Saturday Sessions: Why Annual Goals Are Bullshit (And What Actually Works)

Hey Prompt Entrepreneur,

It's September, moving towards Q4. The graveyard of annual goals.

Don’t know about you but the weather just turned here in London. It’s getting colder, darker. The Winter is already encroaching.

Right now, millions of people are doing one of two things:

1. Frantically trying to "save" their 2025 goals (spoiler: they won't)

2. Already writing off 2025 and planning their 2026 "this time will be different" goals

Both are wrong. It’s never different.

Annual goals are bullshit.

They're too far away to feel real. Too big to feel manageable. Too vague to create urgency. They don’t work.

You know what works? 90 days.

I discovered this through a book called "The 12-Week Year" by Brian Moran. Game-changer. The premise is simple: Stop thinking in 12-month years. Think in 12-week years.

Four "years" per calendar year. Four chances to sprint. Four opportunities to achieve something big and meaningful.

Let's get started:

✍️ Summary

• Why annual planning fails (and always will)

• The 12-Week Year framework that changes everything

• How to plan a 90-day sprint that actually works

• Your personal Sprint Planner tool (powered by GPT-5)

• Real examples from my business and life

The Annual Goal Delusion

Here's why your annual goals don't work.

December 31st feels like forever away. Your brain literally cannot process urgency for something 365 days out. So you procrastinate. "I've got loads of time." By the time urgency kicks in (usually about now!), it's too late.

Then there's the compound excuse effect. Miss January's target? "I'll make it up in February." Miss Q1? "Big push in Q2." Miss first half? "Strong finish coming! Trust!" Each excuse compounds. By December, you've had 11 months of practice at explaining why you're behind.

But the real killer is context switching. Who you are in January is not who you'll be in December. Your priorities shift. Your situation changes. That business you were excited about in January? By June you're onto something else. That fitness goal? Injured in March, never recovered momentum.

Annual goals assume a static you in a static world. Both assumptions are wrong.

Enter the 12-Week Year

Brian Moran was a corporate consultant who noticed something: Companies performed best in Q4. Every year. Without fail.

Why? Urgency. Suddenly the "year-end" was weeks away, not months. Suddenly every week mattered. And stuff got done.

So his insight was: What if we treat every quarter like Q4?

The 12-Week Year reframes everything:

• 12 weeks = 1 year

• 1 week = 1 month

• 1 day = 1 week

Sounds simple. And it is! But the effect is profound.

Why 90 Days Is the Perfect Sprint

Ninety days is still long enough to achieve something substantial. You can launch a product, transform your fitness, build an audience, learn a skill, or write half a book. Or a whole book if you’re mad like me…These aren't pipe dreams - they're realistic 90-day outcomes. Very doable.

But it's also short enough to maintain focus. You can see 90 days on a wall calendar. It's close enough to create urgency but far enough to build real momentum. The feedback loop is tight enough to course-correct but long enough to see genuine progress.

Most importantly, it sidesteps all the problems of annual goals. No endless excuses. No context switching. No loss of urgency. Just focused execution on ONE meaningful outcome.

The Framework That Actually Works

Yes: ONE thing. Here's the thing about 90-day sprints - they force you to pick ONE thing. Not three. Not two. ONE.

"But what about everything else?" I hear you. But importantly you're not abandoning other areas of your life for 90 days. You're just not trying to transform them all simultaneously. Keep going to the gym while you focus on business. Keep the business running while you focus on health. But only ONE area gets the transformation energy.

Most people try to revolutionise their business, body, relationships, and finances all at once every January.

By February they've achieved nothing in any area. You? You'll nail your business goal in Q1, your fitness goal in Q2, your relationship goal in Q3. By year end, you've had four focused transformations instead of twelve months of scattered failure.

Here's the big shift: Q4 isn't the end of 2025. It's a complete year. A fresh start. Right now.

While everyone else is writing off 2025 or fantasising about 2026, you can complete an entire "year" of progress.

Imagine December 31st having achieved something meaningful. Not through frantic December scrambling, but through 12 weeks of focused execution. Alright?

The Tool That Makes This Automatic

Look, I could spend another thousand words explaining the weekly planning rhythms, the difference between lead and lag measures, how to structure your weeks, and all the tactical details. You know I like to yap.

BUT instead I’ve built you a tool. Action over everything!

I've built a 90-Day Sprint Planner that walks you through everything. It interviews you about your goal (powered by GPT-5 so it actually understands context and asks smart follow-ups), reality-checks your timeline and resources, then generates your complete sprint plan. Cool?

I ran it for my goal to hit 10,000 subscribers on Youtube and here’s the report:

Go and plug in your details and get your own report (free, no need for email):

Your Next Action

Don't wait until January 1st. Don't even wait until Monday.

Your 90-day sprint can start today. Right now. That’ll let you finish up before the holiday season when it all falls apart anyway!

Pick one thing. Just one. Something that would make you proud on December 31st.

Then use the Sprint Planner to start to turn that into a day-by-day plan. And 90 days from now, while everyone else is making the same resolutions they made this year, you'll have actually achieved something.

Kyle

P.S. The Sprint Planner tool is free. It'll interview you, reality-check your goal, and generate your complete 90-day plan. Takes 10 minutes. 90 day Sprint Plan Tool

P.P.S. Yes, I'm doing a 90-day sprint too. Goal: Build my first Saas to $1000/month in 90 days.

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