QT: Looking Ahead to the New Year, What Are Your Goals for 2017?

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I’ve never been shy in professing my love for big goals, and especially New Year’s Resolutions.

And as the clock continues to tick down and the start of the new year approaches, the topic of New Year’s Resolutions will be everywhere. This year, however, I won’t be making any New Year’s Resolutions.

Allow me to explain…

New Year, New Rules

At the behest of many people I look up to in the business/entrepreneurial world, I recently read the book 12 Week Year.

#gamechanger

If you haven’t read this book yet, I’d definitely encourage you bumping it up to the top of your list. Shoot, order it on prime today and you can easily power through it before the end of the year.

One of the biggest takeaways from this book for me was the idea that setting big goals is great, but if you can’t create a PLAN to achieve your goals your odds of getting there are greatly diminished.

And point blank, it’s impossible to create a specific plan to keep you moving the needle for an entire year.

So the premise of this book is to set big goals, but give yourself a hard cap of 12 weeks in order to achieve those goals. Then, at the end of the 12 weeks, you reassess your goals, set new benchmarks for the next 12 weeks, and start fresh.

So that’s what I’m doing.

My New Year Started 2 Week Ago

My first 12 Week Year actually started two weeks ago.

I figured if I’m going to redefine how I’m measuring my “years” I didn’t need to wait for the end of 2016 to start, right?

Right. So I finished the book on 2 December, and started my new year on the 5th.

And so far it’s been awesome. Obviously, it’s still too early to draw any definitive conclusions from shifting my goals to incorporate the ideas of the 12 Week Year, but from what I can tell and from what I’ve heard from others that have read the book it’s going to be a game changer for me.

And I think it will be for you too, if you give it a read and put the insights to use. And just to be clear, while this is clearly a business book, the principals apply no matter where you want to implement them.

• Running? Yep.
• Relationships? Yep.
• Diet? You better believe it.

Whatever goals you have for yourself, you can use the 12 Week Plan to help you get there.

Cliff’s Notes of the Book

I would definitely encourage you to get the book for yourself, but if you’d like my key takeaways, here you go.

Don’t Try to Do Too Much

I think one of my problems in the past has been setting TOO MANY goals for the year, and by doing so I didn’t know where to focus. With only have 12 weeks to accomplish your goals, it forces you to choose what you are going to focus on for the new year.

Picking 2-3 goals to work on tops is plenty! Last year, I had about 10 things I wanted to accomplish for the year. At best, I got through 4 of them.

Now, I’ve got three goals I’m working toward and when this 12 week year is finished, I’ll have another set of 3 for my new year.

Identify What Really Moves the Needle

Once you pick your goals, you need to figure out what one or two actions are most impactful for your success.

Then, you go all in on those one or two things.

Instead of trying to do 8-10 different things to help you reach your goal, you identify the few things that give you the most bang for your buck and make those the priority.

Plan, Plan, Plan

Having a goal in place is important, but so is knowing how to get there.

When you set your goals for the new year, whether that’s the 12 or the 52 variety, take the time to map out a plan to help you get there.

One statistic from the book that pretty much blew my mind, having a plan decreases the time it takes to complete a task by as much as 20%.

So if you’re serious about nailing your goal, take the time to plan out what you’ll need to do to be successful.

Then, all you have to do is stick to the plan.

Measure Actions, Not Results

This. This is the big one y’all.

We set our goals with the end in mind, right?

• I want to finish my first marathon
• I want to break 2 hours in the half
• I want to run an entire 5k without walking

I’ve heard each of these goals come out of the mouths of runners an uncountable number of times.

But where success is determined has much less to do with the result than it does with the actions leading up to the results.

So set your goal, and set it big. But then measure the steps you’re taking to help you get to the desired result.

Such as, I want to break 2 hours in the half marathon so I’m going to run 4 times per week to help me improve my fitness to where I can do that.

At that point, you keep track of how many weeks you actually ran 4 times. If you’re never hitting that target, then maybe your race day goal is too ambitious because you weren’t consistent enough in your training. Make sense?

 Your Goals for the New Year

Have you started thinking about your goals for the new year?

If not, now is a good time start.

Thinking about your goals, and stewing on them a bit, is important. Especially if you’re only going to set a couple of goals.

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Would your #running improve by setting 12 week goals instead of yearly ones? #runchat Click To Tweet

But whatever you’re working on, if you’d like a little accountability on the matter, let me know with a comment below.

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