Last week, I walked you through why setting resolutions is a losing battle and instead, how to set your annual theme—your north star for 2026.

If you did it, you now have something most entrepreneurs don't: a filter for every decision you'll make this year. A way to ask "does this align?" instead of just "is this a good opportunity?"

If you haven't done it yet, I really encourage you to go back and do that work. It matters.

But today, I want to go deeper.

Because here's what I've learned after years of setting intentions, choosing themes, and watching clients do the same:

The intention isn't enough. The theme isn't enough. Even the plan isn't enough.

Not because those things don't matter. They do. But because we're not just up against a lack of clarity or a lack of strategy.

We're up against decades of programming.

You were conditioned before you had any say in the matter.

By the time you were seven or eight years old, your beliefs about what's possible, what you deserve, how hard things have to be, and who you're allowed to become were largely already in place.

Some of that programming served you. Maybe you learned to work hard, to be resourceful, to figure things out on your own.

But a lot of it? A lot of it is running in the background right now, quietly sabotaging everything you're trying to build.

I'll tell you mine: I grew up believing I was always doing something wrong. That I wasn't good enough. That no matter how hard I tried, I was somehow falling short.

In some ways, that drove me. It made me relentless. It made me push.

But in so many more ways, it created a level of perfectionism that led to constant self-sabotage.

→ I'd get close to something I wanted and then find a way to undermine it.
→ I'd achieve something meaningful and immediately discount it.
→ I'd set a goal and then procrastinate because if I never really tried, I couldn't really fail.

Sound familiar?

The only reason I've gotten to where I am—in my life and in my business—is because I've done the work of shifting who I am and how I operate.

Not just setting goals. Not just making plans.

Actually reprogramming my operating system, my brain, myself.

And here's the thing: the work isn't done. It's never done.

I still catch myself self-sabotaging. I still catch myself listening to my inner critic instead of my inner coach. I still find old patterns sneaking back in when I'm stressed or tired or scared.

This isn't a destination. It's a practice.

And what I've seen over and over again? The people who are best at helping others do this work are often the worst at doing it for themselves.

You can see everyone else's patterns with perfect clarity. You can coach your clients through their limiting beliefs like it's obvious. But when it comes to your own stuff? Blind spots everywhere.

That's not a character flaw. That's being human. But it means you have to be intentional about this work in a way that most people aren't.

Here's what most people don't understand about change:

Your brain doesn't know the difference between a vividly imagined experience and a real memory.

This isn't fuzzy, woo-woo, bullsh*t. This is neuroscience.

When you visualize something in rich, present-tense detail—when you see it, feel it, experience it in your mind—your brain processes it almost identically to something that actually happened.

This is why athletes visualize performances before competitions. Why trauma can be triggered by imagination alone. Why your nervous system responds to a scary movie even though you know it's fiction.

Your brain is always being programmed. Every single day. The question is whether you're doing it intentionally or letting your old conditioning run the show.

And let's be honest about what's actually happening for most entrepreneurs:

This isn't a discipline problem. It's not a strategy problem. It's not even a mindset problem in the way most people think about it.

It's a programming problem.

Your conscious mind can set all the goals it wants. But your subconscious mind—the part that's actually running the show 95% of the time—is operating from code that was written decades ago.

And that old code will win every single time until you rewrite it.

You can't outwork your programming. You have to put in the work to change it. One line of code at a time.

This is why I do an exercise with every client in The Essentialist CEO. It's one of the most powerful tools I've found for this kind of identity-level work.

I call it the Future You exercise.

Here's how it works:

You're going to write a short story. Not bullet points. Not a vision board. A narrative.

It's a day in your life, 10 years from now. Your ideal life. No limitations. You've achieved your wildest dreams.

And you're going to get uncomfortably specific.

Start from the moment you wake up:

What bed are you in? What do the sheets feel like? Who's lying next to you?

How do you wake up—alarm, naturally, kids jumping on you, a dog licking your face?

What's your morning routine? What are you eating? What are you wearing?

Move through your day:

What does your workspace look like? What are you working on?

Who are you spending time with?

What project did you just finish? What are you starting next?

What does dinner look like? How does the day end?

The specificity matters. This isn't about painting a vague picture of "success." It's about creating an experience so vivid that your brain starts to encode it as real.

When you write "I wake up in a light-filled bedroom" versus "I wake up in my bed," you're giving your nervous system something to actually work with.

When you describe the smell of coffee, the sound of birds outside, the feel of your feet on a cool wood floor—you're not just planning. You're programming.

Here's what happens when people actually do this:

There will be parts of this story that flow easily. You've imagined them a thousand times. You know exactly what you want.

And there will be parts where you go completely blank.

Where it doesn't even occur to you to think about it. Where you realize you've never actually gotten clear on what you want.

That's the gold.

Those gaps reveal where you haven't given yourself permission to want something. Where your old programming says "that's not for people like you." Where you've been so focused on survival that you forgot to define what you're surviving for.

If you've been operating in scarcity mode for a long time, this exercise is going to feel really tough at first.

The idea of dreaming 10 years into the future when you've spent months (or years) just trying to get through the next quarter? That might feel almost impossible.

You might sit down to write and feel... nothing. Just fog.

That's okay. That's normal. That's your old programming resisting the rewrite.

Write what you do know. Even if it's vague. Even if it's just fragments.

Then come back to it. And come back again.

What I've seen over and over is that it gets clearer every single time. The first draft is hazy. The fifth draft has details you didn't know you wanted. The tenth draft feels like a document you can actually navigate by.

Here's what this exercise has revealed for my clients:

Some realize they're far closer to their dream life than they gave themselves credit for. The gap isn't as big as they thought—they just couldn't see it because they were too deep in the day-to-day.

Some realize that what matters most in their ideal future isn't work at all—even though they're workaholics today. Their dream life has spaciousness, relationships, creativity... and their current business model makes all of that impossible.

Some realize they've been building toward someone else's definition of success. The big team. The impressive revenue. The lifestyle their peers would envy. And when they actually get honest? That's not what they want at all. That was their conditioning talking.

I have never—not once—had a client do this exercise without a major aha moment about what they actually want.

I'll share mine. Or at least a streamlined version of it.

In my Future You story, my husband and I have moved to a house in the country. A bigger piece of property with a slower pace of life.

We have chickens. We have goats—though they're far enough from the house that I don't have to smell them, because goats are adorable, but they smell truly terrible. We have a whole slew of dogs.

I have a studio on the property where I can record content and invite people to record podcasts with me. We host people for incredible meals. There's real peace in our home and in our lives.

I'm still traveling—giving talks, meeting people—but so much of my day-to-day is about creation. Writing newsletters and books. Filming video content. Recording podcasts.

Writing books has been a long-held dream. Everything I do today is working toward that. It's why I prioritize this newsletter the way I do. I want to get better and better at my craft. I want to build an audience that earns a book deal. I want to be on stages talking about my work.

And I have a foundation where I get to make a difference in my community—giving to causes I care about, supporting people who need it, and creating more good and love in the world.

And here's what that clarity has given me: I know why I build my business lean. I know why I don't want a big team or complex operations. Because my ideal life 10 years from now isn't about running a massive company—it's about having a huge impact through simpler work. And leading a life that fills me with love, joy, and purpose.

That alignment didn't happen by accident. It happened because I keep doing this exercise, keep refining the vision, keep letting it program my decisions.

Once you have your story, you work backward.

If that's who I am in 10 years...

Who do I need to be in 5 years to be on track?

Who do I need to become THIS year?

What skills do I need to develop?

What beliefs do I need to let go of?

What habits does that future version of me have that I don't have yet?

This is where your annual theme comes back in. Your theme is the filter for 2026. Your Future You story is the destination that filter is pointing toward.

They work together.

But here's where it gets really interesting.

You don't just write this story and forget about it.

You create an ongoing relationship with your Future Self.

I have a dedicated AI project where my Future You story lives. And any time I'm struggling—overwhelmed, stuck on a decision, unsure what to prioritize—I go to that project and say:

"Please act as Future Me and help me figure this out."

The first time I did this, I was on a plane after a really intense few days. A retreat, visiting a friend, too many things piling up. I was overwhelmed and anxious and had no idea where to start.

I opened that chat and typed: "I'm so overwhelmed. Here's everything going on in my life right now. Here are all the projects I have and everything I feel behind on. I don't know what to do. Help me."

The response made me burst into tears. Right there on the plane.

Because it felt like I was being coached by the absolute best version of myself. The version who has perspective. Who knows what actually matters. Who isn't caught up in the noise.

This isn't just visualization anymore. It's an ongoing conversation with who you're becoming. And every time you have that conversation, you're reinforcing the new programming.

Here are some prompts you can use once you have your Future You story:

Set up an AI project (in Claude, ChatGPT, whatever you use) and paste your full Future You story into it. Then try:

The key is that Future You has perspective you don't have when you're in the weeds. Future You has already made the hard decisions. Future You knows what mattered and what didn't.

Let them coach you.

You were programmed before you had a choice.

By your family. By your culture. By every experience that told you what was possible and what wasn't.

But you're not stuck with that programming.

You can rewrite it. Intentionally. Consistently. Starting now.

Write your Future You story this week. Make it vivid. Make it specific. Make it so real your brain starts to believe it already happened.

Then use it. Come back to it. Let it shape your decisions.

This is how you actually change. Not through willpower. Not through discipline. Through becoming someone new.

And if you want help building the business that actually gets you there—the systems, the positioning, the strategy that aligns with the life you want—I'm running a live workshop this month.

Stop Wondering Where Your Next Client Is Coming From

This is exactly the kind of work we do together. Getting clear on where you're going, then building the business that takes you there without burning out along the way.

In love and growth,
Kasey