Take Control! Your 12 Week Year
So what’s next?
How do we keep up the momentum and turn all this knowledge into actually buying a small, mom and pop business?
The same way we achieve anything…by setting goals and creating an action plan; with help from the lucky number 12!
As in 12 weeks. There is a great book called “The 12 Week Year” by Brian Moran who says:
“What differentiates truly great performers from mediocre ones, is the ability to effectively execute on what they know.”
Effectively execute on what they know.
I was probably in my 20’s, with my first baby girl, and I was at my uncle’s house helping him clean out a closet. Suddenly, at the bottom of a big pile of books, and blankets, and probably horse stuff, I spotted a familiar item! My uncle had a copy of the Carlton Sheets real estate buying program, too!
I got super excited and dug it out. This was back when courses came in a big colorful trapper-keeper-thing with real work books and DVDs, or even VHS tapes.
“Don’t you just love Carlton Sheets?” I squealed, hugging the blue binder thing.
“Umm. Not really,” my uncle responded. “That stuff didn’t work for me,” he followed up.
Guess what?
I followed every single step of that program, I took the critical action steps and ended up with more than a dozen doors in a very short period of time. Enough to support my baby and I.
Action made all the difference in the world. That was probably 25 years ago and my uncle has never owned a rental property yet.
The Knowing-Doing Gap.
It’s what you implement that counts.
It’s almost miraculous what you can get done when you have a goal and a deadline. Throw in specific action steps and you’re golden, spelled g-o-a-l-d-o-n-e.
It’s Brian’s 12 Week execution cycles that provide the framework for getting the action done. He has thousands of case studies showing that this process allows you to get more done in 12 weeks than most people get done in 12 months.
Personally, I’m trying to NOT be a workaholic, so I’m considering doing 2 or 3 of these execution cycles a year.
Either way, it’s a proven system to:
Accomplish your goals without dragging them out all year.
Without beating yourself up in December because you didn’t accomplish them.
And without killing yourself to make up for those wasted months.
I’ll share a summary of exactly how to do this in a moment.
The whole point of planning is to help you identify… and implement…. the few critical actions… that you need to take to reach your goal. You have to plan with implementation in mind.
And it’s the weekly plan that translates your 12 week goals into daily and weekly action steps, by focusing on these critical strategic activities.
You can’t manage what you don’t measure, therefore, keeping score is a crucial component of achieving success.
The weekly scorecard provides an objective measure of how well you executed your weekly plan.
Record progress–but score and measure execution.
You rarely have direct control over the results, but you absolutely have control over your actions. These are referred to as Lead and Lag indicators.
The end result that you are trying to achieve is the lag indicator because it lags, of course, or comes behind the things you are doing, the actions. The things you’re doing, the critical actions, are the lead indicators, because you have to do these things in the lead of, or before you can accomplish anything.
Shoot for 85% completion of weekly tasks.
You may not hit it at first, or every week, but aim for 85%.
Studies have shown that:
65% completion will put you ahead of the pack.
85% completion of your weekly tasks will put your results into overdrive.
The 12 Week Year is all about taking that focused action, but first, you have to do your long term vision planning, set your goals. When setting big goals, you should be SMART about it. That’s:
S-Specific
M-Measurable
A–Achievable
R-Relevant
T-Time-Bound
SMART goals are a great framework to guide goal setting by ensuring that objectives are clear and achievable.
Specific:
Goals should be clear and specific, answering the questions of who, what, where, when, and why. A specific goal has a much greater chance of being accomplished than a general one. Instead of saying "I want to buy a business", a specific goal would be "I want to buy a healthy food delivery business with an annual profit of $250,000."
Measurable:
Your goals should be measurable and have certain criteria for measuring progress. This helps to stay on track, reach target dates, and experience the thrill of achievement. Measurable goals answer questions such as how much, how many, and how will I know when it is accomplished? For instance, "I will contact 5 businesses a week" is measurable.
Achievable:
Goals should be realistic and attainable. While it’s important to aim high, they should also be realistic to help maintain your motivation and enthusiasm. An achievable goal should be a stretch, but not an impossibility. For example, "I will buy a business next month” is only achievable if you’re already well into the process, but quite unrealistic if you’ve just begun. "I will buy a business within the next 12 months", on the other hand, is very doable.
Relevant:
Goals should matter to you and be aligned with other relevant goals, and your long term vision. A relevant goal answers yes to questions like "Does this get me to the next step?" and "Is this the right time?" For example, a goal to "learn a new language" may not be relevant to your goal of buying a business.
Time-Bound:
Goals should have a deadline. A time-bound goal answers the question of when. Providing a target date creates a sense of urgency and prompts you to work towards completion. For instance, "I will read 10 business buying books by the end of the year" sets a clear time frame for achieving the goal.
Quantify and qualify what success looks like.
State each goal positively.
Ensure they are a realistic stretch.
And set a date by which the goal will be reached.
Next time, we’ll go over exactly how the 12 Week Year can work for you and your goals. And perfect timing, as we are approaching the beginning of a new quarter!
(If you just can’t wait, hit reply with 12 Weeks and I’ll send it to your inbox right now!)
See you soon!
