Why you shouldn't read The 12 Week Year

DO NOT read “The 12 Week Year” by Brian P. Morgan & Michael Lennington if:

• You want to stay average in every area of your life

• You want to keep making promises to yourself that you know you will never keep

• You want to keep adding the same images to your vision board every single year, just waiting for them to magically become reality

• You want to keep making New Year’s resolutions, only to forget about them by spring time

The first time I heard about the concept of a 12 week year was several years ago from a friend. I remember telling myself that I was going to read it ASAP! And do you know what I did? I buried it in the back of memory with the rest of the 8596963748596 things that I’ve I was going to do… but didn’t.

For a long time, I have been the queen of good ideas and massive goals that just never came to fruition.

So when I finally picked up this book during the last week of December 2023 and saw this:

I immediately knew that the entire framework of the 12 week year was going to stretch me in the best way possible.

On January 11, 2024, I am beginning my first ever 12 week year. And by the end of this newsletter, you will walk away with the framework I’m using to do so (which I learned from the actual book - obviously).

You are probably wondering why I am starting this journey in the middle of the month and in the middle of a week.. well this is why:

The MINDSET shift from a 12 month year to a 12 week year

The main mindset shift that many people tend to miss (even after they read this book), is that the entire point of the 12 week year is to completely get rid of “annualized thinking”.

YOU have the power to start your year whenever you want. You don’t need to wait until the next week, month or quarter starts. You have the power to make the decision to create a plan and start following it TODAY (not tomorrow).

After you read this book, your year will now be any 12 week period that you want it to be. And my own 12 week year starts TODAY!

The power of EXECUTION

When I started this book, I told myself that I needed to commit 100% to following every single step. Even the steps that I felt I could ‘skip’. I have read many self development books, and 100% of the time, if the author asked the reader to do an assignment, I usually skipped it or just did it in my head. This time was different.

I knew that if I was really going to test this theory, I have to follow it to a Tee! So that’s what I am going to do.

One of the major takeaways for me was that my lack of execution really comes from my lack of proper planning. I rarely ever write things down because I always say “I’ll just remember it”… only to forget about it .5 seconds later.

‘The 12 Week Year’ talks about a lot of different concepts and ideas, however, the most important one is really the ability to EXECUTE! And one of the first (and biggest) steps to executing is: writing down a plan.

So to commit 100%, I knew I had to really spend the time writing down this plan for my 12 week year. I even spent an embarrassing amount of time walking through the aisles of Target to find the perfect planner for this.

Unfortunately, having a cute planner is not going to really help me reach my goals if my execution plan isn’t up to par.

‘The 12 Week Year’ breaks down execution into 5 simple concepts:

• Vision

• Planning

• Process Control

• Measurement

• Time Use

Have you noticed that I haven’t even mentioned setting goals yet, despite the fact that wanting to achieve your goals is likely the entire point of reading this far?

That’s because having a successful year and creating the life you truly want, goes deeper than a list of “hopeful resolutions”. The 12 week year is about transforming who you are and becoming who you need to be in order to create that dream life.

That is why VISION is the first step in the process.

I spent a good 10 minutes writing down my long term vision for my life. I’m sure you’ve been asked the question “where do you see yourself in 5 years?”. This is the time to put your biggest, most audacious goals down on paper. Don’t worry about being realistic (I sure didn’t).

I wrote down a vision for my long term aspirations and where I see myself in 3 years.

Next, you want to ask yourself “How am I going to make this happen?” The answer is: PLANNING

That is where your 12 week year goals step in.

It is super important that your 12 week goals align with your long term and mid term goals and aspirations. It would not make sense to put Miami in the GPS when you really wanted to go to Chicago.

There’s a few main points to remember when planning your 12 week goals. You want to make sure you are only choosing a few, high impact goals. Meaning: think about your vision. What are some things that you have the capability right now that will bring you closer to that overall vision.

Here are my goals for the next 12 weeks:

It is a tad bit vulnerable to share these goals with you. But I think it is important for you to see that I really am 100% committed to testing this system.

Having set many goals (and not achieving them) before, I know that even writing these down will not be enough for me to execute. I am super pumped and motived right now because it is only Day 1. But what happens on those days where the motivation wears out?

The only real way to combat that (according to the book) is to have a system/routine or PROCESS CONTROL

The only way to really control a process is to create actual steps for what needs to be achieved. When you create your 12 week goals, you will break those goals down into tasks (or tactics) that need to be completed each week. Each of the tasks for each week are meant to bring you closer and closer to your 12 week goals.

These tasks need to be written down so that you know exactly what to do every single day. Doing this made me realize that I was doing something that I really have never done before: create a daily routine.

This is where TIME USE comes in.

As a creative and entrepreneur, daily routines have not been my strong point in life. I am really excited to see how this changes my level of productivity. The method that the book talks about is time blocking.

Time blocking is where you allocate certain times in your schedule for specific tasks. Time blocking is meant to ensure you are allocating time to actually get certain high impact tasks done.

I made sure that one of my pretty Target planners included an hourly breakdown for every single day.

This will help me time block and keep track of all of my meetings, appointments, etc. Now this can definitely be done with a digital calendar. I am just more of a paper planner type of girl. (You can grab one of these HERE)

Now the most important (and maybe the hardest) part of the execution plan is MEASUREMENT

The book really emphasizes the importance of scoring yourself on how many of your tasks that you completed each week.

This step right here is going to require complete and total honesty and accountability. It can be difficult to admit to yourself when you are not on track. And often times, we don’t even acknowledge when we don’t keep our commitments to ourselves. We just shrug and move on. Well not anymore.

I have learned that accountability = ownership. No one can hold me accountability besides myself. And if I really want that vision to come to life, I am going to have to own the fact that it is completely up to me.

So as I start my first 12 week year, I must say goodbye to my old self. I am hoping that in 12 week’s time, I will be a brand new woman sending a newsletter to you about how I crushed my goals.

It is going to be uncomfortable. But there is something in me that is telling me: It will be worth it!

Let me know in the poll down below if this is something you want to try too!

If you really want to take a deep dive into “The 12 Week Year”, then I suggest reading the book and following the framework because there is so much that I just couldn’t fit in here.

I will be sure to create an update after my 12 weeks and let you know my thoughts and results!

See you at the top!

-Sierra Nicole