Let’s Make 2026 Your Best Year Yet
📘In this series, we step back at the end of the year to ask the questions that matter most, then carry that clarity forward into the decisions that may feel uncomfortable but will have the greatest impact in the year ahead.
Part 2: Let’s Make 2026 Your Best Year Yet
Late December has a special kind of magic.
You sit down with a fresh notebook, and for a brief, glorious moment… you can feel all is possible to achieve in the new year.
The pages of your 2026 notebook are clean. The pen glides. Your brain starts pitching you trailers for the movie called “My Life & My Business in 2026”
And right next to it sits the old notebook.
The one with the half-finished goals. The abandoned habits. The “this is the year we get organized” plan that died somewhere around March… when a client emailed “quick question” and accidentally set your week on fire.
I call it the Notebook of Shame.
Not because you’re lazy. Not because you’re not capable.
Because you’re a creative business owner. And you’re living inside the same project lifecycle you design for a living.
The uncomfortable truth: Your year dies the same way projects die
At the start of a new design project, possibilities are endless and exciting.
You can see it. You can feel it. You’re shaping something real. Something that didn’t exist before you.
The beginning of a year feels exactly like that.
Then the middle happens.
The “vision” starts getting outvoted by “client requirements.” The scope wobbles. Decisions pile up. You start doing that thing where you’re technically working all day, but somehow none of it is the work you meant to be doing.
And by the end?
You’re not inspired anymore. You’re just trying to finish.
Collect dues. Close out. Forget the whole thing ever existed.
The year ends like a job site: everyone exhausted and just wanting to be over with.
If you want 2026 to be the year you’re proud of the most, this is the perfect time to face and plan for the changes that scare you most.
Not the changes you want to want.
The ones you keep side-eyeing like, “Yeah… not today.”
✅ Quick disqualification: It’s okay to coast
I’m going to say something that most business content won’t:
It’s completely okay if 2026 is a “coast” year.
If you’ve got family stuff, burnout, health, a new baby, a sick parent, or you’re simply tired of sprinting, stability is a legitimate goal.
The only requirement is honesty.
If you plan to coast, don’t secretly demand growth from yourself or your team. That’s like ordering a salad and getting mad it isn’t a steak.
But…
If you do want growth, more profit, less chaos, a focused team, better projects, fewer emergencies, then you have to do the thing that scares you.
And I don’t mean “work harder.”
I mean everything that ends up on the “some-day” list because taking it on feels scary, costly, or time-intensive.
My own scary thing: Methodical leadership (aka: the unsexy part)
Here’s my confession: the scary thing for me isn’t doing the work.
It’s methodical leadership.
It’s very easy to be a helper.
You hire smart people, hand them tasks, and everyone runs around putting out fires. It feels productive. It looks busy. It even gets things done.
But it’s not leadership.
Leadership is the internal, non-billable, emotionally-taxing work of making sure the business doesn’t rely on adrenaline to function.
It’s:
giving real feedback (not “oh it looks good!”)
holding people accountable (without turning into a villain)
making decisions that disappoint someone
building systems so the same problems don’t keep respawning
It’s easier to be a doer than a leader.
But if you want the business to grow without chewing up your life, the leader has to show up.
And here’s the kicker: the firms I work with: architects, interior designers, and other creative principals are often dealing with the same fear. Different outfit, same monster
💡 The 3 scary things holding most creative firms back
These aren’t “motivation” problems.
These are avoidance problems.
You’re successful. You’re talented. You’ve built something real.
But you’re stuck because touching these areas feels… risky.
1) The “Good Enough” Partner (fear of disruption)
This one is delicate.
You have a tech/IT person (or vendor) who’s… fine.
They’re nice. They respond. Nothing is currently on fire.
So you tolerate mediocrity because changing feels like you’re messing with the foundation of the house while you’re still living in it.
Totally understandable.
But here’s the honest part:
“Good enough” partners create “good enough” businesses.
And “good enough” has a ceiling.
You’re not just paying for support. You’re paying for the limits of their thinking. You’re missing out on strategic conversations that could save you time, money, and future pain.
Empathy note: If you’ve ever thought, “What if switching makes everything worse?”, you’re not irrational. You’re protecting stability.
But if you want 2026 to be different, you can’t protect the status quo and expect transformation.
2) The “Personal Approach” Handicap (fear of processes)
You run a project-based business.
You literally create a process for a living: concept → development → documentation → execution.
And yet… many firms run their internal operations through a haunted combination of:
email threads
texts
“quick calls”
sticky notes
tribal knowledge
“ask Sarah, she knows”
It works… until it doesn’t.
The irony is brutal: you communicate with blueprints, then run the business without one.
If you can’t see the process, you can’t manage it let alone improve it.
And if you can’t manage it, you can’t scale it.
Process doesn’t have to mean corporate nonsense. It can be as simple as: “Here are the stages, here’s the owner, here’s what ‘done’ means.”
Once it’s visible, you can:
assign accountability without drama
spot bottlenecks early
stop re-solving the same problems every week
What got you here was good enough to get you here.
But it won’t get you to the next level where you can be more successful with less effort.
3) The “Cashflow” Trap (fear of financial reality)
This is the one people feel in their stomach.
Revenue feels exciting. Big projects feel impressive. A packed pipeline feels safe.
But profit is what determines if the business is actually healthy or just busy.
At the 5–30 employee range especially, it’s a weird zone: expenses climb fast, projects get complex, and you can’t personally watch everything like a hawk anymore or hire a CFO.
It’s the “Valley of Death” size for a reason.
And yes, it’s scary to look closely because you might discover:
your favorite client is quietly draining you
your “best” projects are the least profitable
your team is overloaded in invisible ways
you’re pricing based on vibes, not reality
Said with care: without financial insight, you’re not running a business. You’re running an expensive creative passion project with payroll.
(And I say that with love. Because I’ve seen too many brilliant firms suffer.)
🛠️ The fix: Build a “plan to execute plans”
Here’s what changed for me:
I stopped treating items on my big and scary list like those above as wishes.
And I started treating them like projects.
Because that’s what they are.
The problem with most yearly goals is they’re inspirational… but not operational.
So I built a system I call the plan to execute plans.
Not a magical template. Not hustle culture. Not “wake up at 5am and take an ice-bathe.” ritual.
A method.
I take the big scary thing such as embedding leadership, evaluating partners, building process, managing money, and I use technology to break it down into:
weekly check-ins (tiny, repeatable rhythm)
monthly milestones (real movement)
quarterly goals (enough time to make change without panic)
The big win isn’t the tool.
The big win is the rhythm.
When the rhythm exists, the team stops relying on random sprints. Execution becomes focused and calm. Progress becomes mapped and measured. The scary mountain becomes just a bunch of predefined set of steps.
The challenge: pick your scary thing (just one)
2026 doesn’t have to end with the same “just another year of cool projects and busy schedules” fatigue.
It can be the year you achieve major progress for yourself and your business towards your dream state.
But you can’t accidentally drift into it.
You have to engineer one.
So here’s my ask:
✅ Pick one thing you’re scared to change:
your leadership
your partners (especially tech)
your process
your financial visibility
And don’t just stare at it.
Define your North Star.
Map the path.
Allocate your time and money to make sure you get there.
👉 Next step (DM/reply)
Message me your “scary thing” and let me run it through my AI framework, grounded in best practices from EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System).
I’ll help you turn it into something simpler, clearer, and actually executable, so it’s not still hanging over your head in December 2026 like a cursed notebook on your desk.
Imagine ending 2026 feeling proud instead of just… relieved.
Previous chapter in the series: Before 2025 Ends: Ask Your IT These 3 Questions