I recently picked up The 12 Week Year by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington based a recommendation by my financial analyst who I have been working with to get a grip on my ever-complex and changing business and personal economic circumstances.

Until recently, I usually would engorge in self-help books that aim to maximize productivity, creativity, or otherwise the best you can be. As a teenager, I was fascinated by books like Good to Great by James Collins and How to Win Friends and Influence People. As a young adult, I've taken the Myer's Briggs, Strongs Interests Inventory, read my horoscope, and otherwise have spent quite a bit of time putting my internal dots together. It has been a few years since picking up a book that focused on my execution or traits, and so I was a bit reluctant at first, but that quickly changed.

I realized that I had been completely sabotaging my execution through most of the year.

The 12 Week Year throws annualized planning into the trash and explains that it has people perform marathons of activity at the beginning of the year to get a head start and at the end of the year to wrap up everything. However, in the juicy middle, we flounder in the execution limbo.

I once told my coach when struggling with my commitment to get my plans complete that "I will if I can's turn in to a lot of I don't." I believe this has a direct relationship to how I feel about annualized planning. Since I have so much time to get to something, I have tricked myself into believing that I will do it if I can, if I have enough time, if I have enough energy or desire...

Yikes!

My flustering execution changes now. I have created a plan and working the plan. I will repeat this exercise each week. I have created an aspirational vision, three specific goals, and am creating tactics that I can implement week by week. I am also going to enroll my colleagues and family in this matter so that I can build a network of accountability.

I will share more on my journey in The 12 Week Year, week by week.