I love the New Year. In fact, I love it so much that I celebrate a fresh start four times a year by rebooting my life every three months.
I came across this idea in the book, The Twelve Week Year by Brian Moran. Last year I tried it out for 3 months – I liked it so much I did for it a complete year and am starting year two.
The Main Idea: Goals need to be more tightly focused and 12 months is just too long. If you want growth, you need to keep the goals in front of you by breaking them down and acting.
A Huge Benefit: Rebooting every 3 months gives you a chance to build on goals, change goals and celebrate more often. Change and growth can be hard and a short focus keeps momentum going.
My Success: Using this process, I was able to accomplish:
- A consistent morning ritual that made my days more positive, hopeful and productive.
- Studying 4 books of the Bible – reading through each and taking notes.
- Taking off 15 lbs and getting a food plan in place that will help me continue to get healthier.
- Moving my steps from a goal of 8,000 to 12,000 and actually enjoying it.
- Pod (capsule) dressing – setting up a “new” wardrobe every 3 months which makes dressing a lot less stressful.
- Moving toward my coaching credential with study and coaching others.
This strategy also helped me see when a goal wasn’t something I really wanted. Several times I put goals on my list that I didn’t move forward and it was great to face that at 3 months in instead of 12.
My layout:
How do you start? – Here is what I did:
1.Find a 3 month planner. Here are a couple of examples:
- Happiness Planner (it is 100 days, but close enough…)
- Mochi Planner
Note: I started with the Happiness Planner but now create my own so I can customize it.
2. Decide on your 1-5 goals for the next 3 months. These can be big or small or some of each. My goals for the first 3 months of 2018 are a collection of new and ongoing goals.
3. Decide on a way to track your goals. I started with tracking each week separately. That wasn’t very satisfying – instead, try doing a month (see below an example) that way you can track the overall picture.
4. Don’t freak out if you miss a day or two. Life happens. Do what you can, not what you cannot.
After years of setting goals and falling short, this process has saved me. It is engaging, fun and gets things done.
Want 3-sessions of coaching to get you on track with your goals? I am offering 3 sessions of free coaching to get you going. Limited availability. Email me the goals you’d like to accomplish in 3 months at RevReilley@gmail.com