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Win Today is a performance enhancing podcast filled with actionable insights and inspiration to come out on top in life. Through captivating interviews and solo episodes, a powerful tool is created and given to listeners to be able to push through any situation in life.
Hosted by Ryan Cass, he delivers messages that align to his purpose of helping people establish a foundation for sustained success, break trends of adversity, and chart desirable courses for life. Win Today!
Win Today
#186 | The 12 Week Year: How To Accomplish More In 12 Weeks Than You Can In 12 Months Ft. Brian Moran
This episode explores the transformative power of the 12-week year—a framework that enhances productivity by fostering a focus on shorter time frames instead of annual planning. The discussion delves into core principles such as the importance of a compelling vision, strategic goal-setting, and developing effective tactical plans to unlock high performance and accountability.
• Understanding the 12-week year concept as a tool for productivity
• The role of a clear vision in achieving goals
• The difference between annual planning and a 12-week focus
• Creating tactical plans with specific, actionable steps
• Importance of lead and lag indicators for monitoring progress
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In a 12-month cycle. It facilitates procrastination, it facilitates overwhelm and diffusion. We came across a concept in athletics called periodization, and that's where we borrowed the tenets of that to create the 12-week year. And so when you embrace 12 weeks as the year in your thinking, that's a completely different game. Everything changes. That illusion of lots of time is gone. Right, that's a completely different game. Everything changes. That illusion of lots of time is gone. It's replaced with a healthy sense of urgency, not the urgency that people freak out at the end of the calendar year, but a healthy sense of urgency, and it focuses on the things that matter most. So one of the things you come to realize different mindset again is that in a 12 week year you can't do it. Well, you can't do everything in a calendar year either, but it seems like you can. You got that big-ass calendar behind you. It looks like there's tons of time. You got all this time to get all this stuff done. The reality is, execution doesn't happen monthly and quarterly and semi-annually. It happens weekly. It happens daily.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Wednesday Podcast, a weekly resource thoughtfully crafted to help people build and refine discipline, accomplish their goals, fortify their mindsets and be of service to somebody in this world. My name is Ryan Cass and I'm your host, and it is my mission and commitment to deliver amazing episodes to you every week where you'll learn from myself or a renowned expert in their field. We love helping people win in every aspect of their lives, and you can help us win by sharing the show with somebody that you believe will benefit from it, subscribing and leaving a rating and review. We believe that everybody in this world is meant to do something great with their lives and we're here to help play a role in that. Thank you for tuning in and let's win today.
Speaker 2: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. That's an excerpt from one of my favorite books, the 12 WeekWeek Year, and we have a visionary himself, somebody that have embodied their work over the last few years, someone who has inspired and taught the ways of the 12-week year to thousands of people all over the world. He's a New York Times bestselling author of 12- 12 Week Year and Uncommon Accountability. Brian Moran, welcome to the show, sir.
Speaker 1:Hey, great to be here with you. Really appreciate the opportunity.
Speaker 2:Your book has made a big impact and continues to make a big impact on countless lives, mine included. This was one that I first got introduced to in 2021, when I first started my podcast, and my friend Rachel recommended that we read this book and this thing is covered with highlights and markers and chapter notes and I'm so excited to dig in. But before we dig into the principles of the book, I love to understand our guests and what drives these people at the core. What is most important for the world to know about Brian Moran?
Speaker 1:Well, that's an interesting question. You know, our mission at our company is to change lives. I feel like that's why we're here. That's a purpose statement. For me as well is to have an impact, make a difference. I do that in my business, which brings me great joy because I know I'm having an impact, I know I'm making life better for people and, you know, I feel like that's part of my calling, and so anytime you can align your calling with your vocation, it's pretty awesome and I feel blessed to be able to do that.
Speaker 2:I love that. And at what point, brian, of all the things that you could have chosen to help people and organizations with after a successful career, what had you land on? This principle of executing wisely with the time that we have of over, let's say, human resources development or back-end technology? How did we land on the principles of the 12-week year and that being a focus point for people and organizations?
Speaker 1:You know. So what happened for me is I was working my way through college at UPS and they promoted me into management. I was I wasn't interested in a business degree. I was getting a degree in physiology to be strength coach, and I didn't know anyone in business. I grew up very middle-class, I didn't know anybody owned a business, I didn't know of any executive and whatnot.
Speaker 1:But what happened for me is, um, through that opportunity, I kind of got switched on to business and so went from there to PepsiCo, got promoted, went from there to consulting firm, got promoted a couple of times, and then I went on on my own and initially I thought, you know, I'm going to do kind of what I've been doing. I'm going to bring new ideas, new techniques to people to help them perform better. And as I started working with business owners around that and and even individuals and top performers and all the way to people that were struggling, um, you know, I I realized that that's not what they needed. You know, as I started to work with people, I realized that they all have great ideas, that the breakdown wasn't they needed a new idea. What they really needed was a way to execute more effectively, and so it's sort of like the light bulb went off, and then I started to work with well, okay, if that's what people need the most, what's it take to execute at a high level?
Speaker 1:And ultimately come into the point where we created the 12-weeker system, which is an execution system, Because without a system, what happens is you're grinding out, you're grinding it week in and week out, and which is not not a very effective way to go at it, and and so, fortunately, as we worked with the disciplines and principles that really drive, um, you know, execution for us, it ended up looking very much like a system and and and that's what it was. And so you know, that's how that got created Just working with people and coming to realize that, look, it's not, it's not a new idea. They need it's not another idea. What they need is they need a way to execute more effectively. Is there a system to do that? There wasn't on the marketplace, as far as I know, outside of the 12 week year, I don't think there's any other one that exists, and so we went to work on okay, what are the fundamentals of execution and high performance, and how do we put that in a way that people can really execute on that effectively?
Speaker 2:I love what you say about systems, because it sounds like to me that over time you didn't encounter people and organizations not being driven. I'm sure that they had the lofty goals, ambitions, desires. That wasn't the issue, but it's how do we get there in a timely manner and, ultimately, how do we form the engine that's going to allow us to get there? It makes me think about one of my favorite books of all time, atomic Habits, where James Clear outlines that, hey, to get where you want in life, goals are great, but your goal is simply a desired outcome. What gets you there is building a system around it. We don't rise to the level of our goals, we only fall to the level of our systems. So would you say that the biggest our systems, so would you say that the biggest overarching theme or intent of the 12-week year is really to create a sense of urgency for people and organizations?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not just an urgency, it's a focus as well, right? So one of the things we found in the annual environment which no one had challenged. So Michael and I started to work with a set of disciplines, the fundamental disciplines that drive execution, high performance. But we did it in the context that everyone does it, which is the annual environment. So you set an annual goal, you build an annual plan, you break it down quarterly, monthly, weekly, and you know what. We got good results, but we didn't get what they were capable of, and we realized it was that annual environment that was getting in the way of that, and so it's just too easy in 12 months to put things off. That's too long a runway in front of us, and there's some other, there's some other barriers in that too. Like at the planning level, you can't get tactical, so plans are conceptual where you can't execute concepts. So once you decide that execution is the number one breakdown for people, then you start to look at things differently, and so the 12-week year is a different mindset as well as a different way of operating, and the two go hand in glove. One without the other doesn't work, and so what happens in that is in a 12-month cycle. It's just is in a 12-month cycle. It facilitates procrastination, it facilitates overwhelm and diffusion.
Speaker 1:When we came across a concept in athletics called periodization, and that's where we borrowed the tenets of that to create the 12-week year. And so when you embrace 12 weeks as the year in your thinking, that's a completely different game. Everything changes. That illusion of lots of time is gone. It's replaced with a healthy sense of urgency not the urgency that people freak out at the end of the calendar year, but a healthy sense of urgency, and it focuses on the things that matter most.
Speaker 1:So one of the things you come to realize different mindset again is that in a 12-week year you can't do everything. Well, you can't do everything in a calendar year either, but it seems like you can. You got that big ass calendar behind you. It looks like there's tons of time. You got all this time to get all this stuff done. The reality is, execution doesn't happen monthly and quarterly and semi-annually. It happens weekly. It happens daily. So getting your head around that, aligning your processes with that, is what's so critical. And when you do that, it's a game changer and we have people literally accomplish more in 12 weeks than they did all 12 months, and it's not by working harder or longer, ryan, but it's a different way of approaching Right.
Speaker 2:Because this is such a perfect time to have this discussion in January, because people may have written down their goals. Just like you see, right behind me with my goals and I'm looking at what do I want 2025 to look like. But it can be very easy to let's take into. Let's use one as an example. I just launched a mastermind group to teach people how to form unshakable discipline, which talks a lot about systems. My goal there is to get 100 people in the group by the end of 2025. So to prevent myself from saying, okay, well, I'll make that big marketing push in August, Should the goal be to let's get a hundred people in by the end of March, first quarter, or should it really just be more of a system which is like what I'm doing right now is, if I get two people in per week over the course of the entire year, that would. That would fulfill the goal. So is it? We're helping shift this? I'll wait till August, but should I rethink my goal there?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So, first off, quarters are fourth of a whole. So the 12-week year is not a quarter, the 12-week year is the whole. Again, it's a different mindset and it's not like flipping a switch, because you and your listeners don't even know how annualized you are, but you're entirely annualized. That's because that's the way you've always operated, that's the way everyone operates and no one ever questioned that. But the 12-week year is a standalone year. That is the year. So if you think of the end of 25 as four calendar years from now, if you said four calendar years from now, here's where I want to be. You decide how much to bite off in the first year and then you're not going to think much about the second year till you get there. It's the same thing here. It's just a compressed cycle. But one of the things people tend to do, because they're annualized, they take the annual number, they divide it by four, because they're used to working in quarters. Well, if you do, if you do that, that's probably limiting.
Speaker 1:I like to tell the story of our audra barbeau, who called me on september 7th. She said brian, I just got off the phone with my boss. I hit my annual goal. No one else in the company had was even close to their goal. By the end of december she had doubled it. Wow, that would have never happened had she taken the annual goal and divided it by four.
Speaker 1:So it's a process of really understanding what's the best 12 weeks you've ever had. What kind of capacity do you have to work on strategic activity? Are you willing to do the heavy lifting to get the job done? You know, and typically you can accomplish it a lot sooner than you thought when you embrace it as the year, because there's a again a different mindset, there's a different sense of urgency that goes with that. 12 weeks, brian, is long enough to make amazing progress, but near enough where I don't lose sight of the, the deadline.
Speaker 1:So never do I get complacent about oh, I can do that next week, and that's the key. One more thing done this week and one more done the next and the next and the next, and pretty soon that inflection point starts to move upward, and so I wouldn't say flat out no, take it all in 12 weeks. But you might and we've had a lot of people accomplish more in 12 weeks than they did in the prior 12 months. Thousands of people do that, but you know it's an individual situation. What I would say is take 12 weeks and set a goal that's worth celebrating. Throw that annual plan out and think of that as a four-year goal and then focus in on what it's going to take to get that over the finish line by the end of March, and then we'll worry about next year, which will be your next 12-week year.
Speaker 2:Do you recommend or have you because what I think about is okay what could someone think here? Well, if I have four years in one, then could I wait until next year to start working on this. Have you ever introduced or recommend any sort of consequence consequence not being some sort of physical thing, obviously, but consequence being okay? Michael, michael or tim or sally, you said that you're going to generate ten thousand dollars in sales by the end of March, year number one, and if we don't do that, then X happens. Are there any sort of factors like that that have been used or you recommend to help keep people going and pushing forward on that particular year?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, there are people that do that. We don't recommend it. Especially negative consequences. I mean, if you've got a strong vision of what you want to accomplish, is there a bigger negative consequence than I'm missing it? I'm not living the life I'm capable of living. So the total here is five disciplines, and that first is, is the cornerstone. It's really establishing a vision for your life that's compelling that that, anything less than that, is a negative consequence. So you don't need an external consequence or or or something that's manufactured. There's, there's, real, you know discomfort in my being. There's, there's, you know, that disconnect from the life I really know I'm capable of living and I want to live. So we don't, we don't try and manipulate it with outside consequences. There are natural consequences.
Speaker 1:You know we do use the celebratory type of consequences. So when I hit this goal, what am I going to do to celebrate? And sometimes I'm not even celebrating the outcome, I'm celebrating the progress I made, because in the end, what your listeners need to understand is you don't control the outcomes, you control the actions, and if you get too fixated on the outcomes, it becomes paralyzing. So we don't put nearly the emphasis on the outcomes as we do the actions, because that's what we can control. So I may or may not hit the goal, but if I did everything I could to hit the goal, I'm celebrating the heck out of that, because there's learning in that. There's self esteem built, self-efficacy, um. There's motivation, um. There's confidence built. I mean all kinds of good things come out of that, um. But we don't, we don't manufacture negative consequences because for our clients and for us, just missing the mark, you know you're missing out on the better things in life that you want. So there's a connection between the actions of the goal and the life.
Speaker 2:And to your point, when you're truly going after something big in a 12 week period, as you mentioned the beginning, and there's countless testimonies on your website your results speak for themselves that even if maybe you you you didn't hit everything, most people will have done more in that 12 week period than you would in an entire 12 month period. So you're still winning. You're winning and for people to win in 2025, you mentioned that and there are five disciplines in the book which I wrote down, the first being vision, planning, process control, measurement and time use. Now, we're not going to get where we want to go in life if we don't know where we want to go To help craft a compelling vision for our lives. And here in this new year, as we're in January, what are some things that people can do or inventory? They should take reflective questions. They should ask themselves to craft this compelling vision that they can then throw into their 12-week year approach.
Speaker 1:Yeah, one of the things you can do is you can list kind of the different roles you have in life. So you have a role. You and I probably have a role as a son if your parents are still alive mine are gone, though or a daughter, as a sibling, as a spouse, as a friend in my business, in my community, and just look at the various areas and think about you know, what's what? What am I capable of in this area? What am I capable as a father? What would? What do I want that to look like? Right, what am I capable of in my family? What am I capable of in my business? What am I capable?
Speaker 1:And you start to look at that and you take the. You start to take the boundaries off and really dig into what's in your heart, not what society says you should value, Not what someone else maybe told you success looks like, but what does success look like for you? You decide it's your life and you start to look at these different areas and just ponder you know, if I were to do my best in that each and every day, what would be different for me three years down the road, five years down the road, ten years down the road. What kind of life could I expect to live? Material things, non-material things right. And just notice your thinking, where you start to limit yourself. Right, you think about well, I'd like to have my own jet. Well, that's not going to happen. Well, it's not going to happen unless you make it happen. But I, I have friends that have their own, so so you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:It's really about. What do you want, though? Maybe that's not important to you, maybe maybe having close family relationships where you take vacations and you create these memories right, that's important to you. So, so what you want to make sure is that you get what matters to you, and in the end, you define what great looks like Not good, don't settle for good. And in the end, you define what great looks like Not good, Don't settle for good. God willing, you're here, let's make it great. And then we start to define that. We get it on paper, and it's going to be uncomfortable, because if you've got a good vision, it's exciting, and it's uncomfortable at the same time, because there's stuff on that paper that maybe you've been reluctant to even say it out loud before.
Speaker 2:That's the kind of stuff you want to get at, because that's the stuff that makes life really rich. Have you developed a gauge for the things that we want in life and what you mentioned there, that hey, get it on paper even if it scares the living hell out of you and sit with it for a minute? Hell out of you and sit with it for a minute? Have you developed a gauge now, doing this for many years as to what's attainable, what's extreme, maybe what's not pushing yourself enough? Because it's something that I wrestle with from time to time and question myself Okay, for instance, instance, endurance sports I'm constantly pushing the limit there. This year I'll be running across the entire state of south carolina over 220 miles. I just ran 150 miles in one sitting in october and I'm constantly looking at okay, is 300 miles enough? Is 700 miles too extreme? And I often explore with that gauge, and some of my friends do as well. Do you have any, any thought leadership you can provide to that?
Speaker 2:Discipline is a key component of this podcast and a key thing that we preach. We view discipline as the fuel to help you create the life that you ultimately desire, and discipline being the fuel that gets your habits and systems in check so that you can actually accomplish your goals. That gets your habits and systems in check so that you can actually accomplish your goals. If you're looking to level up in 2025, I am happy to be a part of that and encourage you to join the Unshakable Discipline Mastermind Group. This has been my baby for a couple years and we're finally launching it here in 2025. The group consists of a self-paced course that teaches you how to form core habits and mindset that will allow you to accomplish your goals. A daily accountability channel to keep you on track, motivated and in alignment with our members. And weekly mastermind sessions where you're going to learn from either myself or a suite of renowned guests many who have been on the podcast that are going to share pieces of their winning playbooks directly with you. I've learned that being a part of groups over the years has helped propel me to so many new levels in life.
Speaker 2:If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, then go together, and it's my wish that the Unshakable Crew is a choice that makes sense for you in 2025. We are growing up to 100 members this year and have limited time founding member pricing for 12 more folks before we permanently increase pricing to $97 a month. You can get in now for $67 a month, locked in for life, and be a part of the adventure that we're creating with our members. If you're somebody that craves discipline with our members, if you're somebody that craves discipline, seeks it or wants it this year, and you're really committed to making lasting changes in your life and being around others that are committed to winning and serving the world and sharing what they learn with others so that we make this world a better place, then join the Unshakeable crew. Go to unshakabledisciplinecom and you can sign up. It is also in the show notes Unshakeable shake, as in milkshake, unshakabledisciplinecom, and we're excited to have you in 2025. Let's go.
Speaker 1:Well, I think it's what you said, right? What matters to you, and and what happens is, as we accomplish things, then, then we start to think bigger and bolder, right and.
Speaker 1:And so oftentimes when you start out it's you think you're thinking big and then you look back and you go man, was I thinking small? That's just part of the process. You, you know it's really hard. I mean to have it be real right. We see people that you know they're young, they're starting their career and they're going to have this amazing success. That's a joke, because they don't even know what it takes to get there. They're not, they're not willing to pay the price. But once you start really paying the price and you start accomplishing things in your life Like you run that marathon and you set a PR, and then you come back and you do this, or whether it's in your business Now you start to get a sense of boy, I'm capable of more than I know. And I start to think bigger and bolder. And where you stop is really up to you. That's a personal thing.
Speaker 1:I would never want to throttle anybody in terms of what's possible. I mean, you know, if we did that, there'd be so many things that we enjoy today that wouldn't be around. Like you know, the medical advancements, from artificial hips and knees to transplants, to scanning technology, to all that there'd be. You know, space travel wouldn't happen. And when Kennedy challenged people to put a man on the moon, the U? S we couldn't get a rocket ship off the launching pad. You know, had we waited, it would have never happened. So I really think it's a process of, though, just pushing your boundaries out we call it on the skinny branches as far as you can go, and then chasing that, and then and then, when you get there, guess what New opportunities are going to open up new vistas, and they're going to be bigger and bolder than the last one, one thing that I shared in my mastermind group last week that goes along with this.
Speaker 2:Especially since we're in the new year, I like to challenge people's thoughts, process and their belief systems, and I was having a conversation with a mentor that dropped this quote, which then I immediately shared with the group and I'm going to share it here as well, because I believe it highlights what you're saying here, brian. The unconscious will allow us to have only what we believe we deserve. If we have a small view of ourselves, then what we deserve is poverty, and our unconscious will see to it that we have that actuality will see to it that we have that actuality.
Speaker 1:Yeah, earl Nightingale, who was one of the first guys in the personal development space decades ago, said it this way. He said you become what you think about, and so if you think about small things, you become small. If you think about big things, you become big as long as you're willing to act on them. But part of that is part of you training yourself to act on it. Is that those, that vision, becoming real. If it's something that I think is just somewhere 10 years from now, you know it's going to feel good occasionally, but I'm not going to act on it when I really start to see it as possible. For me, that's when it gets exciting, and so the way to do that is to be able to try it on and and and really entertain the question of what if? You know well, I probably can't run 700 miles, but what if I could? What would be different? What would be different for me, for my family, for my community, for the people I work with, for the people I'm trying to inspire, for my podcast audience? Right, what would? And? And you, just you sit with the what if, because at the starting gate is not the time to figure out the how. It's got to be about possibility. And as you become comfortable with that and you and you go from this being really impossible to possible, now we can start to talk about the how. How might I do that? What would I need to do differently? What different things would I need to do? How would I need to adjust my training, my sleep, my food intake, all of that stuff?
Speaker 1:Now we're working on it. Why? Because we see it as possible for us. I mean, you're a runner, it's a four-minute mile thing. Right up until that time, everyone said impossible. Medical community, we're not built to do that. Roger breaks through that record and then other people do boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Well, what happened? Well, it went from a collective impossible to possible, yeah, and now high schoolers challenging the mark, but it's the same in every area of our life.
Speaker 2:It makes me think about the. I was having a conversation with someone this week that on Sunday, the American half marathonlong record previously held by Ryan Hall when he ran the Houston Marathon on Sunday, he finished in 59 minutes and 17 seconds Fastest American by nearly 30 seconds. And now I think about who's going to be the first American to break 59 minutes, going to be the first American to break 59 minutes, and how many people are actually capable of running that 59-17 right now. But they just didn't believe it. And now Connor is a pathfinder for additional Americans to come into the mix and become faster and faster and faster. Same thing with Elliot Kipchoge, who was the first man to run the sub two hour marathon. There will be a day, brian, where sub two hour marathons become the standard for winning the world majors. We're not there yet, but all it took was one person to test and defy the limits and ultimately believe in themselves.
Speaker 1:So you see it in the Olympics all the time. Right, I mean, but it's the same in non-physical events as it is physical, it first happens. If you can't create it mentally, you'll never create it in the physical universe. Amen.
Speaker 2:And I love, I love at the beginning of the book. That's why we started with with that quote great things. Great things happen twice when they happen in your mind first, and if they can't happen in your mind, they're not going to happen right in front of you Now that we've gotten clear on vision and we've uncovered here's some steps that people can follow, in addition to some encouragement for their belief systems.
Speaker 2:How can we then put this into into play so we know what we want? Is there a set number of goals that we should have in a 12-week?
Speaker 1:year, or is it the less equals more approach? It's really the latter, and the reason is is because every time you add one more goal, the probability of you being great at any of them diminishes significantly. So you know, I'm sure your listeners have heard the slogan less is more Well. The first time I ever said that, I hated it. I'm like no, it's not. More is more Well, it's not when it comes to achieving, because you have limited capacity. You have limited time, limited energy, limited intellect, limited resources, right, it's not a slam, it's the reality. So every time you pile on one more thing, it just spreads you thinner and thinner and thinner. So it's, it's the same at the goal level, same at the tactical level, right?
Speaker 1:We're always looking to create a plan that's very focused. So people go well, I got a bunch of things I want to accomplish. Okay, if you chase them all, you're going to be mediocre at everything. How about? Let's be great at a few things versus mediocre at many? And, by the way, we're looking at 12 weeks. So 12 weeks goes by pretty fast.
Speaker 1:So if we took the one or two top things in your life and we move the needle over the next 12 weeks and then we did that again the next 12 weeks and again the next 12 weeks. In a very short period of time your life is tremendously different, but it comes through the focus. It's a difference between a floodlight or a you know, overhead light and a laser beam. It's still light, but when you focus that, when you focus that light, you can cut through steel. It's the same for you and I. When we focus our energies, there's no telling what we're capable of, and that's part of how our clients are able to accomplish so much more. They're not trying to do everything right, otherwise it'd be really stressful. We're not trying to take everything you do in 12 months and cram it into 12 weeks. We're focusing on a few things and being more consistent with the actions that matter most.
Speaker 2:We've got something else that can help us accomplish a lot in 2025. Got something else that can help us accomplish a lot in 2025, in addition to implementing the elements of the 12-week year that Brian is so amazingly dishing out to us, and that is Magic Mind. Magic Mind is an absolute game-changing supplement that helps keep me focused and in a zen-like state, especially when I'm about to start my most difficult task of the day. If you're like me, you know that it can be difficult at times to be focused and productive and stress-free with everything going on, as many of us are juggling many hats and are very ambitious and have many coals in the fire.
Speaker 2:There is a way to still stay sharp, feel relaxed and power through your day, and that's where Magic Mind comes in. It's a little two-ounce shot that has an incredible ingredient, such as ashwagandha and L-theanine, which are both known for reducing stress, helping you stay calm and focused and powering through your day. What I really love about this is that it helps improve focus and mental clarity, whether you're tackling a tough project, working through a long to-do list or you just need to say start for the day ahead. Magic Mind is offering an amazing special right now 45% off using code WINTODAYJAN, that is WINTODAYJAN J-A-N. You can go to magicmindcom slash WINTODAYJAN for 45% off to increase your focus, reduce your stress and make 2025 an amazing year.
Speaker 1:And what happens is one more on top of one more on top of one more on top of one more on top of one more, and in 12 short weeks it can be a very, very different outcome.
Speaker 2:I was surprised when I read an article a few years ago that looked into the day-to-day life of Jeff Bezos when he was still the CEO of Amazon. And, contrary to what I believed, and probably what many people believed at the time was that you'd think Jeff Bezos, as a CEO of Amazon, he must do 5,000 things a day. I mean, he's got Amazon Prime to worry about. He's got the Whole Foods, the Washington Post. He's got Prime Video so many different meetings, post. He's got prime video so many different meetings.
Speaker 2:And what he said about his day, brian, is that a good day for him is if he makes three good decisions in a day and if anything is mentally taxing, let's say, at three or four o'clock in the afternoon that then becomes a 10 am or 8 am meeting the next day when there's more mental capacity.
Speaker 2:And I thought, wow, if one of the most arguably successful people in the world from a monetary and business perspective said that he's focused on no more than three good decisions in a day, focused on no more than three good decisions in a day, why would we think that we need to do 50 to 100 things in a day and then get mad when we only accomplished six and as we move through this progression here with vision being clear and making sure that you've got less but more meaningful goals in your 12 week year. One thing I love that I wrote up, I marked up in the book, is getting into the system. You introduce a lot of different scorecards and the concept of leading and lag indicators. So what's an example? If we made an example goal and broke that down, we're clear on what we want. Now how do we incorporate the system around it using the scorecard and tools introduced in the book?
Speaker 1:Well, the first thing we need to do, ryan, is we need to get a tactical plan, not a conceptual plan, and that's going to take some training, because people don't even know they're planning conceptually. They plan conceptually partly because they're in an annual environment, partly because they've never been taught to plan differently. But, for instance, a conceptual plan would be exercise or diet, or, if you're in sales, get referrals, cross sell, things like that. They're great concepts, but concepts don't execute. So we've got to get very granular. The statements in the plan have to describe an action you can take Run five miles per day, five days a week, something like that. Okay. So that's the first step. And we're not looking for everything you can think of. We're looking for the critical few, so there's a way to sort those, so we get the high payoff activities, so we're not trying to burn ourselves out trying to do everything. Okay, so that's the first thing.
Speaker 1:Without a tactical plan, any kind of feedback or scoring is worthless. So people get together, they talk about all, and that's why they their, their conversations are surface and their opinion base, because their plan is conceptual. When you get a tactical plan now, you're getting feedback that's really specific, so you're going to know which tactics worked and which ones didn't, because the reality is there's no perfect plan. I don't care how many plans you've written I've written thousands and seen thousands there's no perfect plan. So you got to go out there and execute it and then pay attention for feedback. Well, when you got a conceptual plan, the feedback is vague. When you got a tactical plan, it's very specific. So you know what worked and what didn't work.
Speaker 1:And, along the way, we're going to measure a couple of things. We're going to measure the outcomes, we're going to measure the lead and lag. So you know if you're trying to run a marathon in a certain amount of time. We're going to measure that, and the lead indicators are going to be is my score improving every week, or my time improving every week, or am I doing the things I need to do Right In a sales environment? The lag is sales. The leads are maybe referrals or proposals submitted, or things like that or things like that. So we're going to track those outcomes. Most importantly, though, we're going to score the execution, because, again, that's what I can control. So we track the lead and lags, we score the execution, and in those two sets of numbers, we have everything.
Speaker 1:We need to know where to adjust, because if there's a breakdown, it's one of two places it's either in the plan I don't have the right tactical plan or it's in the execution I'm just not doing it. Where do you think it is? Most of the time, probably I'm not. Where do you think the breakdown is? In the plan or the execution? Yeah, 80%, 90% of the time. But what do most people do is they go change the plan. Well, why do they do that? Well, partly because it's easier, but partly because they don't have a way to pinpoint the breakdown. With the 12-week year, you'll know because we're scoring the execution and so we know every week how I performed as the CEO of my world. I'll know if I'm the 30 percentile or 90 percentile and they'll know why. And that's really critical.
Speaker 2:That's one thing that I love throughout the book is that there are so many different places for it's really. People get to interact with the book and you can actually write out what your, what your, what does your vision look like, and there's examples of the scorecard throughout the book. I actually read this when I was getting ready to qualify for the Boston Marathon and qualifying for the Boston Marathon, and I'm looking for the page where I wrote the exact example. But I wrote Boston Marathon lag. Lag indicator. My lead indicators are my weekly running mileage and my paces. What's my progression? So I'm saying that to hopefully provide some additional context to people like hey, this is. It's as simple as here's that one goal. And then here's what I'm looking at week in and week out.
Speaker 1:Now the the additional thing to that would be scoring the tactical plan. So the tactical plan might be you know, I consumed X amount of calories, or you know, a gram and a half of protein for every pound. You know, whatever that diet is, there may be a number of tactics around that. It may be that I got, you know, minimum eight hours of sleep every night. I drank twice my weight in ounces of water. Right, I ran a minimum of five miles every day. You know, those are the tactics in the plan that we're going to put a score to as well, because that's what we can control. That's what, ultimately, is going to drive your success in the event, or your success in business, or your success in life, whatever it is, and so it's those two sets of measures that really matter.
Speaker 2:And that ultimately brings us back to the beginning in building the system and the engine around it. Because now we're talking. Okay, if we're going to get tactical and measure, what are the, what are the mini steps that are going to get me to the? We'll call it the big step or the goal, and it's exactly what you mentioned there. And then, okay, how do we structure our day so that we're getting enough calories and what are we doing the night before to ensure that we're going to get a solid breakfast to fuel us before our run tomorrow? So I love that.
Speaker 2:All of these steps, everything we're talking about, is simple in theory At times, given that life happens, can be difficult in execution because of unforeseen circumstances, but when we take the time to get clear on what we want and map it out, there's no guesswork. We're eliminating all of the guesswork, which is, I believe, also where people struggle, because then they get into analysis, paralysis, they don't know what they want, they're not clear on what they want and where they want to go. Brian, you offer these resources to people on a monthly basis and three-year workshops. How can people really take advantage of the 12-week year beyond purchasing a copy for themselves?
Speaker 1:Yeah, go to 12weekyearworkshopcom so that's the number 1212weekyearworkshopcom. We run a workshop. You can get a copy of the book and the workshop for like $20, 25 cents to help you crush 2025. That's the best way. We go 90 minutes hard. We unpack the concepts, we'll talk more deeply about the plans and the scorecards and all those pieces that make up the system that help you perform at your best right, and we've got thousands of examples. We share a few, but we've got thousands of examples of when you learn to execute, everything changes. Everything has to be executed. You have great intent. If you don't act on it consistently, it's worthless, it has no impact in your life, it has no impact in the world, and so what you'll find is, when you start to do that, it's amazing what you're going to accomplish in 12 weeks, amen.
Speaker 2:What are you most excited about in your 12-week year? I almost said 2025, but what's most exciting about your 12-week year right now?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're doing a lot with business owners and leaders, really helping them apply it for themselves in their role, but also with their teams. We've worked with multi-billion dollar companies, had huge impacts impacts and it's exciting to be able to help small businesses and mid-sized businesses and entrepreneurs really apply it in a way that that just accelerates their success. So that's that's fun for us we're excited about that.
Speaker 2:I'm excited for you, brian brian, it's customary to end the podcast with a rapid fire session, and in that we're going to ask you three questions. Now, the amount of time that you have to answer the question is the amount of time that it takes to go up one elevator floor. So imagine you and I are going to lunch together in some cool place in Scottsdale. We're going up three floors. A new person walks in the elevator on each floor and asks you one question.
Speaker 2:All right, so first person first person walks in, they recognize you, they've read 12 week year and they ask Brian, what's one gem that you have, whether it be a quote or a mantra that you live your life by, that I can put in my back pocket or live my life by as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's probably the concept of greatness in the moment, which is this notion that life is lived in the moment. That's what we have, because I think everybody thinks if they're going to be great at some time in the future, when the reality is is all we have is right now. A minute ago is a memory, a minute from now is not here. God willing, we get to live the future, but we have is right now, and so if we're great in the moment we're going to be, the results are going to reflect that down the road. So, learning how to just approaching life with that mindset instead of putting things off, let me be great in the moment, let me do the things I need to do today so that I can live the life I want to live.
Speaker 2:Be great in the moment Next person comes on. Brian, what's one step that I can take today to incorporate the teachings of the 12-week year into my life?
Speaker 1:Yeah, one is just throw out the annual plan, set a 12-week goal. Yeah, one is just throw out the annual plan, set a 12-week goal. Seriously, the annual plan is better than no plan. But but if you've been doing that, you're ready to take the next step. You're ready to level up. Set a 12-week goal, figure out what greatness looks like in the next 12 weeks something we're celebrating and then lock that in. That is your year. Get your mind out of. I've got all this time to catch up if I don't get it done, and figure out how to get it over the finish line.
Speaker 2:Last one, and this may be the most difficult one, brian what's one book besides yours that we can read in our 12 week year to enhance our mindset and ensure a prosperous 2025 in the four years that it's going to bring us?
Speaker 1:You know I'm I'm a big believer in mindset. 90% of life is between your ears. And there's one of my favorite books is feel the fear and do it anyways, by Dr Susan Jeffers. It's a little paperback. It went out of print for a while. I think it's back in print. But she looks at people that experience a ton of success in life versus everyone else and she found that both of them experience fear when they're on new ground, but the successful people do it anyways. And she's got some key points to help you take the action even when you're frightened, even when you're fearful, even when you're anxious about it. And it's a it's just a really powerful book, powerful concept.
Speaker 2:I haven't heard that one before, so we'll add that to the arsenal. Brian, it's been an absolute pleasure to have you on board. As I mentioned, you've you've really made an impact on my life since 2021. And it's an honor to have you here across from me and share the experience from the book. And it's my wish that listeners adopt the 12-week year, buy it, ditch the annualized thinking and let's see what we can really accomplish in this calendar year 2025 by adopting the 12-week year, 12 weeks at a time, and that is going to help people win today. Thanks so much for tuning in.
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