Most founders do not fail because they lack ambition. They fail because they move fast without a clear direction, then burn energy fixing problems that clarity would have prevented. Productivity without alignment feels busy, but it rarely compounds.
The core shift required to make 2026 meaningfully different is this. Stop managing time in isolation and start managing direction, systems, leverage, and environment as one integrated operating model. When those pieces work together, progress stops feeling fragile and starts feeling inevitable.
What follows is a practical framework for turning long-term goals into daily execution, without relying on motivation or heroic willpower.
Key Takeaways
Direction must be defined before effort, or productivity will compound in the wrong direction.
Time audits reveal that elimination and delegation create more leverage than working harder.
Daily systems turn goals into repeatable execution, not emotional decisions.
Leverage through automation, people, and capital multiplies output without multiplying hours.
Environment and accountability determine whether progress is sustained or slowly eroded.
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Table of Contents
Step One: Define Direction Before You Optimize Anything
Most people struggle to decide what to work on because they never define what they are building toward. Direction is the strategic constraint that filters every decision that follows.
A clear direction starts with one primary outcome for the year. Not ten priorities. Not a vague theme. One measurable result that acts as a north star.
That vision works only when it is specific, time-bound, and visible daily. Visualization is not motivational fluff. It is a practical way to keep the brain oriented toward the same target over time.
Once the vision is defined, the work becomes structural:
Identify a limited set of projects aligned with that outcome.
Select the single project that creates the highest downstream impact.
Translate that project into daily actions that move it forward.
Clarity turns effort into progress instead of motion.
Direction without awareness is just a guess.
Step Two: Audit Time and Energy Ruthlessly
Most founders believe they have a time problem. In reality, they have a priority and energy problem.
A time and energy audit exposes where momentum is leaking. This requires tracking how time is actually spent, not how it feels it is spent. When activities are categorized by whether they generate energy, drain it, or do neither, patterns become impossible to ignore.
This audit reveals three immediate actions:
Eliminate commitments that do not contribute to the vision.
Delegate tasks that do not require founder-level judgment.
Redesign neutral tasks to reduce friction or remove them entirely.
One of the most important mindset shifts is captured in the line, “It is not what I do, it is what I do not do.” Progress accelerates when energy-draining work is removed before new work is added.
Step Three: Build Daily Systems That Remove Decision Fatigue
Big goals fail when execution depends on daily motivation. Systems solve that by turning decisions into defaults.
Effective daily systems share a few characteristics:
The next day is designed the night before.
High-energy work is done early, before distractions accumulate.
Tasks are broken into short, focused execution windows.
Physical movement is built into the workday to reset energy.
Priorities are reviewed multiple times per day to prevent drift.
These systems do not exist to maximize output in a single day. They exist to make consistent execution unavoidable over months.
The goal is not intensity. The goal is repeatability.
You cannot give your life more time, but you can give your time more life.
Step Four: Create Leverage Instead of Adding Hours
The most successful operators do not win by working longer. They win by pulling larger levers.
Leverage means small inputs producing disproportionate outputs. The framework breaks leverage into four practical categories:
Code: using software and automation to remove manual work.
Content: creating processes, checklists, and documentation that scale knowledge.
Capital: using money to buy back time and accelerate execution.
Collaboration: leading people so outcomes are produced through teams, not individual effort.
Leverage shifts the role of the founder from doer to director. Execution still happens, but not personally.
Step Five: Design Your Environment and Relationships Intentionally
Progress is fragile when surrounded by people who normalize stagnation. Environment determines what feels acceptable.
This includes physical space, but more importantly, social proximity. The people around you shape both your ambition and your standards.
A practical way to audit relationships is to ask:
Are the people around me actively growing?
Does their character align with my values?
Do interactions leave me energized or depleted?
Would I be proud to be closely associated with them?
Boundaries are not punishments. They are strategic filters. Keeping the wrong influences close undermines every system built elsewhere.
Step Six: Measure What Matters and Add Accountability
Unmeasured progress feels invisible, which leads people to quit too early. Measurement turns effort into feedback.
Every major goal needs a single primary metric that reflects real movement. That metric should be reviewed daily, not occasionally. Visibility drives behavior.
Accountability multiplies this effect. People follow through more reliably when someone else is watching. This can take many forms:
Public commitments
Structured scorecards
Accountability partners
Clear stakes for non-performance
When progress is visible and shared, execution becomes non-negotiable.
What you measure gets managed.
Conclusion
Making 2026 a breakout year is not about pushing harder. It is about aligning direction, systems, leverage, and environment so progress compounds without constant force.
Clarity determines where effort goes. Systems determine whether it happens consistently. Leverage determines how far it scales. Environment and accountability determine whether it lasts.
When those elements are designed intentionally, results stop feeling accidental. They become the natural outcome of how the business and life are structured.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the biggest mistake people make when setting yearly goals?
They focus on motivation instead of direction and systems. Motivation fades, but structure compounds.
How many goals should someone focus on in a year?
One primary outcome supported by a small number of aligned projects. More than that creates dilution.
Why are time audits so effective?
They expose hidden energy drains and reveal where elimination or delegation creates immediate leverage.
How do systems beat motivation in the long run?
Systems remove daily decision-making, which reduces friction and prevents inconsistency.
What role does accountability play in execution?
Accountability increases follow-through by making progress visible and socially reinforced.
Can leverage really replace long work hours?
Yes, when automation, people, and capital are applied deliberately to remove low-value effort.
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Full Transcript
If you want 2026 to be the best year of your life, please watch this video…
https://www.youtube.com/watch/IOKi1yFQlKM
00:00:00.000 Picture this. It’s December 31st, 2026.
00:00:03.520 You’re looking back at the year and you
00:00:05.520 finally stuck to your goals. Your income
00:00:07.359 is higher than it’s ever been. You’re in
00:00:09.280 the best shape you’ve been in years.
00:00:11.360 You’ve built habits you actually kept.
00:00:14.000 And you’re surrounded by people who push
00:00:15.759 you to level up, not hold you back. Does
00:00:18.080 that sound unreal? Let me tell you, it’s
00:00:20.560 not. As someone who’s been able to
00:00:22.240 create the life of my dreams and help
00:00:24.720 many people do the same, I want to share
00:00:26.720 with you the exact blueprint you can use
00:00:28.880 to achieve any goal you have and more.
00:00:31.760 So you can look back at this moment at
00:00:33.920 the end of the year and think, "Hell
00:00:35.440 yeah, I actually did it." So let’s get
00:00:37.680 into it. Step one, define the direction.
00:00:40.640 Direction for me is the big picture.
00:00:43.360 See, most people get stuck cuz they have
00:00:45.440 no clarity. The reason why you’re having
00:00:47.360 a hard time deciding is because you
00:00:48.879 don’t know what you want to create. you
00:00:50.879 watching this this year coming up, it’s
00:00:53.280 your ear. And without a clean north
00:00:55.520 star, even productive days can take you
00:00:58.320 the wrong way. Imagine you got a bow and
00:01:00.559 arrow and you’re trying to hit a target.
00:01:02.399 If you can’t see it, how in the heck are
00:01:04.479 you supposed to hit it? So, this is how
00:01:06.080 you define your north star. And I do
00:01:07.920 this every year. First off, write one
00:01:10.880 big goal. And we’re going to call this
00:01:12.880 your vision. You have to make it smart.
00:01:15.439 S M A R T. specific, measurable,
00:01:18.479 attainable, realistic, and time bound.
00:01:20.960 And if you want my pro tip, we have to
00:01:23.040 visualize it. Our mind doesn’t think in
00:01:25.200 words. It thinks in pictures. So, we
00:01:27.040 take that picture of that one big goal,
00:01:29.119 okay? That vision we want to create for
00:01:30.560 our life. We put it at the background
00:01:32.079 wallpaper of our phone. We put it at the
00:01:33.680 background wallpaper of our laptop. We
00:01:35.439 print it off. We put it in the bathroom
00:01:36.880 mirror. So, we have to look at it every
00:01:38.320 day. That’s what the pros do. They
00:01:41.119 visualize their outcome. So, then what I
00:01:42.960 do is I define 12 projects for the year.
00:01:45.840 These are things that I want to
00:01:46.799 accomplish that are aligned with that
00:01:48.159 vision. I call those power goals. And
00:01:50.320 then I save them on my phone so they’re
00:01:52.079 easy to access. And then next, and this
00:01:54.320 is what most people never do. I pick one
00:01:57.040 with the biggest impact. The one project
00:01:59.439 that I know if I don’t get anything else
00:02:01.280 done that, that one will lead and unlock
00:02:04.159 the vision I want to have for my life.
00:02:05.840 And then lastly, what I do is I take
00:02:07.439 that one project and I turn it into
00:02:10.239 daily actions. Essentially, I call those
00:02:12.239 mins, most important next step. Each day
00:02:14.959 I ask myself, what’s the most important
00:02:16.800 next step to move that project forward
00:02:18.640 that’s aligned with my goal? I believe
00:02:20.720 most people mess this up because they
00:02:22.959 don’t understand the 300% rule. It’s
00:02:24.800 something I came up with a long time ago
00:02:26.560 that makes the idea of attracting things
00:02:28.480 into your life incredibly easy. See, if
00:02:30.720 you have 100% clarity and then you have
00:02:32.879 100% belief around that and you can hold
00:02:35.120 that 100% of the time, that’s how you
00:02:37.200 attract your ideal life into existence
00:02:40.160 today. And that’s what we need to define
00:02:42.319 our direction. So once you know where
00:02:44.319 you’re headed, it’s time to figure out
00:02:46.640 exactly where you’re starting. Because a
00:02:49.120 direction without awareness is just a
00:02:51.280 guess. Which takes us to step number
00:02:53.040 two. Audit where you are today. When
00:02:55.840 people ask me, Dan, what is it that you
00:02:58.160 do to be successful? I always say, it’s
00:03:00.400 not what I do, it’s what I don’t do. I
00:03:02.560 don’t gamble. I don’t drink. I don’t do
00:03:04.959 drugs. I don’t sit there and waste my
00:03:06.720 time. You can’t eliminate the
00:03:08.480 distractions that are pulling you away
00:03:10.159 from your ideal life until you know what
00:03:11.920 those are. Back when I was in my early
00:03:13.680 20s, I had a company and I had big
00:03:15.680 ambitions, big goals, big dreams.
00:03:17.519 Problem was is that I had more things I
00:03:19.280 had to get done than the week was going
00:03:20.480 to allow. And I remember talking to
00:03:22.080 somebody and they said, "Hey, Dan, I
00:03:23.599 think you just need to figure out what
00:03:24.640 you got to stop because adding more
00:03:26.480 stuff isn’t going to make the problem go
00:03:28.159 away." So, what I did is I sat down and
00:03:30.000 I actually audited my calendar. The
00:03:32.400 amount of waste that I found in my week
00:03:34.239 where I thought I was being productive
00:03:36.080 was wild. That taught me how to do a
00:03:39.280 time and energy audit, how to hire a
00:03:41.680 virtual assistant to start managing my
00:03:43.519 inbox and my calendar. And that gave me
00:03:45.680 the time to focus on building people,
00:03:48.720 developing relationships, on working on
00:03:50.640 the projects that would create the
00:03:52.000 future that I needed to spend time on.
00:03:53.920 So, here’s how you run a time and energy
00:03:55.599 audit that’s simple and crazy powerful.
00:03:58.080 The first thing is we have to look at
00:03:59.599 your typical weekly calendar. Most
00:04:01.280 people don’t put enough into their
00:04:02.720 calendar. So, if you have it, you’re
00:04:04.480 going to have to go and set a timer
00:04:06.080 where it goes off every 15 minutes and
00:04:08.799 you log it. Once you do that, I want you
00:04:11.040 to go and highlight each energy block,
00:04:13.120 and I want you to either say it’s in
00:04:14.640 green, yellow, or red. Green means it
00:04:17.680 gave you energy. Yellow means that it’s
00:04:19.680 neutral, and red means that it sucked
00:04:21.358 your energy. So, then what I do is I
00:04:22.800 look at all the green tasks or projects,
00:04:24.639 and I’m like, "Okay, I got that." Then
00:04:25.840 I’ve got my yellows, and I’m like,
00:04:26.960 "Okay, how do I make those green
00:04:28.320 potentially, or are those yellows
00:04:30.080 eventually going to become red?" and I
00:04:31.360 look at the red stuff. And make sure
00:04:32.960 when you’re doing your time audit that
00:04:34.720 you’re doing personal and professional
00:04:36.479 time. I don’t care if it’s I woke up at
00:04:38.560 7 on Saturday morning. What did you do
00:04:40.639 for the first 90 minutes? Write that
00:04:42.320 down. Once I have that, I have a clear
00:04:44.400 focus of all the red things that take my
00:04:46.639 energy that doesn’t add to my life. And
00:04:48.880 I try to find ways that I can get
00:04:50.479 leverage. When I first did this, I was
00:04:52.560 looking at stuff like cleaning, cooking,
00:04:55.120 shopping, running errands, bills. I
00:04:57.919 mean, it’s all the busy work that
00:04:59.919 actually doesn’t move your life forward
00:05:01.520 that doesn’t take your specific energy
00:05:04.080 and focus. We either want to start by
00:05:06.240 just deleting it. Most of the things you
00:05:08.240 can just stop doing, renegotiate with
00:05:10.000 the people you made commitments to and
00:05:11.440 just delete it out of your calendar. The
00:05:13.280 second thing is we want to ask
00:05:14.240 ourselves, can we delegate this to
00:05:15.840 somebody else? Can we ask for help? Can
00:05:18.000 we get an intern? The goal is to
00:05:20.000 maximize the green and give you the
00:05:22.080 space to execute on your power goals.
00:05:24.560 When you look back on 2026, I want your
00:05:27.520 calendar to be full of green, not the
00:05:30.160 yellows and reds. That is the mission.
00:05:32.320 And now, if you’re already running a
00:05:34.000 real business with clients, maybe a
00:05:35.840 small team, and you know your 2026 goals
00:05:38.320 needs a stronger version of you, one
00:05:40.880 that’s not stuck in daily tasks, listen
00:05:42.960 up. I spent the last few weeks refining
00:05:45.600 my scale your business workbook to help
00:05:47.520 entrepreneurs buy back their time,
00:05:49.280 delegate task, and scale in alignment
00:05:51.280 with their goals. And today I’m giving
00:05:53.600 it away 100% free. So if that resonated
00:05:56.160 with you, hit the first link in the
00:05:57.680 description or scan the QR code and grab
00:05:59.680 it now before your 2026 goals turn into
00:06:02.400 another maybe next year. Now that you
00:06:04.800 know where you stand, it’s time to build
00:06:07.360 the habits and routines that turn your
00:06:09.360 yearly goals into consistent daily wins.
00:06:12.319 Step three, create daily systems. Big
00:06:15.280 goals are built on small consistent
00:06:18.479 wins. Systems stand for save yourself
00:06:21.759 time, energy, money, and stress. And
00:06:23.919 those beat motivation every day. Just
00:06:26.560 like recently, my friend Kinsey, who
00:06:28.400 travels with us and works with us. I
00:06:30.560 mean, she has a big vision for her life.
00:06:32.720 She has races she wants to do. She has
00:06:34.479 travel she wants to do. She’s got to
00:06:36.319 manage a lot of projects for my wife and
00:06:38.080 I. And she was just feeling overwhelmed.
00:06:40.160 So, we just sat down, wrote everything
00:06:42.479 down that was on her projects list, and
00:06:44.560 I showed her how to use her calendar to
00:06:46.639 actually create the systems to get out
00:06:48.479 of her head and into a digital form that
00:06:51.199 is repeatable. This is exactly what I
00:06:53.360 did with her that you can do for
00:06:54.639 yourself to make sure that 2026 is your
00:06:56.880 best year ever. First off, we have to
00:06:59.120 design the next morning, the day before.
00:07:01.680 Like truthfully, on Sunday night, I plan
00:07:04.160 my week and I have those three key
00:07:06.560 projects or tasks that I want to move
00:07:08.080 forward in the morning. The first 90
00:07:10.080 minutes, as soon as I wake up, I want to
00:07:12.080 attack the day. That’s why most
00:07:13.840 productive people attack their mornings.
00:07:15.919 It’s cuz when they have the most energy,
00:07:17.680 the most discipline, they want to build
00:07:19.520 that momentum. Next, I like to break
00:07:22.000 those outcomes into 25minut what’s
00:07:24.479 called pomodoro sprints. I use a simple
00:07:27.440 timer on my laptop and I hit play and I
00:07:30.000 got 25 minutes to get as much work as I
00:07:32.080 can get done. I also listen to no word
00:07:35.520 EDM. You can find this for free on
00:07:37.599 Spotify or whatever tool you use to
00:07:39.199 listen to music. That focuses my brain
00:07:41.840 on the outcome. 25 minutes goes by, the
00:07:44.800 timer goes off, I got 5 minutes to
00:07:46.960 stretch, get some water, move my body,
00:07:49.599 then boom, sit back down, hit start
00:07:51.840 again. I mean, this works so well that I
00:07:54.319 even have my son Max, who’s 13 and has
00:07:56.960 to do his homework as we travel the
00:07:58.720 world, do this on his own, productive
00:08:01.440 every morning. Three hours, school’s
00:08:03.199 done, on with his life. If you don’t
00:08:05.039 move your body, you don’t reset things.
00:08:06.879 Creative work is never going to come
00:08:08.160 from it. And finally, this is where the
00:08:10.639 whole process makes it impossible for
00:08:12.479 you not to transform your life, is to
00:08:14.639 review your 12 power goals three times a
00:08:17.280 day. I have triggers where I sit down
00:08:19.360 and I review my power goals. They’re on
00:08:21.039 my phone. I just have them on my notes.
00:08:22.720 I want to remind myself what my focus
00:08:24.400 is. I want to ask myself, does my
00:08:26.560 calendar reflect my priorities? These
00:08:28.479 are my priorities. Have I had the
00:08:29.840 conversations with the right people to
00:08:31.360 start these, move these things forward?
00:08:33.039 And am I keeping the most important
00:08:35.279 thing the most important thing? Too
00:08:37.279 often, people get really productive,
00:08:39.760 focused on a direction that isn’t
00:08:41.679 aligned with what they said they wanted
00:08:43.120 to create. If every time that happened,
00:08:45.040 you just kind of reset and went forward,
00:08:46.720 reset and went forward, reset, went
00:08:48.240 forward three times a day, then when a
00:08:50.480 person calls me and says, "Hey Dan, I’ve
00:08:52.240 got this thing this afternoon. Any
00:08:53.600 chance you can stop by?" Unfortunately,
00:08:55.120 I can’t. I’ve already committed my time.
00:08:56.800 The power of saying no is one of the
00:08:58.959 most powerful tools you have to actually
00:09:01.440 change your life. And if you want 2026
00:09:04.320 to be your best year ever, that’s going
00:09:06.000 to be absolutely crucial. Now, creating
00:09:08.560 systems that make it easy to stay on
00:09:10.399 track is awesome. But if you really want
00:09:12.640 to hit your goals in 2026, you’re going
00:09:14.959 to need to take this and multiply it.
00:09:17.360 How? Step number four, create leverage.
00:09:20.880 The most successful people in the world,
00:09:23.440 they don’t work harder. They just know
00:09:25.200 how to pull bigger levers. See,
00:09:27.519 Archimedes said that if you give me a
00:09:29.279 lever long enough, I could actually lift
00:09:31.519 the world. Leverage means small inputs,
00:09:34.880 a little bit of pulling, big outputs.
00:09:37.360 The whole globe lifting up. That’s the
00:09:39.920 game changer. It’s the person that
00:09:41.680 understands how to use leverage that
00:09:43.519 will create the most in their life. When
00:09:45.200 I look at an Elon Musk, a Jeff Bezos,
00:09:47.680 etc., those guys just have massive
00:09:50.000 leverage points. If I want to do more in
00:09:52.399 my life, I got to understand how this
00:09:54.000 stuff works. It’s things like automation
00:09:56.000 and AI just as examples that multiply
00:09:58.399 your efforts so that progress literally
00:10:00.640 compounds over time. So in 2008 I
00:10:03.120 decided to move to San Francisco and I
00:10:04.800 had just sold my company and it was such
00:10:06.959 a crazy experience of overwhelm working
00:10:09.600 100hour weeks. It was so bad that I
00:10:11.920 almost decided to never start another
00:10:13.600 business. And if I didn’t meet this guy
00:10:15.680 Naval who shared with me these four
00:10:18.640 ideas around leverage I probably would
00:10:20.800 have never started another company. I
00:10:22.240 would have just kept investing as an
00:10:23.680 angel investor. But these are the four
00:10:25.519 C’s and I want you to write them down.
00:10:27.200 The first one is code. understanding how
00:10:29.519 to use software automation and today AI
00:10:32.480 to get a bunch of stuff done for you.
00:10:34.560 The other C is content. How do you
00:10:36.480 create a repeatable checklist, an SOP,
00:10:39.360 standard operating procedure or even
00:10:41.440 just a video? Teaching somebody how to
00:10:43.440 do something so you never have to teach
00:10:44.800 it again. Massive leverage. The third
00:10:47.120 was capital. How do you leverage money
00:10:49.440 to get more done? That’s where the idea
00:10:51.040 of buying back your time really started
00:10:52.959 at scale. Then the fourth C is
00:10:54.880 collaboration. If you learn how to lead
00:10:56.959 people, communicate, having other people
00:10:59.120 support your dreams, incredible
00:11:00.800 leverage. And what that unlocked for me
00:11:02.800 was the idea that I only had four things
00:11:04.399 to get really good at and I could create
00:11:06.320 anything. And the best part is that it
00:11:08.240 allows me to do less and actually get
00:11:10.880 more. That’s how you’re going to make
00:11:12.399 2026 the best year ever. See, you can’t
00:11:14.480 give your life more time, but you can
00:11:16.480 give your time more life. These are
00:11:18.560 three strategies you can do today to get
00:11:20.320 more leverage. First, we have to
00:11:22.480 automate. You cannot keep doing the same
00:11:25.279 thing every day yourself. You have to
00:11:27.120 automate that task. So find one
00:11:29.120 repetitive task you can automate this
00:11:31.040 week. It could be your email processing.
00:11:33.760 It could be pulling reports. Think about
00:11:36.160 all the red stuff that you probably
00:11:37.760 pulled out of your audit. Those are
00:11:39.680 things that I would absolutely attack to
00:11:42.240 automate so you never have to do them
00:11:44.000 again. They still got to get done. You
00:11:45.760 just don’t need to be the person to do
00:11:47.040 it. Then we want to focus on delegate. I
00:11:49.279 want you to look at your list of things
00:11:50.800 that have to get done and ask yourself,
00:11:52.399 what’s one thing that you can delegate
00:11:54.399 to another person or ask AI to do? And I
00:11:57.519 know a lot of people, they’re like,
00:11:58.560 well, what if I give it to somebody and
00:11:59.839 they don’t do it as good as me? Here’s
00:12:01.360 my rule. 80% done by somebody else is
00:12:04.240 100%ing awesome. I also created this
00:12:06.560 framework called the 108010 rule, which
00:12:08.560 allows me to create the first 10% which
00:12:11.200 is the outcome, the creative part to
00:12:13.440 collaborate with somebody. Maybe it’s
00:12:14.880 the chat GPT prompts and then have
00:12:17.760 somebody else take over the 80%. Right?
00:12:20.000 That’s the execution. That might even be
00:12:22.160 setting up the automation so I never
00:12:23.680 have to do an AI does it or a person
00:12:25.440 does it. The last 10% is taking the
00:12:27.680 output back that might show up as an
00:12:29.519 email or a text message to me and then
00:12:31.519 massaging that for the final output. My
00:12:34.079 philosophy has really moved from being a
00:12:36.240 doer to a director. I want to direct
00:12:39.200 people. I want to direct the AI. I don’t
00:12:41.279 want to be sitting there doing tasks.
00:12:43.040 And finally, we need to duplicate. This
00:12:45.680 one relates to your time. Think about
00:12:47.920 finding two tasks that you can stack on
00:12:51.040 top of each other and do at the same
00:12:52.959 time that allows you to get them both
00:12:54.800 done without taking any extra time.
00:12:56.959 That’s what’s called net time. No extra
00:12:59.760 time. For example, I like to go on
00:13:01.920 scooter rides and be outside in the sun
00:13:03.920 next to the lake. My team needs one-on
00:13:06.320 ones. I put those together. So, all my
00:13:08.480 one-on ones I do outside on a scooter.
00:13:10.639 Another fun fact, I also enjoy being in
00:13:12.639 a hot tub. I also have to review my
00:13:14.399 Slack and make sure I respond to the
00:13:16.079 things that require my attention. Guess
00:13:17.760 what? I put them together. You can
00:13:19.680 literally put a lot of stuff together
00:13:21.600 that gets the things done that requires
00:13:24.160 no extra time. So, that’s how you create
00:13:26.959 leverage with your time. Now that you’ve
00:13:28.800 multiplied your time and your output,
00:13:30.880 it’s time to level up your environment.
00:13:32.880 And we got to start with the people
00:13:34.240 around you. This might be the most
00:13:35.920 important. Step number five, network.
00:13:38.320 Specifically around people and
00:13:39.519 boundaries. This is what’s crazy. The
00:13:41.760 people around you will shape your floor
00:13:44.240 and your ceiling. The energy, the
00:13:46.399 mindset, those are contagious. You are a
00:13:49.200 byproduct of the people you spend time
00:13:51.519 with. You have to audit your circle. The
00:13:53.760 friend inventory I call it. Who keeps
00:13:55.600 pushing you forward and who keeps
00:13:57.600 pushing you back or worse celebrates
00:14:00.639 when you decide want to give up. So, we
00:14:02.560 have to build intentional connections
00:14:04.480 that match where you want to be, not
00:14:07.040 where you are, and most definitely not
00:14:09.519 where you were. When I look at my life
00:14:11.600 and those times that I’ve leveled up,
00:14:13.760 there’s always been people involved.
00:14:16.079 Always mentors, peers, advisors, groups
00:14:20.079 of people, communities, and that’s just
00:14:22.560 been the throughline for everything in
00:14:24.560 my life. And the reason why is because
00:14:26.480 proximity of people is freaking power.
00:14:28.800 And you hear this all the time, but your
00:14:30.639 net worth truly is your net worth. So
00:14:33.360 you need to make sure you ask yourself
00:14:34.639 these four questions about your friends
00:14:36.399 in your circle. Number one, are they on
00:14:39.120 a growth journey themselves? See, I
00:14:41.760 don’t want to be around people that have
00:14:43.839 decided where they’re at is good enough.
00:14:45.920 I want to invest in relationships with
00:14:47.839 people that are also going places that I
00:14:50.160 haven’t been. So that as they go on
00:14:52.000 their journey, I go on my journey, we
00:14:53.600 can share notes, we can talk about
00:14:55.040 what’s working for each other. That to
00:14:57.199 me is a very simple decision and most
00:14:59.120 people have decided to just stop. The
00:15:01.360 second question you should ask yourself,
00:15:02.959 if somebody said to you, you remind them
00:15:05.600 of that other friend of yours, would
00:15:07.600 that make you proud? It’s a simple
00:15:09.519 question, but it also talks about
00:15:10.880 character. The third question is, would
00:15:12.880 I let my child date someone like them?
00:15:15.920 One of my favorite compliments to give
00:15:17.600 somebody is to say, I would trust you to
00:15:20.160 date my sister. That to me is the
00:15:21.839 highest form of compliment when I look
00:15:23.839 at the people in my life. Do I trust
00:15:25.760 that person with somebody in my life? If
00:15:28.320 the answer is no, then why am I spending
00:15:30.079 time with them? And finally, number
00:15:31.680 four, do they make me better or do they
00:15:34.160 drain my energy? Are they energy
00:15:36.000 amplifiers or are they energy vampires?
00:15:38.639 Do I walk away spending time with them
00:15:40.639 going, "That was light, easy, fun,
00:15:42.720 expansive, or is it like they made me
00:15:44.800 feel bad about myself? They made me feel
00:15:46.399 like I wasn’t doing good enough." I
00:15:47.920 either start with a, "Hey, is this
00:15:49.920 person I want to keep in my life? Hell
00:15:51.519 yes." If it’s not a hell yes, it’s an
00:15:53.839 easy no. Now, that might sound harsh,
00:15:56.320 but it’s necessary if you want to
00:15:57.680 protect your time, focus, and energy.
00:15:59.279 Because the people that don’t value
00:16:00.720 their time will only waste yours. You’re
00:16:02.880 doing everything you can to get time
00:16:04.959 back, to cut stuff, to keep in the
00:16:06.800 energy to make 2026 your best year, and
00:16:09.519 then they’re just going to suck that out
00:16:11.279 of you. No, you fight to keep it. They
00:16:14.480 have to earn the right to be in your
00:16:15.839 life. And I know the hardest part is
00:16:18.160 family, friends you’ve known since high
00:16:20.160 school. You’re going to have to start
00:16:21.440 setting some boundaries. I can love a
00:16:23.519 family member from a distance. I don’t
00:16:25.440 have to call them every day. I don’t
00:16:26.639 have to invite them to a barbecue this
00:16:28.079 weekend. I don’t have to say yes to
00:16:29.360 everything they invite me to. You’re
00:16:31.040 allowed to set some criteria and say,
00:16:32.959 "Hey, if this is how you want to choose
00:16:34.639 your life, that’s fine. No judgment. I
00:16:37.120 actually love that for you. It’s just
00:16:38.880 not what I need." You have to put
00:16:41.199 yourself first. You have to increase
00:16:42.720 your self-worth. You have to let people
00:16:44.720 know this is my new standard. And that’s
00:16:46.959 okay. So making sure your friend
00:16:48.880 inventory is filled with people who are
00:16:51.120 pulling you forward, not holding you
00:16:53.120 back is a huge thing to hit your goal in
00:16:55.839 2026. Now you need to measure your
00:16:58.079 growth and stay accountable to it. Step
00:17:00.320 number six, you got to stay on track. To
00:17:02.800 stay on track, you need two things. You
00:17:04.720 need to measure and you need
00:17:05.839 accountability. When you track progress,
00:17:08.319 it makes the invisible growth visible.
00:17:10.720 See, a lot of people are losing weight
00:17:11.919 and they don’t even know. A lot of
00:17:12.959 people are making gains on their
00:17:14.079 finances, but they don’t even know
00:17:15.119 because they don’t measure anything.
00:17:16.240 that will keep the motivation high.
00:17:18.079 Accountability, that’s next level. I do
00:17:21.039 that through partnerships, through
00:17:22.720 systems, through public commitments to
00:17:24.799 my goals. It creates followthrough. It
00:17:27.359 creates what I call positive peer
00:17:28.960 pressure. Without it, the willpower will
00:17:31.760 fade out cuz you’ll do 10 times more for
00:17:34.080 somebody else than you’ll ever do for
00:17:35.840 yourself. So, being accountable to
00:17:37.440 somebody else, saying, "Hey, I’ll meet
00:17:38.720 you at the gym at 7:00 a.m. You will
00:17:40.559 show up because they’re going to be
00:17:41.760 there." If it’s on you, maybe not. My
00:17:44.480 favorite story is a woman that works for
00:17:46.320 me named Jen. She set a goal to get to
00:17:48.320 20% body fat. I think it was like 38
00:17:50.880 pounds she had to lose in four months.
00:17:53.280 She set the stake that if she didn’t hit
00:17:55.280 it, she could no longer work at the
00:17:57.039 company. That became a non-negotiable.
00:17:59.360 That became a forcing function to
00:18:01.360 execute and that transformed her into
00:18:04.000 the person that hit her goal. The stakes
00:18:06.160 are high. Most people don’t have that
00:18:08.160 level of accountability and it’s why
00:18:09.679 it’s easy to give up. Here’s why. what
00:18:12.000 you measure gets managed. So, these are
00:18:14.240 three ways you can do this for yourself.
00:18:16.240 The first is you got to find a northstar
00:18:18.000 metric for your goal. And then you got
00:18:19.679 to attack that one metric with the
00:18:21.760 aggression every freaking day. So, for
00:18:24.799 Jen, it was body fat percentage. How’d
00:18:26.640 she do that? She had a scale every day
00:18:28.080 she got on. She reported it to her coach
00:18:30.080 and then she also did a DEXA scan to
00:18:32.000 make sure it was super accurate. For
00:18:33.679 you, it might be revenue. It might be
00:18:36.320 amount of pages you get done every day
00:18:38.000 if you’re trying to study for some kind
00:18:39.360 of test. It might be the amount of
00:18:40.880 kilometers you’re running because you’re
00:18:42.240 training for a marathon. Whatever it is,
00:18:44.240 pick that one metric, be obsessed about
00:18:46.559 it, and look at it every day. Second is
00:18:48.640 you build a scorecard. And this is so
00:18:50.799 easy with AI. You can literally take
00:18:52.559 everything in this video and ask AI to
00:18:54.080 do it, and it’ll do it. You like give
00:18:55.440 the link to AI and say, "Help me design
00:18:57.280 and implement what Dan just taught me."
00:18:58.880 Boom. Done. But with a scorecard, and I
00:19:02.000 really am a big fan of you tracking it
00:19:04.000 and putting it in the scorecard, it
00:19:06.080 creates this tactical accountability.
00:19:08.960 and then you look at it and you track it
00:19:10.480 every day. I learned a long time ago
00:19:12.160 that the more you look at something, the
00:19:13.919 more you talk about something, the
00:19:15.520 higher the probability of achieving it.
00:19:17.360 And last, get an accountability partner.
00:19:20.000 Find somebody that you trust that you
00:19:22.640 would care if you didn’t deliver on that
00:19:24.400 you would be accountable to. Make a
00:19:26.400 public commitment to stay consistent. I
00:19:28.880 mean, the easiest thing is to go and set
00:19:30.559 your stakes publicly on your Facebook
00:19:32.559 page and say, "Hey, I’ve got a vision
00:19:34.799 for my life. Here’s what I accomplish by
00:19:36.559 the end of the year. I’m committed to
00:19:38.240 it. Here’s the person who’s going to
00:19:39.440 hold me accountable to it. If you see
00:19:40.960 me, please ask me about it. That will
00:19:43.440 make it a must. And if you follow this
00:19:45.760 whole process, actually achieving your
00:19:48.000 goals in 2026 won’t just be possible,
00:19:50.559 it’ll be inevitable. Now, I know this
00:19:52.640 process might feel overwhelming, but let
00:19:54.799 me break it down to you really simple.
00:19:56.640 Simplicity beats inspiration. If you can
00:19:59.440 just take one goal, break it down into
00:20:02.880 projects and then what is the most
00:20:04.480 important next step and you have clarity
00:20:06.559 around those steps that is way better
00:20:08.880 than the motivation to do something
00:20:10.559 massive. Most people don’t start cuz
00:20:12.480 they don’t have clarity. Just keep it
00:20:14.799 simple. If you have that one thing, then
00:20:17.360 the discipline of execution is the
00:20:19.440 bridge that turns that vision into
00:20:21.280 reality. And remember, if you’re a
00:20:23.039 business owner, download my scale your
00:20:24.880 business workbook. I’ll tell you
00:20:26.320 everything you need on how to take your
00:20:28.000 business to the next level this year.
00:20:29.760 Just click the first link in the
00:20:30.960 description or scan the QR code on
00:20:33.039 screen. Now, if you want to learn how to
00:20:35.120 get so many customers with AI it feels
00:20:37.520 illegal, click the video and I’ll see
00:20:38.880 you on the other side.