IAM2177 – Mastering Your Goals with The 12 Week Year

Gresham Harkless discusses the issue of execution in entrepreneurship and the importance of resilience and awareness in reaching success. He introduces the 12-week year productivity system, emphasizing its ability to achieve more in 12 weeks than in 12 months and the importance of focus and urgency.

Gresham explains the concept of setting 12-week goals instead of annual goals, creating a sense of urgency and driving action, and the importance of execution, prioritizing high-impact activities, and the weekly review and accountability meeting.

Gresham highlights the importance of measuring progress, reflecting on setbacks, and making adjustments to achieve remarkable results within 12 weeks. And the five quick ways to implement the 12-week year, focusing on vision, goals, planning, execution, and review.

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Transcription:

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Intro 00:00

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:28

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast, and I'm super excited to share with you a special episode centering around one of my new favorite CEO hacks. This hack has been around for a while. It's a book that I've been working on, been implementing. I find a lot of synergies actually between this and the EOS book traction as well too, which you can also check out that.

But this has been one of my favorite CEO hacks because I think it really gets to one of the biggest issues and that issue has come up. I've even seen it within I'm doing within what I'm doing, which is the issue of execution.

A lot of times people that are entrepreneurial have a vision or an idea of a solution to a problem, but when they rubber-miss the road, they're not actually executing all the things that are needed. And the people that are able to execute and execute at a high level consistently are those people who I think reach that certain level of success.

And when I say consistently, I think execution along with the awareness around what's working, what's not working to be able to make those adjustments and changes. But probably the biggest thing is just to have the resilience to keep going.

Do you have the resilience that you're why the thing that you're trying to do the solutions you're trying to solve is actually something that you're able to solve is going to be one of the biggest things.

So this all comes from our pillars in business. We've created basically what we're dubbing, like a Netflix for business that has all the information around how you can level up within your organization.

That's our nickname, but it's definitely the CBNation business library that has a lot of premium content from our 1600 episodes, 6000 plus blog posts and roundup posts that we're making available through these pillars.

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So if you're thinking of how to level up within your organization, all these tools are going to be available to you and different like snippets and videos and information that can allow you the opportunity to level up.

So now the CEO hack that I've been talking about is a book, but also I think is a productivity goal setting system called a 12 week year. The reason that I love this approach and I think it's a really powerful approach is that it helps you achieve more in 12 weeks than most people do in 12 months.

If we were to really focus on the things that we could and we need to really drive our business home we would be astounded by what we're able to create. So I'm gonna talk a little bit more and explore the system to see how it can transform your business and personal life.

But remember that we can't forget about the human part of business. So it's not either business or personal life. Your personal life will affect your business and your business will affect your personal life.

So it's so important to make sure that you're paying attention to both of those. So the 12-week year, and it's based on a simple yet very profound concept, which is that instead of setting annual goals, you set 12-week goals.

The reason that you set those 12-week goals is because a year is too long to usually maintain a high level of focus and urgency while you break it down to break down the year into 12-week goals and 12-week segments, it creates that sense of urgency and clearly that drives action.

Really, if you think about it, at the end of the year, you said, these are the goals that I needed to hit and I'm either there or I'm not there.

Usually I'm far away or fairly close maybe but at the end of the day you get that sense of urgency of I have to get this done and you sometimes see that related to a quarter as well too.

One of the big things that I think they talked about in the book is understanding that still having that quarterly, which 12-weeks ends up being very similar to quarters, but having that mentality around 12-weeks is, it allows you to start a new after each time if you need to.

If you need to continue on, which is very similar for EOS, where you have your rocks, you decide if you're going to continue on with them, you're going to kill the rock, or you're going to expand the rock or draw down, whatever you're going to do. You have that same opportunity in 12-weeks.

So the idea is that you get 4 years within one year, And it's going to allow you the opportunity to really, to I think take advantage, but also be a lot more intentional around what you're doing and how you're doing it.

So whenever you set a goal for the entire year is easy to procrastinate that cause you have an entire 12 months to be able to do that and you lose momentum.

But you think in more of a 12-week time-frame, every week, every day counts. And really the most powerful thing is that there's 12 months in a typical year. If there's 12 weeks, then every week counts as a month.

Each day becomes a lot more impactful. Each day that you decide not to do things or you procrastinate or you allow things to get in the way, it makes it a lot more difficult.

And the thing that I've seen as I'm going through my third 12 weeks is that it's forced me to be a lot more focused on what I want to accomplish. Because with my goals, I'm always shooting for, I don't even know if I should say the stars, but I'll say for another galaxy sometimes it feels like.

But the reality is that you have to be a lot more intentional around what you're doing. And as you start to have a full schedule of things that you are juggling, you have to be more intentional and you have to prioritize when you're going to do those things.

And also the focus on the activities that you're doing become even more and more important. So, not sure that it sounds, but I want to delve down a little bit deeper into that and break that down to a few key kind of aspects.

So first thing that you're gonna do is you're gonna set your 12-week goal, make sure they're smart goals, specific, measurable, challenging goals that you can achieve in the next 12 weeks. The goals are set up, you should set them up to be very clear and concise and they give you a tangible kind of target to aim for.

You're gonna get this at the end of 12 weeks and see what that looks like. And then you're gonna basically break down that 12-week plan. So when you break down your 12-week plan, you're gonna break them down into weekly goals. What you need to accomplish each week to stay on track.

You're going to ask yourself this question, and then you're going to create that plan to ensure you're making consistent progress towards those ultimate goals. And then you're going to flat out execute daily. Execution is the biggest thing in the book.

Again, I'm going to go back to it, is that a lot of times entrepreneurs and people that have really grand visions fail because they're not executing at a high level.

So that's one of the really big things that I took from the book. So You're going to focus on your weekly tasks every day. You're going to prioritize high impact activities. They're going to move you closer to what your goals are.

And this is ultimately where that magic happens because you're so intentional, because you only have a certain period of time. You don't have 12 months. You have literally 12 weeks or less to get what you need to get done. So you have to be very impactful on what you're doing.

And then you're going to regularly review your progress. At the end of each week, they have what's called a weekly accountability meeting, a WAM. And At the end of each week, you assess what you've accomplished and adjust your plan if needed.

It allows you the opportunity to feel accountable and course correct in real time. You're going to be able to course correct because you're getting that feedback so quickly because you are operating on such a high level and it's going to help you be more effective and efficient.

One of the really big things that I really loved and what I'll do is I'll also share this in the show notes as well too is I've used a tool called ClickUp.

I usually use Todoist for my actual tasks because I've always used Todoist but I use ClickUp because it has an actual scoring system and I found a template online where you can take each week and you see the things that you execute on you mark them off it'll actually give you a percentage on what you should be shooting for you should always shoot for about 85%.

What I started to realize in the very beginning, when I first did it, it's that first of all, I tried to do too many things at the same time. I had too many high level activities.

But what I started to realize is that a 12-week is essentially like a quarter. You just have that year mentality.

When you start to approach it, I guess, with the veracity of how important this goal is, you start to realize that you can't do all the things, you don't want to do all the things, you need to prioritize what you need to prioritize and make sure those things happen.

So reviewing that, seeing what percentage you're at, understanding what things got in the way of me reaching those goals. When I had certain wanes of time, like even after usually the first couple weeks, I would notice myself getting less focused on what I needed to do.

So it's those things that are extremely important. So it's important to continue to make sure that you're measuring your progress, but also paying attention and knowing yourself on what to do.

One of the big things that I learned from myself is that usually within that first hour, 3 core days is actually going to be the way that I'm going to be able to make the biggest impact.

It can be an hour, 2 hours, but really that delegated time before the day takes hold. This is one of the reasons that I think is so effective to implement this 12-week year is that it gives you like that increased focus.

You have a shorter time frame, so it requires you to stay focused and motivated for a shorter period of time. For people that want to achieve more and more things like myself, it's been huge to be able to do that.

And you have a clear target and insight, and it allows you to have that sense of urgency, which drives your action towards those specific goals. You have that accountability because you're literally looking at the things that you need to do. You're checking your score, so what your percentage is gonna be each and every week.

So you can look very quickly to see where you are.

And then like I mentioned the WAM, if you actually participate with other people, it's just an opportunity for you to feel, get that accountability, which can help you to progress weekly and monthly and so on and so forth. So it also gives you a little bit more flexibility and adaptability.

One of the things that I really loved about it more than anything else probably is that it allowed this. Usually you would do something for maybe about a month, 2 months, a quarter, which is 3 months and then you would say, okay, this isn't working, so let me adjust or change it.

This, you're probably going to find out in the first week, maybe 2 or 3 weeks, whether or not your idea, your vision, whatever thing you're working on is actually gaining some type of traction. You actually are moving forward to it.

And if something's not working, you can quickly change that. And I will say, even if your 12-week year doesn't go the way that you want it to go, you don't hit the sales goal that you hoped, or potentially you don't implement the new program that you wanted to implement within your team or potentially generate as many sales or leads that you really hope, you get to start again at the next 12 weeks.

So you get to really understand week to week to week what you're doing, how it's being impactful. So you can make those adjustments then, but you also get the opportunity to say, hey, this didn't work.

So what can I do next 12 weeks to make sure that I'm implementing this? And then I think because you have less time, you have less procrastination. So you reduce your procrastination likelihood. Every day counts. Every week is a month. Just think about that. A week ends up being a month. A day ends up being like 2, 3 days I think.

I don't know if I did the correct math but at the end of the day you have 7 days in a week. Those 7 days end up becoming a month. Think how impactful that is. 30 days doesn't become 30 days, it becomes 7 days.

So you have to be a lot more strategic about what you're doing with the things and you have to make the most out of everything that you're doing. So with that being said, I really have love this 12-week. I think it can significantly impact your productivity.

Hope you achieve remarkable results. Just to give you an idea, just think about being a business owner. You want to increase your revenue by 20% over the next year. Instead of setting this as an annual goal, you're breaking this down into a 12-week segment.

So you're going to focus specifically on strategies to boost sales, improve customer retention, expand your market reach in each 12-week period. By the end of the year, you've not only increased and achieved your goal by 20%, but you've likely exceeded it because you've been so focused in that effort.

So I think that's one of the really big things is that you want to do those things. You have to break them down. One of the things that I did in the beginning, this is just telling you something that could help out. I would take that 20% and I would say, hey, let's do this in 12-weeks.

And while I think that there's space and time for that, I think you have to realize that in order to do that, maybe you're not going to have, I think I had 4 or 5 12 week goals in the very beginning. You have to be a lot more intentional around, hey, these are things that I can test out, but maybe this is going to be the most impactful thing.

So while I definitely saw a lot of growth in the things that I was able to achieve, know that it's not just about business. This is also about personal, your personal development, your personal goals, whether it be health, wealth, any of those things, learning new skill, enhancing your relationships.

All this can be really great way to implement so that you can see those fruits within what you're building. So here's what I would say do, of course, be able to check out the book. They were not affiliated with 12 weeks. It's simply like a CEO hack that I really thought was cool.

I heard about it many, many times and I continue to read it. I read it at the end. What you'll go through is a 12 weeks. At the end of the 12 weeks, you'll have your 13th week. Your 13th week gives you space to continue to work on your goals.

So taking that 13th week off was huge, but I think too, rereading the book, I'm like, okay, it's telling me to block off certain period of time so that I'm not working on the business. And if you consistently do that every week, again, it creates that pressure.

And I think it's good pressure to make sure that you are not spending all your time driving towards those goals. Five quick ways you can implement the 12-week year.

Of course, make sure to check out the book, the audio book, whatever works best for you. But number one, you're gonna define your vision, clarify what you want to do in the next 12 weeks and why it's important to you.

Number 2, you're gonna set your goals. Choose 2 to 3 goals that align with your vision of what you're trying to do. The idea, I think in the very beginning, it asks you to really paint the picture of what your ideal day, your ideal life is going to look like and work backwards from there.

Number 3, you're going to create your plan, break down each goal into weekly actions and daily tasks that you can do. And number 4, one of the most exciting things is you get to take that action, execute your plan with focused discipline and adjust it as you need.

Again, don't get attached to the how as much as the why. Know your why and understand the how might have to adjust and change so that you can get to where you want to be. But of course, continue to number 5, review and reflect, celebrate your wins, look at your progress, see things that are working or not working, look at those setbacks and then adjust from there.

So at the end of the day, I think it's a really powerful framework that can help you achieve more and less time. Increase that sense of urgency, increasing your focus, fostering that accountability.

By breaking your goals down into those segments, you'll really get to stay more motivated and make meaningful progress. So I appreciate you for listening to this episode. Please, please, please, please, please check out the book or the audio book or even one of the summaries as well too.

I think it's been extremely impactful to be able to understand what this does and how it taps into our human psychology of being excited at the beginning of the year and the excitement towards in that pressure towards the end of the year to get it done. But to be able to do that in 12 weeks is extremely important.

And I think when we look at the traditional year, I guess I'll say, we'll see that we achieve so much more. So when you found today's episode helpful, share with all your entrepreneurial friends, all the builders that are looking to try to level up within our organization, realize that you can get so much more done than you could. Feel free to, of course, leave us a review. We're always very appreciative of that.

And definitely you're going to see and hear more special episodes where I drill down on certain things that I think could be important for you as builders and architects within your business and strategies that can help you grow and go to the next level.

So this is Gresh signing out again. I will see you next time. You've been listening to the I AM CEO Podcast and make sure that you check out our CBNation library as well too, where we have loads and loads of content around this 8 pillars, but remember it's so important to make sure that you run your race, you embrace the 12-week year and watch the opportunity to soar. Thanks and have a great rest of the day.

Outro 16:23

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by CBNation and Blue16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Check out the latest and greatest apps, books, and habits to level up your business at ceohacks.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.

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