The Watchmen System: Five Areas that Change Everything

Most men don’t have a knowledge problem.
 They have an execution problem.

We say we want more—but we don’t follow through.
 We talk about discipline—but we don’t live it.
 We make commitments—and don’t keep our word.

In this episode, JD breaks down the real issue—and the system designed to fix it.

Introducing the Five Watchpoints: a simple, structured framework that covers every major area of a man’s life—Covenant, Brotherhood, Discipline, Stewardship, and Leadership.

Built on biblical wisdom and practical execution, these Watchpoints connect directly to your One-Year Vision Statement and show you exactly how to move from where you are… to where you said you want to be.

You’ll learn:

•  Why most men stay stuck in cycles of inconsistency 
•  How the 12-Week Guard Plan creates structure and accountability 
•  How to set a realistic, measurable One-Year Vision Statement
•  Why you only need one goal per Watchpoint to make real progress 
•  How Watchpoints turn long-term vision into daily action 
•  The role of Marching Orders and accountability in execution 

This is not theory.
 This is a system for men who are ready to do the work.

If you’re tired of starting and stopping…
 If you’re ready to follow through…
 If you want a clear path forward…

This episode lays it out.

—Always Forward

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome back to Pursue the Old Time, the space where we talk about the kind of wisdom that built strong families, strong men, strong communities, wisdom that predates trends, politics, and monarchy. I'm your host, JD. Let's get started. You know, I wanted to start this week with something that I've been seeing more and more. And if we're honest, most of us have seen it in ourselves at some point, and maybe you're seeing it right now. Who knows? Men who say we want more, but then don't do the work. We're quick to talk about discipline and then we don't follow through. We'll make commitments and then not keep our word. Physical conditioning has slipped, sometimes so bad. I know men that get short-winded just getting up off the couch to hit the head. We're plagued with low energy, scattered focus. And man, are we ever good at wasting time? Scrolling on our phones, immersing ourselves in constant entertainment and dopamine. We are addicted to easy and comfort. We start things and don't finish them. We say we're gonna get up early and then we hit snooze. We say we're gonna go train, but we don't. We say we're gonna lead our families, but we drift. And then we wonder why nothing changes. This isn't a lack of information problem. It's a lack of structure problem. A lack of accountability problem, a lack of alignment. Alright, it's a little bit early in the episode, but since I've already stated the problem, it's time for me to ask, what do we do about it? Well, I started The Watchmen. A diverse group of men where iron sharpens iron, and it is a group built for execution. We don't just talk about things, we do them and we hold each other accountable with help, solutions, and with paths forward. What led me to it is that I noticed that we need a system, something simple enough to follow, but strong enough to produce real change. And so the watchmen operate on what we call the 12-week guard plan. The 12-week guard plan is an individual living document that we renew every 12 weeks. Exactly what it sounds like. That every man builds his own guard plan tailored to his situation, his responsibilities, and his goals. Let me slow down for just a second and say a few other things. Every man who joins The Watchmen starts in basic training. That's the first 12-week cycle of your membership. And then we all move on the same schedule, the same rhythm. That's why we only bring in new members four times a year. That's so that we're aligned and we're building things together. We can actually talk about our vision, our goals, our progress, and where we're falling short, all of us on the same cadence. We start this 12-week cycle by setting our one-year vision statement. And we are very careful to make it meaningful and not vague. We do our very best to avoid envisioning something like in one year, I want to be a skinny millionaire who drives a Ferrari. Is that possible? Maybe. But is it realistic? Is it measurable? Probably not. So what we do is we set our visions in present tense as if it's already happened. Let me just give you an example. The date of this episode is March 22nd, 2026. So if you started with us in April, your one-year vision statement would say something like, it is April 2027. I have a solid habit of reading the Bible. My relationship with my wife is stronger than ever. I'm 20 pounds lighter, and I've eliminated my credit card debt, and I have completed those last three courses I needed for my bachelor's degree. Now, all of those things are attainable. All of those things are measurable, and really all of them are realistic. All things you want to accomplish in the next one year. And so that brings us to the meat and potatoes of the watchman, what we call the 12-week guard plan. And I call them the five watch points. The five watch points are categories which took me several months to pin down, but they are rooted in timeless wisdom and they cover the full scope of a man's life. And more importantly, they connect directly to our one-year vision statement. And we do this because if your daily actions don't line up with your long-term vision, you're just not going to get there. Here's the principle. If a man sets one clear, actionable goal in each of the five watch points and executes on those daily, weekly, and monthly for the full 12 weeks, over the course of 12 weeks, then another 12 weeks, then another 12 weeks as they change, then that one-year vision stops being an idea and it becomes reality. Let me show you what I mean. Let's talk about the watch points. The first of the five watch points is the covenant watch point. Now, this really is your foundation. This is about anchoring your life in obedience to the Almighty. Because when a man is not grounded spiritually, everything else seems to become unstable. Now, we're not a group of people who are going to proselytize you and preach fire and brimstone or anything like that. But what you will find is that we use biblical wisdom. Your covenant goals need to be real. Even if you're not a religious person, we're not going to try to force you into being religious. We just want you to note and understand and use the wisdom that's in the Bible. Even if you don't regularly attend synagogue or church, you definitely need some daily Bible reading. You definitely need structured prayer and meditation. You definitely need to remove things that don't belong in your life, like addictions. This watch point aligns your life at the highest level. Bottom line. Watch point number two is the brotherhood watch point. This is your relationships across the board. Relationships with your wife or your girlfriend, your kids, your family, your brothers, your business relationships, anybody you have a relationship with. And for the married man, it starts at home. If your relationship with your wife is not strong, it will affect everything you do. So you take the lead, you are the leader of your home, you build it, you invest in it, you lead in it. We surround ourselves with people who sharpen us. And that way you can deal with relationships that pull you off course. Your goals here are about intentional connection. For example, time with your wife, presence with your kids, accountability with strong men, and setting boundaries where needed. Because let's face it, your circle either strengthens you or it weakens you. Yeah. That's the truth. Watch point number three is a discipline watch point. This is where a lot of us fall apart. This is mastering your body and your mind through training, learning, and self-control. And this isn't just when you feel like it. We do this every day. And we wholeheartedly believe if you can't control yourself, you won't control anything else. This is physical training, it's mental sharpening, daily routines, cutting out distraction. And I think your goals here should be simple. I mean, they're not easy, but they're simple. Train consistently. Read and learn daily. Build structure into your day. This right here is where execution is proven. Watch point number four is stewardship. This is how you manage what you've been given: your assets, your time, your money, your energy, your opportunities. I don't believe in my heart of hearts that most men have a resource problem. They have a management problem. Time gets wasted. Money gets spent without direction. Energy gets drained on things that don't matter. So your goals here in stewardship bring control to your life. That means budgeting, tracking your time, reducing reducing waste and ridiculous spending, and investing in things that produce a return. Because when you can manage your resources well, you create the capacity to do whatever you need to do to manage everything else well. The fifth watch point is leadership. And honestly, this is the result of the first four. Leadership is ownership. There are no excuses on this one. As a man, like it or not, you are the leader of your home and your family. You should be striving to be the leader or a leader in your workplace. This is one of those responsibilities that unfortunately we hand it off to women. And the watchman is dedicated to helping you get that back the right way, through your actions, not through being an idiot and trying to assert your dominance and power. We're going to do it the right way by showing that you can be trusted to handle it. And then you're going to handle it. You step up, you act, you follow through in your home, in your work, in your life. Your goals here look like making decisions, finishing what you start, setting standards, and leading by example. Because leadership is not something you claim, leadership is something you demonstrate. Now here's where it all connects together. Your one-year vision statement is where you're going. The five watch points are how you get there. And your goals inside each watch point are what you do every single day to close that gap. You don't need 50 goals. You need no more than one solid goal in each watch point. Five areas, five targets. Executed daily or weekly. That's it. Do that consistently, and over time, you become the man required to live that vision. Let's see what it looks like. One more quick word on the watch points before we begin. I know I just said a minute ago that watch points are how you get there, but in honesty, the watch point goals are what, not the how. The how does come a little bit later. This is just stating what the goal is, not how you're going to get it done. You'll remember earlier we said an example of a one-year vision statement might say, It's April 2027. I have a solid habit of reading the Bible. My relationship with my wife is stronger than ever. I'm 20 pounds lighter, and I have eliminated my credit card debt, and I've completed those last three courses I needed for my bachelor's degree. So, you stated the vision. Your covenant watch point might be read the Bible for 10 minutes three times a week. That is a goal. I'm gonna read the Bible 10 minutes three times a week. That is simple, it's attainable, and it's measurable. Did I do it three times? No, I only did it twice. It's measurable. You can say, yes, I did it three times, or I did it four times. Next is your brotherhood watch point goal. Strengthen my relationship with my wife. Easy. Remember, this is the what and not the how. We said in our vision statement that one year from now, my relationship with my wife is stronger than ever. So it stands to reason in order to make that a reality, you need a watch point goal to get there. Next is your discipline watch point. In our example, we said I am 20 pounds lighter. Well, we can easily break that down. There are four quarters or four three-month periods. So we say 20 pounds divided by four quarters equals five. Therefore, we can establish our discipline watch point goal as lose five solid pounds over the next three months. Now most men can do that in two weeks. But this is an example of an attainable and measurable worthwhile goal to make your vision statement a reality. Once again, it's the what, not the how. The next watch point is stewardship. We said in our example vision statement, I have eliminated my credit card debt. Now that's a one year from now bold statement. So an example stewardship watch point goal to get there might be eliminate all unnecessary subscriptions and auto payments for things I don't use or don't need. That's what you do over the next three months. Eliminate subscriptions and auto payments for things you don't use or don't need. That is easily attainable. It's not fun to do because in our modern world of convenience culture, our addictions to easy and comfortable, you know, we love these conveniences, and that's all they are. They're conveniences that we come to enjoy. So be uncomfortable for a while. Like I said, easily done, not fun to do, but important if you're a good steward of your resources. Just an example. Then finally, the leadership watch point. In our vision statement, we said, I finished those last three courses I needed for my bachelor's degree. Well, we can easily say college is a part of leadership training. And we can make a leadership watch point goal that says, in the next three months, I will enroll in and finish one course this semester. That's it, one course in the next 12 weeks. Easily obtainable and easily measurable. Remember now, these are just examples. Each watchman is responsible for fleshing out his own plan and setting his own goals. But the Watchman Group will help you get these things set and stated correctly. You won't be doing it on your own, especially during basic training. You're gonna have tons of help. If your one-year vision statement seems like it's too much, we will help you realize that and give you some advice on how to make things realistic, measurable, and attainable. Now we'll talk about this a little maybe in another episode, but I want to give you a quick example of the how. Take the Brotherhood watch point, for example, today. Your vision said, My relationship with my wife is stronger than ever. And your watch point goal said, strengthen my relationship with my wife. Well, the next thing you need is the how. And the watchmen, we call this our marching orders. You'll have a primary marching order and a secondary marching order for every watch point. So, for example, your watch point goal, strengthen my relationship with my wife. Your primary marching order might be Friday nights are date nights, non-negotiable. You make every effort possible to make it happen every Friday. You're the leader. You plan it, you make it happen. I don't care how tired you are from the work week or what your buddies might want you to do or what football game comes on, Friday night belongs to you and your wife and nobody else. That's just an example. You're the leader, you have to make it happen. But let's face it now, things happen. And even though you made every effort, life steps in sometimes and cancels your plans for you. That's where a secondary marching order comes into play. This week you have to miss date night because your wife is working late. Well, you being the leader of your home, you do not want to lose any momentum in strengthening that relationship with your wife. So, in lieu of date night, you sit down and you write your wife a handwritten note from your heart. And then you have a deliberate conversation with her about something that's important to her before bed. The next Friday night, date night is back on again, non-negotiable. That's how we do it. That's how that's the how of how we get this done. And then after that, we have 30 and 60-day checkpoints where we discuss your watch points, your marching orders, your success, and your shortfalls. We hold each other accountable. Sometimes in the weekly Zoom call, that's how we meet each week, is a one-hour Zoom call on Tuesday nights. Somebody is going to remember what you said last week and ask you how it went. Hey, Charlie, you said last week you were going to start your LLC. Did you get it done? Oh, you didn't? Why not? And now at this point, you're either going to give an excuse why you didn't do what you said you were going to do, or you did it. And now you're in a good position to help another watchman get his LLC. That's how it works. Iron sharpens iron. This isn't complicated, but let me tell you, it's demanding. Because it requires you to do what you said you were going to do every day without excuses. That's the difference. That's why most men won't do it. They don't want to be held accountable. But the ones who do, the ones who want to make real changes and not just talk about it, they build it. That's really all I got for this week. I wanted this to be short, but I wanted it to be impactful. And hopefully it was. Becoming a principled man of integrity and leadership is absolutely pursuing the old path. If you'd like some information about The Watchmen, head on over to pursue the old paths.com. We do not sell or share your email address or any other information with anyone. You're not going to get spam from us. Also, check us out on YouTube. That's really it. Until next time, be safe, be faithful, and be blessed. Always cool.