The 12-Week Year: Islamic Edition

I recently came to learn about the idea of designing your yearly resolutions into a 12-week format. So, pretending that the entire year is 12 weeks long, what are some goals you have that you want to achieve in those 3 months? The idea behind it is that it’s easier for us to accomplish so much more in a 3 month span rather than a year-span where we cannot predict how our year will end up looking like later.

This concept made so much sense to me as a Muslim and a therapist. In Islam, Allah SWT designates certain months and seasons for particular acts of worship or glorifications. For instance, we have four months that are sacred, and one month for fasting, and days designated for pilgrimage, and other days for preparing for Ramadan. All of these dates are proof to show that there are certain things that can be prioritized, and other times other things will be more prioritized. Not everything is a 100% priority every single moment throughout the year.

As a therapist, this concept is also helpful in building and designing systems that suit the current stage of your life. I started working with someone on family related issues, but then things happened in her life that led us to work on deeply person issues, and we could not predict that this would come up during our therapy plan session. Unpredictable events can happen which can totally change the course of your year. The challenge is not staying consistent no matter what happens, but rather it is taking into account the major changes in your life, and re-designing your system so that you can include your goals (if they are still relevant at the moment), or change the goals into something that this chapter of your life is needing.

But this concept may not apply to every goal. There are non-negotiables, such as our daily prayers as Muslims. The five daily prayers can be so anchoring and grounding in a life that is turbulent and ever-changing. No matter where I am or what I am going through, prayer is always a priority. There are accommodations for those sick or those who cannot pray, but often times prayer is still a consistent act of worship that will last you throughout your entire lifetime.

Now that we finished Ramadan, I have some questions that I will be asking myself, which I wanted to share with you.

• How did the past 12 weeks go for you?
• What did you achieve?
• What could you not achieve?
• What are you most proud of?
• What do you wish you did differently?
• What could you have done more or better?
• How can the next 12 weeks be different?
• What are the next 12 weeks going to be focused on?