The 12 Week Year: 2021 round 1

The most valuable book I’ve ever read is Fearless Salary Negotiation. It made me about $1,000 per minute spent reading it, so it’s kind of cheating. I doubt any book will ever be more valuable than that.

But the second most valuable book I’ve ever read is The 12 Week Year. I’ve read a lot of personal development and self help books over the years, but this is the one that did it for me.

The 12WY guides you through the process of creating a long term life vision and progressively breaking that down into smaller and smaller chunks until you get to the week-by-week level. It’s a framework for making you spend time each week working towards your life goals. And it’s fantastic.

I’ve been following the 12WY format for a couple years now. In the spirit of The Year of Courage, I’m going to start posting my 12WY plans here on the blog.

Here’s the plan for the next one. Don’t judge me.

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Ratings

To decide what to focus on, rate yourself in the six areas of life balance.

• Spouse: 8
• Family: 5
• Community: 3
• Physical: 6
• Personal: 8
• Business: 6

Life vision

Construct a vision of your life 5, 10, 15 years into the future. Be bold, be courageous; create a life vision that inspires you and fulfills your purpose. There are no right or wrong answers. This is the life you deeply desire.

• I want to be known as an author.
• I want to retire comfortably in my 50s.
• I want our kids to become happy and successful and compassionate adults.
• I want our kids and their kids to want to spend time with us.
• I want my marriage to be the one that makes our friends/family jealous.
• I want to have a house and cars that we are happy with without being overly flashy.
• I want to finish a marathon in under 3 hours.
• I want to look the most fit in a bathing suit out of anyone my age that I know.

Three-year vision (ending December 2023 – I’ll be 37 years old)

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.

I want our house to be organized, presentable, and well maintained, with all major problems fixed.

• Contributes to: “I want to have a house and cars that we are happy with without being overly flashy”

I want to be earning at least $1k per month of side income from a SaaS product that I’ve built.

• Contributes to: “I want to run my own product company and make money while I sleep.”

I want my kids to have more non-video-game hobbies which I can participate in.

• Contributes to: “I want our kids to become happy and successful and compassionate adults.”
• Contributes to: “I want my kids and their kids to want to spend time with us.”

I want to self publish a book from my blog posts.

• Contributes to: “I want to be known as an author.”

I want to run a half marathon in under 1:40.

• Contributes to: “I want to finish a marathon in under 3 hours.”

I want to get promoted.

• Contributes to: “I want to run my own product company and make money while I sleep.”
• Contributes to: “I want to have a house and cars that we are happy with without being overly flashy.”

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12 week goals: January 4 – March 28, 2021

Set your 12 week goal that aligns with your long-term vision and also represents greatness for you in and of itself in the next 12 weeks. Review your long-term and 3 year visions. Decide on the progress that you are willing to commit to achieving in the next 12 weeks.

Goal 1: Run 250 miles

Contributes to: “I want to run a half marathon in under 1:40.”

Weekly tactics:

• Run an average of at least 21 miles each week.

Goal 2: Spend more quality time with my kids

Contributes to: “I want my kids to have more non-video-game hobbies which I can participate in.”

Weekly tactics:

• Put my phone away from 5pm until bedtime so it doesn’t distract me.
• Plan at least 1 weekend adventure every weekend.

Goal 3: Clean out the garage

Contributes to: “I want our house to be organized, presentable, and well maintained, with all major problems fixed.”

Weekly tactics:

• Week 1: Haul the junk out of there
• Weeks 2-8: Organize everything left into big plastic containers
• Week 9-10: Hire someone to fix the garage doors
• Weeks 11-12: Put in a rug and move the treadmill in there

Goal 4: Have 1-1s with at least 60 new people at my new job

Contributes to: “I want to get promoted.”

Weekly tactics:

• Have at least five 1-1 meetings with new people each week, on average.

That’s it. I’ll report back on how it goes!