4-Year U.

Tag: Intentional Living

  • How to Think Long-Term: Escaping the Trap of Short-Term Living

    How to Think Long-Term: Escaping the Trap of Short-Term Living

    We all know what it’s like to get stuck putting out fires—doing what’s urgent but not what’s truly important. For many people, especially those under constant stress or financial strain, this short-term cycle becomes the default. Psychologists call it a cognitive tax—the mental load that makes it nearly impossible to think long-term when survival is all-consuming.

    But what if there was a simple structure to help anyone start thinking long-term again? That’s exactly what the 4-Year U. system is designed to do.

    (Watch the video below to see this explained visually.)

    From the Urgent to the Important

    Let’s start with a simple model: the Eisenhower Matrix. You’ve probably seen it—urgent vs. important. Most people spend their lives doing things that are urgent but not important. They’re reacting instead of creating.

    In the short term, that can feel productive. But in the long term, it keeps you stuck.

    The goal is to spend more time in the important but not urgent zone—where you’re building, preparing, and planting seeds for your future. That’s how you grow out of the cycle of reactivity and into one of intentional living.

    The Seasons of Life

    Here’s where we introduce a different way to think about this matrix: the seasons.

    • Summer – Urgent and important. The work season.
    • Fall – Important but not urgent. The harvest season.
    • Winter – Not urgent, not important. The season of rest.
    • Spring – Preparation. The season of planting and setup.

    When you see your activities through these seasons, it becomes easier to balance your life. You can’t stay in summer forever, and you can’t remain in winter too long either. You need all four.

    Thinking in Four-Year Cycles

    Now, let’s zoom out.

    Remember how your life had structure growing up? Grade school, middle school, high school, maybe college—each roughly four years. Each one had a built-in plan. But after that, most people stop building structured programs for themselves.

    What if you brought that structure back?

    The idea is to think in four-year blocks. In year one, you’re in winter—resting and dreaming. Year two is spring—preparing and planning. Year three is summer—doing the work. Year four is fall—reaping the harvest.

    Then you repeat. Each four-year cycle builds on the last.

    The Power of Structure

    Most people don’t fail because they’re lazy. They fail because they lack structure.

    Think about it like this: every question in life has both a question and an answer. But it also has a place to put the question and a place to put the answer. Without that, everything feels chaotic and undefined.

    When you were in school, the structure was given to you—assignments, deadlines, grades. But in adulthood, you have to build your own structure. The 4-Year U. framework gives you that.

    It creates a place for the questions—your goals—and a space for the answers—your actions.

    Working with Natural Cycles

    You can apply this four-season rhythm at any scale:

    • Daily: Morning (spring), midday (summer), evening (fall), night (winter).
    • Monthly: Early month (spring), mid-month (summer), end of month (fall), reset (winter).
    • Yearly: Spring (prep), summer (action), fall (harvest), winter (rest).
    • Every four years: A full life cycle of growth, maturity, and renewal.

    This pattern is built into creation itself. You’re not fighting time—you’re flowing with it.

    Begin with the End in Mind

    Let’s say your goal is to own a home in four years, but right now you’re homeless. You start by asking the right question: How can I get a home in four years? That’s your fixed point. Then you work backward.

    What could you do in year one, two, and three to make it happen? Even if you fall short, you’ll end up far closer than if you never started.

    The truth is, most goals don’t take as long as we think. We just procrastinate because we assume they will. The 4-Year U. method breaks that paralysis by giving you structure, momentum, and hope.

    A Life Built in Seasons

    When you see your life as a series of structured seasons—each with its own rhythm—you begin to think long-term again. You start to escape short-term survival mode and build something lasting.

    The 4-Year U. system isn’t just a planner. It’s a way of aligning your life with natural cycles of growth, work, rest, and reward—so that over time, your life compounds in meaning, purpose, and results.

    (Watch the video above to see how it works, or download the free Seasonal Quadrant Planner to get started.)

  • This One Idea Changed How I Set Goals Forever

    This One Idea Changed How I Set Goals Forever

    Why Your Goals Keep Failing (And How to Fix It)

    Have you ever set a big goal—something you were excited about—but just a few weeks later and you’re already burned out?

    Yeah, me too.

    We all start strong. We get inspired. We buy the notebook, the app, and the gear.

    We tell ourselves, “This time is different.”

    But then… life hits. Energy fades. And the goal? 

    It slips through our fingers.

    It’s not because we’re lazy or lack willpower. It’s because we’ve never been taught a system that works with time instead of against it.

    That’s what the 4-Year U. is about.

    For me, it started with something simple: trying to lose weight.

    I went hard—every day at the gym, strict diet, tons of motivation. And then… I fizzled out.

    I realized something: I didn’t need to do it all perfectly. I just needed to do

    Something.

    Every.

    Day.

    Because time was going to pass anyway. I might as well be intentional about how I spend it.

    That one thought changed everything and led me to ask myself:

    What if I used time to work for me instead of against me?

    That’s when the idea for the 4-Year U. was born.

    Here’s the real problem:

    We try to sprint our way through a marathon.

    We start a new job, a business, a relationship—and expect instant results. But that’s not how real transformation works.

    You didn’t start off becoming who you are, you worked on it in small, micro steps along the way.

    When you want to become someone different, you need to allow yourself to acclimate. It’s not going to feel good at first because your mind wants to keep you safe.

    That’s why it’s called the “comfort” zone.

    When you start to make changes in your life, think of it like walking out of a warm house into the freezing cold. At first, your body wants to go back inside. But if you give it time, your body will acclimate.

    You don’t just flip a switch and become the person who finishes. You become that person through the process—over time.

    And that’s what most goal systems miss: they don’t give you time to acclimate.

    That’s where the 4-Year U. comes in.

    Think of a stream of water running over a rock. At first, it seems like nothing’s happening. But over time, that consistent flow carves a groove into the stone.

    The 4-Year U. is that stream.

    It’s a structured way to align your long-term goals with the natural flow of time, using consistent effort—to create lasting change.

    It’s about translating micro actions into macro results.

    The foundation of 4-Year U. is the four quadrants:

    • Rest
    • Planning
    • Action
    • Evaluation

    Each quadrant is based on naturally occurring seasons:

    Winter is rest.

    Spring is planning.

    Summer is action.

    And Fall is evaluation.

    You move through each of these quadrants in every area of life. Not once—but continuously.

    And it’s not just yearly. These cycles exist daily, weekly, and monthly too.

    Wake up? That’s spring. Midday is summer. Evening is fall. Sleep is winter.

    Even Agile methodology mirrors this: winter is the backlog, spring is sprint planning, summer is execution, and fall is retrospectives.

    This cycle is everywhere. And we can use these naturally occurring seasons to work for us and help us achieve goals that we never thought possible.

    So how does it work?

    4-Year U. uses the same method for different planning and review cycles, which is what we call the “Seasonal Quadrant”, which is just a “+” sign in the center of a page where each season or quadrant is a different stage and state of where your goals are currently are – and then at each planning and review session you decide whether any of the goals need to be worked or moved.

    Here’s an example:

    • Daily Review: Focus on the seasons of today, which goals do you want to work on in the morning, mid-day, tonight, or while you sleep?
    • Weekly Review: Focus on the days. What did I do? What will I do next?
    • Monthly Review: Focus on the weeks. What patterns are forming?
    • Annual Review: Focus on the quarters. Where did I grow? Where do I need to go?
    • Quadrennial Review: Focus on the whole arc. Who have I become? What’s next?

    Each review zooms out just a little more, helping you see clearly and make better decisions.

    And when these cycles overlap—say, the weekly and annual land on the same day – let the greater cycle lead. Start big, then go small.

    This process is similar to David Allen’s Weekly Review in his book, Getting Things Done and of the contextual nature of work which the book espouses. It’s about doing the right thing, at the right time, in the right season of the day, week, month, or year.

    It only takes a few minutes to complete and it helps you see incremental progress every day.

    Remember: time will pass anyway. The question is—will you have something to show for it?

    If you want a digital version that guides you through this process, download the free 4-Year U. Guide at 4yearu.com/free.

    It walks you through all the review cycles and has templates for each planning and review cycle. Just fill out the form below:

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    New email subscribers get our free, Seasonal Quadrant planner, which contains printable guides and review sheets to help you with each stage of the 4-Year U.