying focused Focus is critical. If you establish too many goals, you end up with too many priorities and too many tactics to effectively execute. Everything cannot be a priority. You will need to say no to some things in order to be great at the things that matter most. It takes courage to limit your focus to a few key areas. Remember, each 12 weeks is a new year. Imagine if every 12 weeks you identified one or two key areas and went after those with passion and focus. Then, at the end of that 12 week period, you identified one or two…

Pitfall 3: You don’t make the tough choices. For each goal, it’s not uncommon to identify 8, 10, or more tactics (actions) you could take to move the ball down the field. In most cases, implementing every tactic you can think of is not necessary and, in fact, can be a hindrance. Although it’s helpful to brainstorm all the tactics you can think of, that doesn’t mean you have to implement all of…

Pitfall 4: You don’t keep it simple. The task of planning can become very complex. In some companies, entire departments exist for the sole purpose of drafting strategic plans. For…

Pitfall 5: You don’t make it meaningful. You must build your plan around the most important items or there will be too little traction for you in the implementation phase. Too often people build their plan around the goals that someone else thinks are important. Although executing your plan is not complex, it is not necessarily easy, either. If your plan is not meaningful to you…

The 12 Week Year starts with a vision, and from that vision, you establish a set of 12 week goals. Based on those goals you develop a 12…

your goals and plan are designed to help you achieve a higher level of performance, then you most likely have specific tactics that are new actions for you. New actions are almost always uncomfortable. That’s one of the things that makes change so difficult. It’s one thing to identify the actions needed to create a better result; it’s a whole other thing to consistently do them. Without structural and environmental support, follow through becomes a constant exercise of willpower. Relying on willpower occasionally can work, but as…

The weekly plan is a powerful tool that translates the 12 week plan into daily and weekly action. The weekly plan is the instrument that organizes and focuses your week. It becomes your game plan for each week. The weekly plan is not a glorified to-do list; rather, it reflects the critical strategic activity that needs to take place that week in order to achieve your goals.

Keep in mind that the weekly plan is a derivative of your 12 week plan. It is not something that you create each week based on what happens to be urgent at the time. On the contrary, the weekly plan is populated with the tactics from the 12 week plan that are due that particular week. This process ensures that the weekly plan contains only those actions that are strategic and critical in nature.

these tactics get done, you’ve had a great week; if not, you’ve lost a week. Having this level of clarity each week is not only powerful, it’s life changing.

“There is no such thing as a self-made man. You will reach your goals only with the help of others.”

The lesson is that if you are implementing change, don’t go it alone. Your chances of success are seven times greater if you employ peer support.

We recommend forming a group of two to four committed individuals to meet weekly. We call these meetings WAMs, which stands for Weekly Accountability Meeting.

This is not a punitive session where we try to hold others accountable and dole out negative consequences or tongue lashing for those who are faltering. The WAM is used to confront breakdowns, recognize progress, create focus, and encourage action.

Weekly Accountability Meeting Agenda I. Individual Report Out: Each member states how they are tracking against their goals and how well they executed. Here are four areas to focus on: a. Your results for the 12 Week Year to date. b. Your weekly execution score. c. Intentions for the coming week. d. Feedback and suggestions from the group. II. Successful Techniques: As a group, discuss what’s been working well and how to incorporate these techniques into one another’s plan. III. Encouragement.

The format is pretty straightforward. Each individual gets a few minutes to report out to the group. You will want to comment on your results to date. Are you on track, ahead of where you should be at this point, or behind? Next, you’ll tell the group your weekly execution score. (You’ll learn how to calculate this in Chapter 16.) You will also announce your intentions for this week as they relate to your execution. Finally, the group will challenge you, congratulate you, and provide feedback and suggestions. After each member has reported out, you can have a short conversation on what members are doing that is working well and is transferable to others’ plans and goals. The WAM ends with encouraging the group to have a productive week.

The weekly routine consists of three simple, yet powerful steps: 1. Score your week 2. Plan your week 3. Participate in a WAM

Each week you will need to schedule about 15 minutes to score and plan your week. Approximately 70 percent of our clients perform this task first thing Monday morning. The other 30 percent do it sometime between Friday afternoon and Monday morning. It really doesn’t matter when you do it as long as you schedule a time that you can be consistent with each week.

As I discussed previously, your probability of success greatly increases when you meet regularly with a small group of peers. Make a short list of those who you would like to WAM with each week, then contact those people and determine a regular day and time to meet. Also decide if you’ll meet in person or over the phone. Have each member enter the WAM in the calendar as a recurring event.

In our experience, you are 60 to 80 percent more likely to execute a written weekly plan than a plan that is in your head.

Make no mistake, you will be more successful if you work from a written weekly plan and meet regularly with a group of your peers!

the leader of your group, you ultimately shape the culture of your organization through your conversations, your actions, and your focus.

Because culture is a reflection of the leader, your actions more than anything else will have the greatest impact on determining whether your team fully adopts and profits from the 12 Week Year. Your first task is to model the behavior that you want to see in them. That starts with you adopting the weekly routine, scoring and planning each week, and participating in a WAM.

Pitfall 1: You don’t plan each week.

Pitfall 2: You include all your tasks.

Pitfall 3: You assume that each week is the same.

Pitfall 4: You add tactics weekly.

Pitfall 5: You don’t use it to guide your day.

Pitfall 6: You don’t make it part of your routine.

Measurement drives the execution process. It is your touchstone with reality. Truly effective measurement combines both lead and lag indicators to provide the comprehensive feedback needed for informed decision making. It is the feedback loop that lets you know if your actions are effective.

In the best measurement systems, there are lead indicators and lag indicators,

The lag indicators are the end results, and your 12 week goals are the ultimate lagging indicators. If you are tracking progress towards your goals, then you are tracking lag indicators.

Lead indicators are the things that happen early in the execution process. They are the things that drive the lags. Most people are pretty good at tracking the lag indicators, but the opportunity for growth is usually the greatest with the lead indicators.

In general, the more frequent a measure is, the more useful it is. For example, quarterly measures are typically better than annual measures.

As we discussed in the first section of the book, the most effective lead indicator you can have is a measure of your weekly execution. It is critical that you measure execution.

In both cases you’ll notice that what you measure on a weekly basis is the execution of your planned tactics, not your results. You simply check off or count up those tactics that you completed last week, regardless of the results you got.

The results measure and the execution measure are separate. In my example, I may have lost two pounds this week but still only scored 75 percent. Because the results are lagging, I want to pay close attention to both measures, and even though I lost two pounds, I did not have a good week from an execution standpoint. What that tells me is that unless I execute better next week, my weight loss will stall out.

This is a major shift in thinking for most people. The thinking shift is twofold. First, is the shift to embrace measurement and not to shy away from it, as is so often the case. Yes, measurement is cold and unsympathetic and at times even harsh. It discounts effort and has no regard for interruptions or distractions, or any other excuse you can muster. But in the end measurement is helpful and necessary. Without measurement there is no way for you to know, unequivocally if you are making progress. Without measurement there is no way for you to know what adjustments would be productive. Without measurement it’s virtually impossible to hit your goals. The second thinking shift is to focus more on the actions than the results. Remember, you have greater control over your actions than you do your outcomes. Your outcomes are driven by your actions. The weekly plan and the weekly scorecard are focused on your actions. The scorecard measures whether you did what you said was most important in order to achieve your goals. As a result, your weekly scorecard is the most accurate predictor of your future. If you faithfully complete the critical actions on a daily and weekly basis, the results will come. So the process is less about the end result and more about the daily actions. That is why the scorecard only measures your execution and not your results.

As a manager or leader, how you think about measurement and how you engage with it will ultimately impact your team’s productivity and results. Too many managers mistakenly think about measurement as accountability. This mind-set creates all kinds of dysfunction and barriers to high performance. When managers think this way about measurement, they tend to use it to trigger negative consequences for their direct reports. In other words, when measurement is seen as the accountability system, then managers use measurement and negative consequences to hold people accountable. In this environment, employees and associates quickly learn to avoid measurement—and their manager. The more you use measurement to trigger negative consequences, the more your team will avoid and even openly resist measurement. Measurement is not accountability; it’s simply feedback. The more effective use of measurement is as a feedback mechanism to identify breakdowns, progress, and successes. In this way measurement allows you to confront reality and breakdowns without the pushback and collateral damage associated with negative consequences. Ideally, you want the performers to measure themselves. If they rely on you to track and tally their key measures, that is often an indication of a lack of ownership on their part. Think about that. If you were really committed to your goals and had a strong desire to accomplish them, wouldn’t you track your progress?

You know you have ownership when associates measure and track their own metrics.

By inquiring about their weekly scores, you can know immediately if someone is at risk. If you have a direct report who scores less than 60 percent on any given week, it’s an indication that they may need some help. One score doesn’t make or break a 12 Week Year, but it certainly can be a red flag that some level of intervention is needed if the individual is to have any chance of hitting their 12 week goals.

Pitfall 1: You think that measurement is complicated or unimportant.

Pitfall 2: You don’t schedule a block of time each week to assess your progress.

Pitfall 3: You abandon the system when you don’t score well. Too often people abandon the system and stop scoring when they have two bad weeks in a row. Have the courage to assess each week and don’t back down, even when you have a disappointing week.

Tip 1: Review your weekly score with a buddy or a small group of peers each week.

Tip 2: Commit to make progress each week.

Tip 3: Remember that a weekly score of less than 85 percent isn’t necessarily bad.

Tip 4: Don’t be afraid to confront what your numbers are telling you. If you are unwilling to confront reality, then you will never be able to change it. When you track leading indicators, your execution system will help you to identify the root causes of any performance breakdowns you may experience. When there is a breakdown in your results, you need to know if it was caused by a breakdown in your execution or your plan content. There’s a BIG difference and the only way to know for sure is by measuring both results and execution.

what most often keeps you from being exceptional is not a lack of time, but the way you allocate the time that you have.

Effective time use can be the difference between mediocre and great performance. The problem is that the world is rife with potential distractions and interruptions that arise non-stop throughout the day.

The choices that you make on how you spend your time, ultimately create your results in life. The great people, the giants of history whether in politics, culture, art, science, religion, or any endeavor you can think of, had no more time in each day than you do. What they did with their time made all the difference. The breakdown lies in your moment-by-moment choices. Most people make choices that increase their short-term benefits and minimize their short-term costs.

Spending leisure time and doing comfortable tasks is undoubtedly healthy in moderation, but when we consistently choose comfortable activity, we are dooming ourselves to lives lived far short of our capabilities.

“Eventually everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences.”

To become fit requires discomfort, to earn a significant income requires discomfort, to become great at anything, requires you to pay the price. To accomplish what you desire will take sacrifice. The number-one thing you will need to sacrifice is your comfort.

If you are not in a role that plays to or magnifies your strengths, you are probably in the wrong spot.

In reality, it is the focused and concentrated application of your strengths that will produce your greatest achievements. Successful individuals work to their strengths. Truly outstanding performers have gone a step further and work to what we call their unique capability. Unique capabilities are one or two things you do absolutely the best. They also tend to be the things that you enjoy doing. Whether you know it or not, your unique capabilities are responsible for your greatest successes and joys throughout your life. To be your best, you must intentionally align your time and activities with your strengths and your unique capabilities. When you do, you will also experience a new and ever-increasing level of performance and satisfaction. To achieve this level of performance will require that you carve out time for the strategic—those actions that are important, but not necessarily urgent. Strategic activities don’t typically have an immediate payback, yet they create substantial returns in the future. To stay focused on your strengths, you will need to manage your interruptions and keep the low-payoff activities to a minimum.

Everything that we achieve in life happens in the context of time. The important things will get done only if you allocate time to them. One of the building blocks of your success is the ability to spend time on what matters most.

there are three components that form the foundation of effective time use; they are: strategic blocks, buffer blocks, and breakout blocks. Each of these three time blocks is designed to help you accomplish key activities more efficiently.

Strategic blocks are three hours in length and should be scheduled early in your week so that if one gets interrupted or cancelled, you have time to reschedule it. They are blocks of time when you work on your business, not in it. Strategic blocks should also be scheduled during times when your work activity is typically lowest. One strategic block per week is usually adequate.

Buffer blocks are designed to deal with the lower-level activity and are typically between 30 minutes and one hour in length, scheduled one to two times per day. The actual amount of time for buffer blocks will depend upon the amount of email, phone calls, interruptions, and other “administrivia” you normally are required to handle.

Pencil in your time blocks, beginning with your strategic blocks, next moving to your buffer blocks, then ending with your breakout block. Then, fill in the other important activities that need to happen each week.

1. Block out 15 minutes first thing Monday morning to review the prior week and to plan for the current week. 2. Schedule your three-hour strategic block. 3. Schedule one to two buffer blocks each day, Monday through Friday, typically one in the morning and one near the end of the day (e.g., 11:00-12:00 and 4:00-5:00). Remember that the amount of buffer time varies by individual and administrative workload. 4. Schedule a breakout block. 5. Schedule all additional important activities. a. Client and prospect appointments b. Standing meetings c. Marketing and sales d. Planning e. Required administrative and operational tasks f. Preparation for client meetings and customer service g. Project work h. Referral lunches i. One-on-one coaching sessions j. Personal tasks

In the end, everything happens in the context of time. If you are not in control of your time, then you won’t be in control of your results. Personal effectiveness is about your intentionality.

Reconnect with your vision: 5-10 minutes. Review your vision and assess your progress. Are you advancing, are you making progress, is there still an emotional connection? 12 week review: 10-15 minutes. Review your metrics. Look at your results against your goals. Inspect your weekly execution score and your lead and lag indicators. Are you executing at a high level and is it producing? If not, what can you do this week to improve? Assess performance breakdowns: 10-20 minutes. Is there a breakdown? If so, what is the root cause? Do you need to adjust your plan, or just execute better? Work on plan tactics: 2–2.5 hours. Use this time to complete tactics from your 12 week plan. Other examples of strategic block activity: Read a book. Take an online course. Plan for the next 12 Week Year (most often done in week 12 or 13). Buffer Block—Sample Agenda, 30 to 60 Minutes Review and respond to email. Listen to voicemail and respond as needed. Make necessary outbound calls. Follow up on to-do list items. Take quick meetings with staff to answer questions or to plan follow-up. Organize and file work in process and completed items. Identify any new to-do list items and record.

Given the value and the limited supply of time, it is interesting that almost all of us have difficulty spending it as effectively as we would like to.

To achieve breakthrough, you must come to think about your own time as at least as important as that of your customers. Only in this way can you build your business and, ironically, also improve your client service simultaneously.

It’s important to realize the simple truth that you can’t do it all; otherwise you will continue to labor under the false belief that you will eventually catch up, and finally get to the important stuff. You will continue to use all of your time on the urgent day-to-day activity and postpone the strategic that is required to create breakthrough and, ultimately, the life you desire.

The thinking that says, “I will start building my ideal future tomorrow, or next week, or next month,” is fatally flawed. The future you are going to live is the one you are creating right now at this very moment.

Reaching a breakthrough isn’t about being incremental. Breakthroughs require a profound change in the way that you work before it shows up in your results. For some, breakthrough results may mean a 20 percent increase in income. For others, it may mean doubling their business. For still others, breakthrough may be taking more time off while maintaining their income. In each case, creating a breakthrough will require a willingness to change how time is allocated.

Think about this: People earning $1,000,000peryeararen’tworking10timesharderthanpeopleearning$100,000. In fact, they are sometimes working less—but they are working differently. The fact is, you won’t reach a breakthrough if you are not willing to change how you currently allocate your time. To get different results, you will have to do things differently and do different things. Don’t let the mechanics blur the concept. To be your best, you will need to carve out time to work strategically. You will need to find a way to efficiently handle the low-payoff activities. And you need time to refresh and rejuvenate.

As a manager, your communication and actions influence the culture of your team. It is important that your words and actions align if you want to have the greatest positive impact.

Pitfall 1: You conduct business as usual. It’s unproductive to allow your old time-allocation habits to drive your activity.

Pitfall 2: You don’t focus on one thing at a time in your strategic blocks. Multitasking is seen by many as a virtue. The reality is that multitasking lowers your overall productivity and your results.

Pitfall 3: You allow distractions to steal your attention. In our modern world, technology can be a major distraction.

Pitfall 4: You think being busy is the same as being productive.

Tip 1: Work from a written weekly plan.

Tip 2: Input your model week into your calendar.

We have all heard stories of people who refuse to take responsibility for their actions and blame others for their failures. It’s their parents’ fault, their boss’s fault, the fault of the conservatives or liberals, the cigarette companies, the fast-food industry—the system is out to get them. Whah, whah, whah! Someone or something else is always the cause of their failure. Our culture supports this victim mentality more and more. In fact, our legal system even promotes it. We now reward people for not taking responsibility for their choices and finding someone or something other than themselves to blame. In spite of the perceived benefits, people with a victim mind-set pay a terrific price. A victim allows his success to be limited by external circumstances, people, or events. As long as we continue to be victims of our circumstances, we will experience life as a struggle and others as a threat. Accountability, on the other hand, allows you to gain control of your life, to shape your destiny, and to fulfill your potential. In its purest form, accountability is simply taking ownership of one’s actions and results. The fact of the matter is that successful people are accountable. Accountability is not about blaming yourself or punishing others. It is simply a stance in life in which people acknowledge their role in outcomes. Accountability is not concerned with fault, but rather what it takes to create better results. Until we and our organizations accept ownership of our actions and our outcomes, we will be helpless to change or improve our results. Once we accept that our actions have an impact on the outcome then, and only then, are we truly empowered to create the results we desire. When we acknowledge our accountability, our focus shifts from defending our actions to learning from them. Failures simply become feedback in the ongoing process of becoming excellent. Unfavorable circumstances and uncooperative people don’t prohibit us from reaching our goals. We stand in a different way, thereby creating different results.

I have no one to blame but myself for my failure or success. The challenge is to somehow stay in the frame of mind that allows me to remember that the little things done today matter.

You can blame the circumstances, your upbringing, your family, the schools you attended, your boss, or the politicians. The fact is, you don’t control any of that. What you control is how you respond. Being accountable is not easy, and at times it is very unpleasant, but if you are serious about your goals, you must take ownership of your situation.

In the end, nobody, outside of a few close friends, really cares if you succeed or not. You can make all the excuses you want; the world doesn’t care. As harsh as that sounds, it’s the truth. Oh, you may from time to time get a little sympathy, and maybe if you’re really lucky a free beer, but that’s about it. Giving away your power will never create the success you long for. Resolve right now to never again let excuses get in the way of you achieving your goals.

Here are four things you can do to foster greater accountability and get more of what you want in life. 1. Resolve never to be the victim again. You cannot achieve a life of significance if you continue to give your power away. Make a decision to never be the victim again. Notice when you are making excuses and settling for mediocrity. Focus on the things you can control. Accountability is first a mind-set, then an action. To live your vision, take ownership of your thinking, actions, and results. 2. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. Feeling sorry for yourself produces nothing but self-pity and, if you do enough of it, depression. It’s okay to be disappointed and sad when things don’t go your way, but don’t let that linger and turn into self-pity. Learn to manage your thinking and your attitude. 3. Be willing to take different actions. If you want different results, then you need to be willing to do things differently and do different things. As my friend Lou Cassara, author of From Selling to Serving, says, if you want something you don’t currently have, you need to do something you’re not currently doing. Taking action will not only change your outcomes; it will also change your attitude. I’ve found that when I’m feeling discouraged, one of the quickest ways to change my outlook is by taking action. 4. Associate with “Accountables.” There is a proverb that says, “He who walks with the wise grows wise.” Who you associate with matters. Stay away from victims and excuse makers. Treat that mind-set like a deadly, contagious disease. Nurture relationships with people who are accountable. If you have important people in your life that are excuse makers, be a positive influence; have them read this chapter and model accountability.

“Everybody, sooner or later, sits down to a banquet of consequences.” —Robert Louis Stevenson

As we’ve discussed, our society views accountability as consequences. Accountability is not consequences; it’s ownership. It is the realization that even though you don’t control the circumstances, you do control how you respond. It is the understanding that the quality of your choices determines the quality of your life. It is the recognition that in any situation you always, always, always have choice. The choices you have in a given situation may not be very attractive, but you still have choices, and that is an important and empowering distinction. How you think about accountability affects everything.

The long-term benefits of accountability are clear: better results, an increased sense of control, less stress, and a greater general sense of well-being, for organizations as well as individuals. Imagine a scenario where the culture of your company embraces accountability. Where accountability is viewed as positive and where associates willingly agree to accountable relationships. Consider the possibility of an organization where instead of having to hold people accountable, that accountability is simply a part of the way everyone operates. Leaders need to move beyond the limited notion of accountability as consequences. Every organization we’ve worked with talks about holding their people accountable. Accountability cannot be imposed, demanded, or coerced. It is an inevitable outgrowth of freedom. As leaders try to hold their people accountable, it puts people on the defensive and unintentionally produces a victim culture. The very act of holding someone accountable leaves no room for the individual to own their actions or the result. Even the most accountable among us naturally push back. People deliver on what they own. As a leader, one of your main jobs is to foster ownership of the things that matter most. That won’t happen if you continue to try to hold your associates accountable.

Here are a few tips on how you can you create accountability within your organization. Become aware of victim conversations.

Model…

Clarify…

Learn from…

Focus on the…

Your thoughts and beliefs regarding accountability shape your actions and the results of the organization. What might be different if your view of accountability shifted? How would your culture be different if you confronted advisors and associates with their freedom?…

Pitfall 1: You continue to view accountability as consequences. By now you should be clear that accountability is not the same as consequences. Continuing to treat accountability as consequences will prevent you from achieving your potential and severely limit those you work with. Write it on a sheet of paper and hang it on your wall: Accountability is not consequences; it’s ownership. Pitfall 2: You look outside yourself. Waiting for things beyond your control to change is another major pitfall. Whether it’s the economy, your company, your boss, or your spouse, waiting for something or someone to change is terribly unproductive and frustrating. Tip 1: Acknowledge reality. As Elizabeth Cady Stanton said: “Truth is the only safe ground to stand on.” Accountability deals in reality. When you take full ownership, there is no room for anything less than honest candor with yourself and with others. The situation is what it is. The only chance you have of improving it starts with acknowledging reality. Tip 2: Focus on what you can control. To be effective you…

Commitment: “The state of being bound emotionally or intellectually to some course of action.”

A personal commitment is a promise you make with yourself to take specific actions. It may be working out consistently, spending time with the family, stopping smoking, or making a certain number of sales calls each day. Take a few minutes right now and think about two personal commitments that you have made and kept with yourself. Identify two personal commitments you succeeded in keeping:

Now think about what the results were for you when you kept these commitments. How did you feel about yourself? Was it easier to make and keep other self-promises later on as a result of keeping these? How did you feel about your ability to do what it took to get the result no matter what? Capture your thoughts below. Benefits of keeping personal commitments:

Using the iceberg metaphor where do you think intentions fall: above the waterline or below? If you think about it, you will realize that intentions fall both above and below the waterline. What this means is that we have intentions that we are aware of—stated intentions—and those of which we are not aware—hidden intentions. Often, the stated intentions which I am aware of are in conflict with intentions that I am unaware of. Let’s look at an example of conflicting intentions. A common New Year’s resolution is to lose weight. During our workshop we often ask the question, “Who here is overweight by your own standard?” Typically at least half the hands go up. Consider the question for yourself: Are you overweight by your own standard? If your answer is yes, then you have conflicting intentions. At the 10 percent level, your intention is to reach your ideal weight, but at the 90 percent level, based on results, you have different intentions.

Technically, these reasons are the manifestations of deeper intentions, like the desire for comfort, pleasure, satisfaction, relaxation, entitlement, and so on. The point is that often hidden intentions exist below the waterline and conflict with our stated intentions, so we struggle to keep our commitments and following through on our intentions. Successful commitment occurs when your stated intentions are stronger than your hidden intentions, or when you consciously reconcile the conflict. Let’s look at a business example. For many sales professionals generating consistent referrals can be the difference between success and failure, but, even sales reps with a stated intention to ask for a certain number of referrals per week, often don’t ask. Clearly something is getting in the way. What might be some of the sales reps’ hidden intentions regarding asking for referrals? Possible hidden intentions: I haven’t earned the referral. I don’t want to risk the current sale by asking for a referral. I have a fear of rejection. I don’t want to appear needy. I want to be liked. It might make the situation uncomfortable. The probability of a sales rep with a set of hidden intentions like these asking for a referral is close to zero. To be effective the rep would need to first know that these intentions exist, and then reconcile them with the desire to gain referrals.

To begin to address how to be even more successful in keeping these promises, take a few minutes and answer the questions below: Think about a time when someone promised you something that was very important to you and didn’t do it. Describe the situation and how it made you feel. Recall a specific time when you made a commitment to someone else and you didn’t come through. How did they feel? How did you feel? What is the impact of broken promises on each party and on the relationships? When we ask participants in our workshops to tell us the results of a broken promise, here are just a few examples of comments we hear: Loss of integrity Loss of confidence in the person who let us down Loss of trust Breakdown in relationship It’s a short list, and an ugly one! Not following through on your commitments destroys relationships and contributes to failure and self-esteem issues. Most relational pain comes as a result of broken promises, either explicit or implicit. Explicit promises are your stated word, while implicit promises are inferred. Some common examples of implicit promises are: For a father or mother to protect their children from harm For a spouse to love and comfort their partner For a leader to provide vision and to act fairly For a leader to provide training and development We all have implicit promises with others that we need to be aware of. What are the implicit promises that you have in your professional and personal life? How are you delivering on these? In what ways can you improve?

Just as there are steps to making and keeping personal commitments, there are also some key steps to keeping your stated promises with others: A strong desire to keep your word. If your word means little, then you will struggle to keep your promises. If you understand the fallout of broken promises and the benefits of keeping your promises, and if your word is important to you, then you will be more likely to keep your promises with others. Count the costs. Just like with personal commitments it is important to count the costs before making a promise to someone, even though there are times when it is difficult in the moment to stop and consider them. If you commit, only later to realize that you are unable or unwilling to follow through, re-negotiate the promise quickly before it’s due. Act on your promises. Similar to personal commitments, there will be times when you just flat out don’t feel like following through. Those are the times when you will need to intentionally act on your promises, not your feelings.

To be consistent with your commitments will require you to align your thinking with a few core beliefs. The first is that it is okay to say no. People would rather you say no than break a promise.

You’ll only find your true limit when you go to fallure, not failure.

Commitments by definition demand you “go to fallure, not failure.” Set it in your mind right now that the process is more important than the result. You don’t control the result; what you control are your actions. Don’t worry that your goal might be too big or that you might fall short—so what? When you make a commitment, don’t give yourself an out.

The final suggestion as it relates to your thinking is this: You need to know that every time you push through the fear, uncertainty, and doubt that accompanies any challenge, the benefits go far beyond the particular situation and shape who you become in the process. There is something empowering and liberating about knowing if you say you’re going to do something that you can count on yourself to come through!

You are not going to be perfect, but as much as possible, be aware of the commitments you make and do everything in your power to deliver on time. If you want a culture that is good at keeping commitments and people who follow through on what they say, then be a role model for your team.

Pitfall 1: You miss a commitment once and give up.

Pitfall 2: You fail to confront missed commitments.

Pitfall 3: You don’t value your word.

Tip 1: Don’t overcommit.

Tip 2: Go public with your commitments.

Tip 3: Buddy up.

We would all be great if we did not encounter resistance when pursuing our life’s intentions. The reality is, the world requires that an effort be expended to accomplish great things. That effort is what stops many from becoming what they are capable of becoming.

There are many great books that dig into the barriers to change; Switch by Chip and Dan Heath, The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers, are a few of our favorites.

Given a choice, people choose immediate and certain short-term comfort over potential long-term benefits almost every time, unless there is a compelling reason to choose otherwise. What this means is that even if a change could be hugely beneficial when implemented, if the immediate costs outweigh the immediate benefits, many will choose not to engage. To change your tendency to choose comfort over growth, the 12 Week Year brings your vision into the present via the 12 week goal. The goal links the actions that you take each day as part of your plan to your long-term vision. That’s why one of the recommended actions is that you review your vision for at least a few minutes each day.

A research study by Amy N. Dalton and Stephen A. Spiller, found that the benefits of planning diminish rapidly, if not altogether, if you pursue and plan with more than one goal.

found that if you think that your plan to reach multiple goals actually is manageable, then you are more likely to execute it and planning becomes beneficial for multiple goals as well. If you think your plan is manageable, you will execute it and benefit from it! In other words, the way you think about your plan, affects your ability to execute! Switch describes two ways to “shrink” change: First, limit the initial investment in time (e.g., spend five minutes cleaning), and second, set progress milestones that are quickly within reach (clean the small bathroom). By doing this, your thinking about the magnitude of your change shifts, and you can get “unstuck,” and begin to act.

Sometimes people give away their power to the external by seeing their barriers as insurmountable. They would be great, but their circumstances won’t let them. As long as you see the solution to your greatness as being outside of you, you will remain powerless to change. The reality is that the only things you control are the way you think and the way you act; everything else, you can only try to influence. Personal accountability—ownership of your vision, goals, and plan—is the single most important thing that you can do to become great.

One important thing that you can do is to recognize progress early and often. Do this both individually and with the team. Create a sense of progress and momentum each week and be sure to recognize process change. You don’t control the outcomes, so focus on the process.