If you do not feel as committed this week to the New Year’s resolutions you made Jan. 1, you’re not alone. Of the 130 million people who made New Year’s resolutions, 92% will give up by the second week of February.
There are several good reasons you may have difficulty keeping your resolutions. You might feel overwhelmed or discouraged by seemingly unattainable goals. Maybe your intentions were not clear when you started, or you’re not ready to change.
Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington, authors of “The 12 Week Year,” propose that people don’t follow through with resolutions because a year is too long a time for planning. “It creates an illusion that there is lots of time, which often results in procrastination, discouragement and failure,” they wrote. “Committing to something for 12 weeks is easier and much less overwhelming than an annual commitment.”
To use their planning system, you spend time writing down visions of how you see your life-long term and set goals for what they call a 12-week year. Every 12 weeks is not just a quarter of a year. It’s the start of a fresh new one.
Next, break down each of your 12-week goals into an action plan of daily and weekly steps that need to be completed. The authors recommend spending 15 or 20 minutes each week to review progress and plan for the upcoming week.
Results are scored weekly based on completion steps, not on progress towards your goal. For example, if your goal is to lose 12 pounds in 12 weeks, your weekly success is not based on weight loss that week but on how many days you followed your meal plan and how often you worked out.
The reason for measuring completion of action steps and not progress is that if you do not lose weight one week, you will not become discouraged and quit. Instead, you focus on the success of completing the actions you had control over, and not on results, which can vary.
The book includes a useful in-depth analysis of why this system is superior to traditional planning and the psychology behind many of the techniques. It also goes into great detail about how to draft compelling visions and goals.
The 12-week year can be successfully applied to financial goals. Assume your vision is to retire in 15 years, and one of your goals is to pay off your credit card debt. You probably can’t pay it all off in 12 weeks, so you decide $1,800 is a reasonable amount. Now, break down the 12-week goal into actions for each week.
Here are examples of tasks that could be included in your weekly action plans to pay down your debts:
- Spend two hours reading about methods to pay down debt quicker and to increase your credit score.
- List card balances, minimum payments and percentage rates, and create a strategy to pay off the higher rate cards or cards with the smallest balance first.
- Review your credit report and correct inaccuracies.
- Make an additional card payment of $150 per week.
- Consider where the funds are coming from to make the extra payments. List expenses you intend on reducing.
- Only purchase necessities for the next 12 weeks.
- Store all credit cards in a drawer and only use your debit card.
- Get help if you feel overwhelmed by debt (https://ift.tt/2LGAEXC) or if you think you or your spouse may have a gambling addiction (https://ift.tt/YvxiaG).
- Review credit card bills for recurring monthly subscriptions that can be eliminated.
- Call credit card companies and request a lower interest rate. Apply for a consolidation loan at a lower interest rate.
Remember to review your action plan and progress weekly. Google “12-week year free templates” for free vision and goal-setting worksheets, and weekly and daily action plans.
The first action step for any 12-week financial goal should be to prepare a budget. All financial plans start with knowing where you are now, how much money is coming in, and how much you’re spending. The Federal Trade Commission has free worksheets and a video on how to create a budget https://ift.tt/3aK36BS.
Set realistic and attainable goals. One example would be to build emergency savings. Another goal would be to maximize contributions to your 401k.
Unlike goals, your financial visions can be as big as your imagination and should inspire you to take action. Think about where you want to live or travel. Include in your vision how you want to help others and projects or hobbies you would like to explore.
Perhaps the best feature of the 12 week year is you can start your year at any time. How about Feb. 1?
Michelle C. Herting, CPA, AEP specializes in Trusts and Estates. Her offices are in Riverside, Santa Monica, and Newport Beach. She is also president of the Estate Planning Council of Riverside County.
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January 26, 2020 at 08:00PM
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