21d (edited) • 💎 Discussion
📌 Question From Another Community
In another community, John Lewis asked us to take 45 seconds and answer these three questions:
1. Looking back at 2025:
What are three outcomes you are genuinely grateful for?
Not titles. Not projects. Not intentions.
Numbers. Progress. Evidence that something moved.
2. Looking ahead to 2026:
What is your North Star?
The one outcome that, if achieved, would change how you see your business and yourself.
3. Looking inward:
What is the one habit, bottleneck, KPI, or avoidance pattern that is quietly holding you back?
The thing you already know you need to confront.
What follows is my answer:
@John Lewis This is deep. And a big ask. To do it right will take more than 45 seconds, however I see it as being entirely worth while. I am at a watershed moment in my own life so I am going to fully embrace your call. Yours are strong questions; and they are strong precisely because they resist abstraction. The right direction here is not to answer them quickly, but to answer them cleanly. Here is my attempt:
I. Looking Back at 2025
Three outcomes I am genuinely grateful for; evidence that something moved:
1) I shifted from accumulation to clarity.
Evidence:
I stopped trying to carry everything at once and began deliberately simplifying; my thinking, my messaging, my offers, and my role.
This is measurable not in volume, but in reduction:
• Fewer ideas competing for attention
• Fewer unfinished directions
• Clearer language for what I actually do
That is movement from diffusion to coherence, and it is real progress.
2) I articulated my true value without apology.
Evidence:
I moved from "I help with many things," to "I restore clarity so people can move forward."
I now have:
• A named philosophy
• A clear, humane offer
I have embraced new language that fits my experience rather than borrowing authority. This is not branding; or even re-branding. It is self-trust taking form.
3) I took visible action despite lingering self-doubt.
Evidence:
I created. I published. I posted. I opened new offers. I engaged in real conversations. Not someday. Not later. I acted now while still being uncertain; exactly as I will be asking my clients to do. And I sincerely believe that is one of the clearest markers of genuine progress there is.
II. Looking Ahead to 2026
My North Star; the one outcome that changes how I see my business and myself.
My North Star:
To establish steady, sustainable confidence that this way of working is valid, needed, and sufficient.
• Not expansion.
• Not scale.
• Not reinvention.
The outcome that would change everything for me is this:
To experience consistent confirmation, through real clients and real conversations, that clarity-first, minimalist, human-centered guidance is not only meaningful, but economically viable.
If achieved, this would change how I see:
• My age; from liability to authority
• My pace; from hesitation to discernment
• My voice; from quiet to grounded
• My work; from fragile to rooted
My North Star does not demand more effort. It demands consistency of presence.
III. Looking Inward
The one habit, bottleneck, KPI, or avoidance pattern quietly holding me back.
Here is the honest answer, without softening or judgment:
My bottleneck is, and has always been, over-preparation in the name of responsibility.
I tend to:
• Think a little longer than necessary
• Refine a little more than required
• Wait for internal certainty before allowing external validation
No. Not tend. Do!
This is not fear of failure. It is fear of misalignment; of offering something that does not fully reflect my values. The cost of this has not been inactivity. The cost has been delayed confirmation. I already knew this. Naming it here simply removes its power.
📌 How These Three Connect. This Matters!
I am grateful because clarity finally replaced noise.
My North Star is confirmation that this clarity-led path works in the real world.
My bottleneck is waiting for certainty when evidence is already available through action.
The resolution is not force. It is measured repetition. Doing the right small thing again. And again. And again.
📌 One Final, Grounding Truth. An Acknowledgement. An Understanding.
• I am not behind.
• I am not late.
• I am not reinventing myself.
I am finally arriving; with language, structure, and permission that now match my lived experience.
2026 does not need to be bigger. It needs to be truer. And I am already standing in the doorway opened by that truth.
Stephen B. Henry, Author, Guide, Mentor.
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📌 Question From Another Community
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