The Secret to Quickly Accomplish Your Goals #12
In this info (and tangent) packed episode of The BT Lounge, Brittanny Taylor dives into the world of goal setting and introduces a game-changing approach that will leave you wondering why you haven't tried it before. She unveils a secret from the book "The 12-Week Year" by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington, revealing how year-long goals are doomed to fail while conveying the transformative power of the 12-week-year plan. Brittanny shares her personal experiences and gives a sneak peek into her own 12-Week Year setup. Prepare to be intrigued (and amused!) as she unveils the keys to unlocking remarkable results and taking control of your destiny in just 12 weeks. Don't miss out on this episode that promises to change the way you approach goal setting. Tune in now and embark on a journey that will leave you inspired and eager to conquer your aspirations.
The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 Months https://rstyle.me/+atQVnLKNAjyvT4q3HETaYA (affiliate link)
Getting Down to Business: A Four-Part Series Exploring The Reality Of Working For Yourself https://www.eventbrite.com/e/getting-down-to-business-registration-660624414407
https://brittannytaylor.com
https://www.instagram.com/brittanny/
Podcast artwork by Brittany Lizotte https://brittlizo.com
Podcast music by Joshua Van Ness https://www.joshuavanness.com
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0:04
Welcome to The BT Lounge. I hope you're doing well. Does that sound sarcastic? It wasn't. I don't know why he said it like that. I hope you're having a great day, evening, or whatever time of the day it is; as you listen to this podcast, let me tell you, editing and listening to my voice is really getting annoying. So I need to figure out when the podcast season ends because I'm getting a little tired of my voice. I hope you aren't getting tired of my voice. I hope you enjoy the podcast and you like how I sound.
Another thing that has come from my editing my own podcast is I don't hate my voice as much as I used to. Maybe I'm doing better with speaking clearly, or clarifying my thoughts before they say them out loud. Because if you see what gets left behind on a cutting room floor, you may think I'm not. I don't know how to get my thoughts together. But I do like having this podcast as an exercise of speaking my thoughts out loud and then landing on whoever they need to land on.
1:14
If you listen to last week's episode, I did a mid-year checkup and discussed where I'm at with my goals for 2023. Along with some of my favorite things, I mentioned that I would do a follow-up on my goals for the rest of the year, or at least Q3, so I thought it would just make sense to do it for this episode. In the past, I had a series on my blog called "I've read this book, so you don't have to." One of the books I featured is The 12 Week Year by Brian P. Morin and Michael Wennington. It's a short book; I suggest reading it if you feel like it. But honestly, there are plenty of YouTube videos that describe this exact thing. And once you hear it, it's not that wild of a concept that you need to read a whole book about it. But if you're interested, I'll link it in the show notes.
2:11
The crux of the book is saying that instead of taking the entire year to work on our goals, let's treat each quarter as its own year; each quarter is 13 weeks, and we take the first 12 weeks of each quarter to execute our goals. Then the last week of that quarter, you reflect on your progress and whether you completed your goal. What you do is figure out what your goals are. I don't remember if the book says how many goals you should have. But honestly, who wants that many goals at once. I don't recall how many goals the author suggests that you have. I would say four goals would be the max. Say you want to have one mental, one physical, one emotional, and one spiritual goal. Or, if you have certain projects you are in the midst of, break down individual goals with each project. But again, I think three to four goals are perfect for me. Then you're going to break down the tactics for each goal. We get overwhelmed when we have this big idea that we want to accomplish, but we don't know the tactics. Sometimes we treat the goal as a tactic. But no, no, we need to break it down even further.
3:41
Let's say you have a goal of writing a book; I wouldn't suggest writing a book to be your goal for a 12-week year; I would say getting the first draft done is a goal. Maybe there's a goal attributed to finding an agent or a publisher. Break down that big main goal into smaller goals that you will find more easily attainable so you don't get overwhelmed and quit. Figuring out the goals that best suit you in the season of life that you're in. Also, the literal season. Maybe you don't want to be holed up in your house writing a book for the summer, or you want to try out different cafes. So go write my book in different cafes around town. That's a goal in itself. Actually, you make it a little bit more fun, a little bit more entertaining. I digress. I'm going off-topic but feel free to steal the idea if you need it.
4:42
I'll share a goal for this summer, so you can see it as an example because it's kind of esoteric or it really is nebulous, it kinda, it's just like, "What does that mean?" I'll show you how it works. I'm currently in, let's say, a second-in-command position for two different boards, and I want to work on my leadership skills.
5:07
Side note: I know someone who listens to this podcast every week and works for a certain leadership company will reach out to me once he listens to the rest of this podcast; I already know what's coming and what I'm setting myself up for.
5:25
For that overarching goal of working on my leadership skills. I've broken it down into four categories I would like to work on. One is building relationships. Two is collaboration and team building three is communication skills. And for our leadership development programs,
5:47
I can already feel the fiery texting of my friend right now as he listens to this.
5:51
Within each of those categories, I'm breaking it down even further into different tactics, like reaching out to the presidents of these nonprofits and scheduling one-on-one time with each other. I'm also looking into classes on how to work on an executive board; I'm going to do my research on how to build my communication skills, be it public speaking or using this podcast as practice, and also ways of developing a tight-knit team that loves to work with each other. Next, I'll list out the different tasks or tactics I can use to work up to that initial goal of building my leadership skills, then I will schedule them on my calendar for each week; I may not be doing something every single day for that goal unless it's something like booking a 15-minute call each day for a week.
6:49
But honestly, I'm just going to. [Percy loudly chewing on a bone] Are you serious? Are you serious? Like how do you know my dog? I swear to God, what is this? What is this?
6:59
Depending on the goal and how many tactics are involved, maybe it is something I do every single day or just during the work week. Or maybe it's just one or two days a week. That part doesn't matter. As long as I've broken down each goal into the specific tactics and tasks I must do. And I make sure that I do them. That's it! By the end of the summer because, as of the recording is June 27th. Summer just started last week, officially.
7:31
Listen, I start Summer on the day Summer starts- June 21st. I don't know about y'all people like, "Oh, the first day of June, it's summer." That's not how it works. And then July comes around like, "Oh, summer is done." It's like, are you serious? It just started; what do you mean, halfway done? Who taught you this? Maybe part of my leadership skills is learning not to pop off on people who don't know their seasons, but it's not on my list of tactics. So maybe that's for Q4.
8:02
Another part of the book 12 Week Year is scoring each week. It's not wild math here. It's basically adding up all of what you've done, dividing it by how many tactics you have, and then you'll get your total; their goal is to be above 80%. 100% is fantastic. You hit all your goals! I love that for you. If it's below 80%. Sure, that's fine. Things happen. You don't get to everything you want to do. But it's used to see a pattern. Are you hitting 20% every week? Or are you getting some tactics done for one goal but nothing done for another goal? Use that as information, as that is not a goal you need to work on right now. Maybe not forever, but for now, it's not it. And that's okay. Just use this all as information because you start to see it on paper- I like to write it down- but you do whatever you like. I have the receipts of what I like to work on and what I don't like to work on. And maybe I can then use that information to figure out another way of approaching this goal.
9:15
Let's talk about ChatGPT. How do they get involved? This is why you can use AI for good or at least stuff you don't want to figure out. I suggest going on ChatGPT and say to it, "I'm making a 12-week year, and this is a goal that I have." Let's go back to the goal of writing your first draft of a book. Write into the prompt box that you want a list of tactics you can use for writing your first draft. You can add something like, "I want to find an agent for my book or publishers to contact." That's a lot of work you may not want to do, and ChatGPT is running through the internet anyway, so you might as well put it to good use. Type everything you need the AI to know to get you all the possible tactics available to help you write your first draft by the end of the quarter. See what it comes up with, then take what's good and leave the rest. Regenerate the response a few times, and you'll start seeing things you didn't even think of.
10:23
Let me add the four categories I listed for the leadership goal I got from ChatGPT. Depending on how you phrase your prompt, it may even figure out everything you need to do each week. Mine was very specific with certain people involved, so I didn't go that far, but I'm also taking my time with it. I'm seeing how one week goes at a time. I know what needs to be done, so if there's something very time-sensitive, I will schedule it in that period. But for the most part, I'm using this as a framework to help me guide my schedule over these 12 weeks.
11:00
I already hear the question, "But it's not the beginning of a season! Do I have to wait until the next season?" No, of course not. You do whatever the hell you want. I don't give a shit! I like to start on Mondays, so I started this past Monday when my podcast episode came out about my mid-year check-in, but you can do it whenever you want. 12 weeks are gonna pass no matter when you hear this episode. Choose the day you want to start, get it down on your calendar, and just go for it. You'll feel the weight lifted off your shoulders because you only have three months to complete it. You don't have a whole 12-year span thinking, "Oh, by the end of the year on New Year's Eve, I've reached all my goals."
11:45
New Year's Eve did not ask for that pressure. Like, honestly, leave her alone. Leave her out of it. She wants to party. Let her be.
11:52
You decide when you want to take charge of your goals and getting shit done.
12:00
That's all I have for this episode of The BT Lounge. I really hope you enjoyed it. I would love to see your 12-week plans. You can drop me an email. Email is listed in the show notes, as always. I say "as always," like I've been doing it, but I haven't. And I promise to remember to do it this time. You can send me a DM on Instagram again listed in the show notes. Remember to sign up for the workshop I'm hosting with my friend Olivia Johnson getting down to business if one of your goals is to start a business. This is perfect timing for you. So if you're in the Rhode Island area, come on through. We would love to see you in person. Thank you so much for being here. And I'll see you again next week at The BT Lounge.
