The Strategic Planning Series for 2026, Week 1
Week 1: Identity & Direction
The Foundation Everything Else Builds On
You set goals in January: lose 20 pounds, save $10,000, read more books, wake up earlier.
You write them down, do them for a few weeks.
Then life happens. Work gets chaotic. Relationships demand attention. Health slides. Time disappears.
By March, those goals are buried under everything else screaming for attention.
Why? Because you skipped the foundation.
You never answered: Who am I becoming this year?
Goals without identity are wishes. Identity drives behavior. Behavior creates results.
If you want different results, start with a clearer sense of who you're becoming.
What Identity Work Actually Is
Identity work is the operating system everything else runs on.
Four parts:
Reality Check: Where am I right now?
Identity Direction: Who am I becoming this year?
Annual Themes: What lenses guide my decisions?
Stop-Doing List: What am I intentionally not chasing?
That's it. Honest assessment and clear direction.
Without this foundation, every other change you try to make is built on sand.
Why This Matters
Your identity is the filter for every decision you make.
Example: If you see yourself as "not a morning person," no amount of motivation will sustain a 5 am workout routine. The identity wins.
Example: If your identity is "I'm bad with money," you'll sabotage every budget. The behavior matches the belief.
Example: If you see yourself as "just a [current role]," you'll never step into the next chapter of your career.
The pattern: Identity → Behavior → Results
You can't execute on goals that conflict with your identity.
If you want different results this year, start here.
The Four Parts
Part 1: Reality Check
Before defining who you're becoming, acknowledge who you are now.
Four questions:
What feels strong?
What feels strained?
Where am I growing?
Where am I stuck?
No judgment. Just observation.
You can't design a plan for the person you wish you were. Design it for who you actually are, then build from there.
Part 2: Identity Direction
Answer this clearly:
"The kind of person I am becoming this year is someone who..."
Make it concrete:
"Someone who prioritizes presence over productivity"
"A disciplined craftsman who builds through consistency, not intensity"
"A grounded leader who creates stability for my family"
This is your north star for the next 12 months.
Every decision should align with this identity. If it doesn't, change the decision or revise the identity.
But don't drift.
Part 3: Annual Themes
Pick 2-3 themes that guide how you operate this year.
What they are: Your themes reflect what you need to practice this year. They are your operating principles, filters for decisions, and your guardrails when you are under stress.
How to use them: When you're unsure what to do, run the decision through your themes. For example, I want to practice building capacity over pursuing my ambitions this year. In other words, I tend to get ahead of myself with my ambitions, and I don’t want my aspirations to outgrow my capacity to sustain my lifestyle. I’ve included my themes for 2026 below.
Why they work: They prevent chasing every opportunity and reverting to old patterns under stress. When deciding on a new project: Does this align with my themes? When tempted to push too hard: Am I honoring my themes or abandoning them? Themes give you a framework for saying yes to the right things and no to everything else.
My 2026 Themes:
Intentional Design: Every decision I make is intentional, not incidental.
Capacity Before Ambition: Grow my capacity to sustain my ambitions in time, health, and finances.
Positioning, Not Forcing: Focus on the process of growth and be patient with the outcomes. Things don’t always happen on our expected timelines.
Part 4: Stop-Doing List
This might be the most important part.
Strategic plans usually focus on addition: add workouts, add savings, add skills.
Subtraction is harder. And more powerful.
What are you intentionally NOT pursuing this year?
Examples:
Not chasing every business opportunity
Not optimizing every system to perfection before starting
Not saying yes to social commitments out of obligation
Not comparing my timeline to others' progress
Not treating rest like a reward to earn
Why this matters: Every yes to something new is a no to something else. Your time, energy, and attention are finite. If you don't decide what you're not doing, life decides for you. Then you are back to saying “I can’t, because...”
The stop-doing list protects your capacity and gives you permission to say no without guilt.
The Question That Matters
Does your current behavior match the person you say you're becoming this year?
Not next month. Not after this project. Right now. You don't become the person you want to be by accident.
You become them through deliberate, consistent choices that align with that identity.
Strategic planning without identity work is a fancy to-do list.
With it? You have a north star. Decisions get easier. Energy stops getting wasted. Drifting stops.
What's Next
Next week: Health & Energy Capacity.
We'll cover what "winning with health" means.
Until then, sit with these four questions:
Where am I right now?
Who am I becoming this year?
What themes guide my decisions?
What am I not chasing?
This is the foundation. Everything else builds on this.
See you Tuesday.
Run Your Life Like a Business: The Strategic Planning Series for 2026
This is Week 1 of 8. If someone you know is ready to stop drifting and start designing their year, forward them this email.