Top 10 Takeaways - Podcast 427 with Brian Moran

BiggerPockets Podcast 427: The 12 Week Year and The Danger of Long-Term Goal Setting with hosts Brandon Turner and David Green & guest Brian Moran

1. What the “12 Week Year” really is

It wasn’t that I set out to be a writer, but we just documented what we were doing with our clients. And I think that’s why the book is successful. We didn’t set out to write about theory or things we thought, we just documented what we had found out was working. The reception has been pretty phenomenal. I mean, we get emails every day from around the world, people we have never met. We have individuals that have quadrupled their income in a very short period of time. On average, we work with a lot of sales folks. The average sales folks have a 20% to 30% bump in their first 12 weeks. And when you apply it, it works really well. It’s been vetted in every industry, at every level and in every walk of life. The 12 Week Year is really a system to help you accomplish more of what you want faster. Thirty thousand-foot view, that’s what it is. And our focus through the 12 Week Year is always on the execution. People got great ideas. They’re connected. They’ve got all kinds of resources. In the end, the breakdown is never not knowing, it’s not doing. And so, the 12 Week Year is an execution system, which is the one system everybody lacks, right. They’ve got all kinds of systems, but they lack the one that drives everything, which is the execution system. And so, our focus is all about what you can control and what you can’t control, and really being more consistent with the things that you can control. And so, that’s really what the 12 Week Year is. It’s just the systematic approach to accomplishing more faster. And because we are tactical, the 12-week year allows you to make smaller adjustments more frequently. And so, you’re able to dial it in versus trying to make these massive assumptions or corrections. You’re constantly adjusting because there is no perfect plan. And the marketplace is dynamic. It’s constantly changing. What worked to buy a mobile home park a couple years ago is probably different today. Not completely different, but there’s some different aspects to it. And so, because it’s tactical, you’ll know specifically which ones worked and which ones didn’t, which is really powerful. So, you can focus on that, which then causes you to have some success.

2. How short term goal setting can help you accomplish your biggest goals

Annual planning, annual goal setting is better than no goal setting. But there’s inherent barriers in it. And the biggest one is that there’s this illusion of lots of time. That January’s going to roll around. Everybody’s fired up. Everybody’s thinking. But everybody’s also thinking they got lots of time. So, with that annual goal, if you get to the end of January, most people are behind their goal, they’re behind plan, but nobody’s worried. And so, it’s that mindset that you have got 11 more months to catch up. And it’s that mindset that permeates the year that holds people back. The 12 Week Year isn’t about taking what you would do in 12 months and cram it into 12 weeks. It starts with a different mindset. And we borrowed a concept from athletics called periodization, we adapted it. And that’s where the 12 Week Year was born. We recognize that we had to have a hard line in the sand that was close enough where you don’t lose the sense of urgency, but far enough where you can make profound progress. And 12 months is just way too much time. In fact, you can’t even plan accurately for 12 months. If you just did more of what you know consistently, you would have better, healthier relationships and you’d make a lot more money. And so, that annual environment really is just the snag that causes you to go, well, I got lots, I can put that on. I don’t have to do that today. In a 12-week year, you can’t do that very long before you realize, right, you’re hit right in the face with, wait a minute, if I’m never going to hit that goal, I got to get after it. And ultimately, that’s where execution happens. It doesn’t happen monthly and quarterly, and semiannually, it happens weekly, it happens daily. And so, with the 12-week year, that ineffective, that unproductive mindset is challenged right out of the gate. We have tens of thousands of people that have accomplished more in 12 weeks than they did in 12 months. I mean, I was on the phone last week with a gentleman, he happens to be an advisor, an investment advisor. But the prior year, he did 7.2 million, the last 12 weeks, he did 8.3 million. And that’s in COVID, in the middle of COVID. And that’s just an example. And it sounds crazy and magical, but it’s not. It’s the fact that when you bring that deadline near term, it creates an intense level of focus for you. Not a stressful level, but just a clarity around it.

3. Why you need to shift focus to executable tasks

People can relate to a weight loss example, right, let’s say, I want to lose 185 pounds, 10% body fat, right? So, the first thing I’m going to do is probably download the Weight Watchers app. That’s going to happen week one. It’s a one-time tactic. The next tactic is I’m going to enter my food intake daily on that Weight Watchers app, that’s weeks one through 12. The next thing I’m going to do is order superfoods, spirulina, wheat grass, oil. The next thing I’m going to do is take those daily. The next tactic is I’m going to work out four times a week with weights. The next tactic is I’m doing cardio twice a week. Now, if I haven’t worked out, I’ve got to hire a trainer. I got to join a gym. And if you get to a thing that you don’t know how to do, then it doesn’t mean, well, I guess I can’t do this. You say, well, who would I have to hire? Who would I have to partner with? What book would I have to read? And then you say, okay, I need to hire a personal trainer. And then, you have a new set of tasks. I’m going to interview X amount of trainers. I’m looking for someone that does this. What do I ask them? Well, that guy’s in shape. Let me go ask him what his trainer does. Oh, I like that. You are taking the overall goal and you’re just systematically breaking it down into steps that are a bite-sized chunk that you can actually chew on to eat that elephant. Individual discrete actions, so that when those things translate into my weekly plan, there’s no question about what I do. So, by default, everything else is secondary. Which is one of the benefits of the 12-week year is it reduces your stress. Why? Because you know what matters most each week. You know how to win the week. You get this stuff done, you win the week. You get all that other crap done, and you don’t do this, then all bets are off.

4. How to get tactical on your goals and what you can do to accomplish them

We have been taught to plan where it is conceptual. The problem with a conceptual plan is that it really masks the work that is involved. So, if I don’t have two tactics, I might have three items on the page that I might call tactics, so it looks like I got three things to do and those three things might be 30 things when it comes down to it. And so, people create a plan that they start out the year overwhelmed, they go through the year diffused. That’s the other thing about the 12-week year is we talk a lot about less is more. One goal is better than two, two is better than three, because you have limited capacity. You have limited time capacity, you have limited energy, you have limited physical capacity, you have limited intellectual capacity. That’s not a slam on anyone. That’s the reality. And so, the more goals you try and pursue simultaneously, the greater the likelihood that you’re mediocre at everything. One is better than two, two is better than three. When you start to get over three, you’re stacking the odds against yourself. The weekly plan is created just by looking at what’s due in the 12-week plan this particular week. So, in a sense, the weekly plan is a 1/12th slice of the 12-week plan. I’m not worried about everything to do with the plan. It doesn’t contain everything I do in my life or my job. But the weekly plan just contains what’s due in the 12-week plan this particular week. But by default, it’s the stuff that matters most. We started with this longer term vision, we set a 12-week goal that aligns with that, that leans into that, and build out the tactical plan.

5. Leaning into hard things and shying away from comfort

If the farmer doesn’t work the field, doesn’t plow it, doesn’t plant it, doesn’t cultivate, there’s never a harvest. It’s the same for you and I and everywhere in our life. The work in the field is doing the heavy lifting about doing the activity that we might normally shy away from. And I would say normally shy away from, otherwise, we’d be having the results we’re looking to have. Right, anytime you take new ground, there’s new activities, things I haven’t done before. And so, there is uncertainty and discomfort with that. The game is really, how do I get myself to lean into that instead of away from it? And the 12-week year plan just puts it front and center for you so you can’t ignore it. It takes sacrifice to be great. And I would argue, you don’t have to sacrifice your values, you don’t have to sacrifice your integrity, your health, your sanity, your family. But you have to sacrifice your comfort, because if you’re going to grow, if you’re going to do anything great, it’s going to be uncomfortable. And I think that at the heart of personal leadership and being successful, is being comfortable with being uncomfortable, because that’s the process of growing. The number one thing that holds people back is the fact that we are wired for comfort. And so, the secret is recognizing that that is the enemy and not giving in to it, surrounding myself with people that think the same way I do using systems like the 12-week year that help me confront that comfort on a daily basis and make a conscious choice about, okay, am I going to choose success today? Am I going to choose a better relationship right now and serve my spouse or my mate, or am I going to choose comfort? Am I going to choose to be the father that has an impact, that has influence or am I going to choose to sit here and watch the football game right now because it’s comfortable and it’s easy? I mean, those are the choices we make each and every day that shape our lives.

6. The importance of “vision work” and knowing where you’re headed

To have an effective 12-week goal and 12-week plan, it has to be connected to something longer term, more aspirational. So, a lot of people have done vision work, they tend to do it around their career, their income, we start with your life. Because all that other stuff is part of life, what do you want your life to look like three years from now, five years from now, 10 years from now, by the way, what does great look like? God willing, you’re going to be here, that’s great. Then, we bring that near term, so we can set a 12-week goal that aligns with that and enables that, build out a tactical plan.

7. Holding yourself accountable for what you want most in life

One of the things we talked about with our clients a lot is the value of understanding that you don’t control the outcomes. You control your actions. If you get too fixated on the goal, it can actually stymie you. Yeah, actually, there’s a quote: “Consistent action on the critical tasks needed to reach your goal is the key to getting what you want in life. Your current actions are creating your future. If you want to know what your future holds, look to your actions.” The misunderstanding is most of us have experienced accountability as consequences. I mean, everywhere you hear the word in society, you’ll hear it today on the radio or TV or something that they’re going to hold this person accountable. And what they do is find them, suspend them and punish them in some form. We have all experienced accountability that way. And that is not accountability. Those are the consequences. And consequences play a role. But accountability is different than that. Accountability is ownership. It’s the recognition that we have free will choice. When you really understand accountability as choices, ownership, it’s probably the most empowering concept we have to live the life we want to live. The victim mindset is that the world happens to me and I fail or I struggle because people didn’t do what they were supposed to do, or whatever. When you recognize that you don’t control the circumstances, but you control how you respond, and that you always have choice and take ownership of those choices, life just shows up so much better. Not perfect, right? I mean, there’s still struggles, there’s still disappointments, but you’re equipping yourself to have the best life you can have, which is, I think, what we’re all striving for.

8. How repetition forms competence and competence forms confidence

It is hard to be confident if you are not competent. And competence comes through reps. You have got to have a process for doing everything. And the first time you do it, you’re probably not very good at it. So, you got to do it again and again, and again. And as you do that, though, you build the confidence, you build the competence, and you start to build that momentum. Part of that momentum comes because I’m not just focused on the goal, I’m focused on the activity. And as I take that activity, the marketplace always gives me feedback. If you sit down and analyze a real estate investment every single day for the next three months straight, and you get through 90, 100, 120 of these things, just knocked out, you’re going to feel so comfortable and competent because you’ve done the reps. And now, making an offer is not going to be that scary. Nothing’s going to be scary because you have the reps, you’ve done the work. You can’t sit here and think your way into feeling confident. It only comes through actions. When you’re feeling really down and you’re feeling this is never going to happen, the best thing you can do is go out and do something that is productive. If you are in sales, pick up the phone and make a call. Even if someone says, no, I’m not interested, internally you know that you’re more in control than if you’re just sitting, waiting or hoping something’s going to change. Confidence comes from competence, competence comes from repetition. Repetition is daily action.

9. The value of doing the vision work and getting up every time you stumble

Step one is do the vision work. Some of the people listen and go, oh, that’s bluff. It’s not bluff. It’s the cornerstone of all high performance. If you don’t know where you want to go, everything else doesn’t matter. So, do the vision work, then bring that near-term build out a 12-week plan. And then, the game on, it’s really about executing that plan. And listen, you’re going to have weeks when you stumble. I have weeks when I stumble. And I’ve been doing it for a while. You don’t beat yourself up for that. There’s a lot of grace in the 12-week year, because you can’t change anything you did last week. Right? But we can learn from them. And so, as we look at last week, it’s with an eye towards reality and candor. I’m not going to shy away from my stumblings or my failings, because those are opportunities to learn. And if they sting, they sting. That’s part of the process. We call that productive tension, which causes me to behave differently next time. Vision is the cornerstone. If you don’t have something you’re striving for, then it’s really easy to give up. Passion comes from vision. If you are lacking passion in some area, you probably don’t have a clear vision for it. So, to me the vision creates the passion, the passion creates the courage to do the things you need to do.

10. Applying the 12 Week year to a team mentality

In some ways, the 12 Week year is actually more powerful with a team, because it creates these structures. If you're part of a team there, I would argue that there’s three underlying structures that you have to have for the team to perform at their highest level. And it doesn’t matter what you value. It doesn’t matter what your values are, whether they’re innovation or customer service, whatever it is, you have to have clarity, clarity of vision, clarity of goals, most importantly, clarity of actions, clarity of expectation. You need to have transparency with regard to what people are doing. So, when we work with teams, the first thing we do is we start with vision, but we still start with their personal lives. We don’t start with the business, we start with their personal lives. Because we have to connect the dots, ultimately you have to connect the dots between what I’m doing Monday through Friday in the business and the life I want to live. And for so many people, those dots aren’t connected, especially on teams. And so, we start with everybody, even part-timers, we’ve worked with groups that they’ve got part-timers. They go, what else, people don’t care. And I go, I beg to differ, they care about their life. And so, we’re going to work on it. And then, we work at the company vision and say, okay, now, how does the succeeding year enable you to live the life you want to live? That’s how we connect those dots. And then, as a team, we set the goal, as a team, we build out the plan so that what’s happening in that is, if the leader does all that, now they’ve got to go sell it to the team. And there’s a chance that they don’t buy. We’re less opposed to anything we help create. So, the team creates the goals, creates the plan, gets tactical, argues back and forth about, this matters. No, this matters. And so, all that discussion is what creates the buy in. And then, at that point, we’re locked and loaded. Now, it’s moving forward. And everyone has a weekly plan, so there’s clarity about what matters most this week by individual. And there’s transparency that everybody can see who is supposed to do what and what’s getting done. And then, we’re tracking it, we’re tracking the results. Is it moving the needle or not?