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

by Brian P. Moran

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.

Without a compelling vision, you will discover there is no reason to go through the pain of change.

Consistent action on the critical tasks needed to reach your goal is the key to getting what you want in life.

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.

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 committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results.

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.

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.

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.

To become great, you must choose to allocate your time to your greatest opportunities. You will have to choose to spend time on the difficult things that create your biggest payoffs. To be great you will need to live with intention. That will require you to be clear on what matters most, and then to have the courage to say no to things that distract you. You will need to guard your time intensely, delegating or eliminating everything possible that is not one of your strengths or does not help you advance your goals.

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.

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.

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.