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

by Brian P. Moran

4. Act on commitments, not feelings: There will be times when you won’t feel like doing the critical activities.

Learning to do the things you need to do, regardless of how you feel, is a core discipline for success.

is much more feasible to establish and keep a commitment for 12 weeks than to keep it for 12 months.

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

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 conversations, and not the important people.

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

The fact is that life happens in the moment, life is lived in the moment, and ultimately, greatness is created in the moment.

things. A few years back, as I watched the events, the following thought crossed my mind: When does a champion become great?

The athlete achieved greatness months, perhaps years, earlier when she decided to run the extra mile, swim the extra laps, or to perform just one jump more.

The gold medal wins were simply the evidence of his greatness.

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.

The difference 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.

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.

Trying to spend equal time in each area is unproductive and often frustrating. Life balance is not about equal time in each area; life balance is more about intentional imbalance.

“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.

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.

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.

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

In this section, we’ve organized these elements into a set of three principles and five disciplines.

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

Accountability: Accountability is ultimately ownership. It is a character trait, a life stance, a willingness to own actions and results, regardless of the circumstances.

Commitment: Commitment is a personal promise that you make to yourself.

Commitment and accountability go hand-in-glove. In a sense, commitment is accountability projected into the future.

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.

principles—accountability, commitment, and greatness in the moment—form the foundation of personal and professional success.

We have found that top performers—whether athletes or business professionals—are great, not because their ideas are better, but because their execution disciplines are better. 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.

Planning: An effective plan clarifies and focuses on the top-priority initiatives and actions needed to achieve the vision.

Process Control: Process control consists of a set of tools and events that align your daily actions with the critical actions in your plan.

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.

There are five stages that people move through emotionally when changing their behavior: I. Uninformed Optimism II. Informed Pessimism III. Valley of Despair IV. Informed Optimism V. Success and Fulfillment

Our emotions are driven by our uninformed optimism, which is in the positive emotional area of the graph.

The second stage of change, informed pessimism, is characterized by a shift to a negative emotional state.

I call the third stage the valley of despair. This is when most people give up. All of the pain of change is felt and the benefits seem far away or less important—and

It is precisely at this stage—the valley of despair—that having a compelling vision is critical.

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.

The fourth stage is informed optimism. At this stage, your likelihood of success is much higher. You are back in the positive emotional area of the cycle.

Every time you complete the cycle, you build not only your capacity, but also your confidence.

In our two-day workshop we have the participants list everything it takes to excel. Then, we list all those items on a flip chart. Typically, there are more than 20 and the list fills one to two large sheets of paper.

The challenge is that not everyone applies it as a system. Often people will apply some of the elements and not apply others. Like any system, the whole is exponentially greater than the sum of the parts.

In order for it to work in the long term, it must become the system you use to get everything else done. It must become your execution system.

How will this system be implemented at GLN across all functions?

The most powerful visions address and align your personal aspirations with your professional dreams.

All of your big personal accomplishments must also be preceded by big visions.

Impossible, Possible, Probable, Given

Henry Ford said, “If you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.”