One of my best reads in 2018 was a book titled The 12-Week Year by Brian Moran and Michael Lennington. They talked about the pitfalls of annual goals and offered ways to accomplish the same outcome in less time by rethinking your approach.
In setting a goal for the entire year, it is easy to delay action until a later time. I mean, you have all year to work on it. I’m sure a nice window will open up somewhere in the next 365 days to be able to get to it. And who knows? Maybe if the goal sits long enough, it will naturally take care of itself.
It is far easier to procrastinate items that take an extended focus in lieu of the urgent need staring you in the face. For instance, I’d love to clean out my bedroom closet sometime, but it’s a lot easier to close the door on that project than it is the small child who interrupted me to say they need a glass of milk.
Maybe you have the same problem, as you are about to tackle a project in your farm office only to have an employee come to let you know a hose in the parlour is making that squawking noise again. One thing leads to another, and that goal you were going to work on has been put off to another day, week or month.
Everyone has a to-do list longer than what can be accomplished in a day. Just when you think you finished something, you find a whole other set of things to do.
If you spend your time like a hamster in a wheel, you can feel like you’ve worked all day but didn’t actually get anywhere.
Maybe you like where you are at in life and have no desire to go further, but for those who want more but feel like they have no time, the plan outlined in this book may be one to get you out of the hamster box.
It is a fairly quick read, and not only does it help by encouraging you to discover that long-term vision, it also provides strategies to help you set aside time to work on it.
See the article on page 40 that outlines how a three-hour uninterrupted time once a week can start you on an accelerated path to achieve what used to be an annual goal in only 12 weeks.
Just think, if you begin now, there’s a good chance you’ll be done before spring planting starts.
With only three months to fulfill a New Year’s resolution, that means you could achieve four of them per year.
This year, take a moment to not only set your goals and resolutions but also set a plan in place in how you will work towards accomplishing them. 
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Karen Lee
- Editor
- Progressive Dairyman
- Email Karen Lee
