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

Questions That Uncover the Degree of Ownership Why are the elements of your vision important to you? What will you be able to do if you reach your vision that you cannot do now? What will be different for you, your family, your friends, your peers, your clients, your community, if you reach that goal? Are you willing to commit to the actions needed

The problem is that, if you think something is impossible, you will never attain it. Henry Ford said, “If you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.” The first step, then, to reaching your biggest dreams is to shift from impossible thinking to possible thinking. You do this not by asking How? but by asking What if ?

How much time freedom do you want? What income do you desire? Write everything you can think of on a sheet of paper; leave nothing off the page.

Based on your long-term vision, what do you want to create over the next three years? Describe in as much detail as possible what a great personal and professional life would look like three years from today. The more specific you are at this stage, the easier it will be to create your 12 week goals and your plan.

There are three time horizons that you’ll want to focus your vision on: 1. Long-term aspirations 2. Mid-term goals, about three years into the future 3. 12 Weeks (covered in the next chapter)

When an individual is reluctant to take the necessary actions required to accomplish a goal, it is an indication that they own their current comfort more than they own the future described in their vision.

Once you see your vision as possible, then you begin the shift from possible to the next level: probable. You make this shift by asking the question that we avoided earlier: How might I? How is not a bad question; in fact, it is a perfectly good question, but the timing is critical. Ask it too early, and it shuts down the whole process, but once yo

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.

These types of statements reflect the mistaken notion that accountability is something that can and must be imposed; that’s not accountability, that’s consequences.