Episode 64 - The 3 Questions I'm Asking Myself Before 2026 (And You Should Too)
Welcome to Episode 64 of the Time for Living Podcast!
TRANSCRIPT
show notes
You know that feeling when everyone's talking about crushing Q4 and hitting the ground running in January, and you're just trying to make it through December without completely losing yourself?
This episode is for the mom entrepreneur who's tired of the hustle narrative and ready for some honest reflection before the calendar flips. Because end-of-year reflection doesn't have to be a productivity exercise—sometimes it's just about being truthful with yourself about where you are and where you're going.
In this episode, you'll discover:
The three honest questions Lucy asked herself in early November that led to surprising revelations about her business and life
Why reflection done early (before you're exhausted) creates clearer insights than waiting until January 1st when you're running on fumes
How to identify what you want to feel LESS of in 2026—not just what you want to do differently
The uncomfortable truth about what actually worked this year that you might be afraid to admit (and why admitting it matters)
Why "doing less" and "resting more" might not be compromises but actually your most strategic moves forward
What you're pretending not to know about your business growth, visibility, or next steps—and how to finally face it
Permission to do your own reflection on your timeline, not when the calendar tells you to
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Struggling to figure out where your time is actually goingy? Grab my free Hidden Time Finder at timeforliving.co/timefinder .
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Final Thought:
You don't need a plan before 2026 starts—you just need honest awareness about where you actually are.
TRANSCRIPT - The 3 Questions I'm Asking Myself Before 2026 (And You Should Too)
THE QUIET MOMENT
It's early November, and I'm sitting at my kitchen table with my tea. The house is quiet. It's still dark outside.
And I'm doing something I want to tell you about—I'm pre-recording my December episodes right now, before the chaos of the holidays actually hits. Because I know what December is going to be like. I know I'm not going to want to sit at my mic between Christmas shopping and family visits trying to sound thoughtful and present.
So I'm doing my end-of-year reflection early. And honestly? I'm kind of grateful for that. Because it means I get to sit with these questions before I'm exhausted. Before I'm in the thick of December overwhelm. While I still have the mental space to actually be honest with myself.
I grabbed my journal this morning and wrote three questions at the top of the page. And I'm going to walk you through what came up for me when I answered them. Not because you need to answer them the exact same way—but because maybe hearing my process will give you permission to have your own quiet moment. Whenever that is for you. Maybe it's right now. Maybe it's after the holidays. Maybe it's not until January when things finally settle.
If you're listening to this while wrapping presents or driving to yet another holiday thing or folding laundry at 10pm, I want you to know—this episode isn't adding to your to-do list. There's no homework. There's no worksheet. There's not even an action plan at the end. This is just me, sharing what I'm sitting with. Thinking out loud with you. And maybe it'll resonate. Maybe it won't. Either way is fine.
Welcome to Time For Living. I'm Lucy. And today, I'm just going to tell you what I wrote in my journal this morning. Think of this as my end-of-year reflection as a busy mom building a business—the honest version, not the highlight reel.
QUESTION 1 - WHAT DO I WANT TO FEEL LESS OF?
So the first question I asked myself was this: What do I want to feel less of in 2026?
Not what do I want to do less of. Not what habits do I want to break. But what do I want to feel less of.
And I sat there for a minute, pen hovering over the page, because that's a harder question than it sounds, right?
Here's what I wrote: I want to feel less rushed.
And as soon as I wrote it, I realized—that's been the undercurrent of my entire 2025. This constant feeling of being behind. Of running to catch up. Of never quite having enough time to do things the way I actually want to do them.
Like, I'd sit down to record a podcast episode, and instead of being present with what I was creating, I'd be thinking, "Okay, I have 47 minutes before I need to pick up my son. Can I get this done in time? What if I need to re-record something? What's the next thing on my list?"
Even the good things—time with my family, working on my business, moments I should have been enjoying—they all had this layer of urgency underneath them. This feeling of "hurry up so you can get to the next thing."
And here's what surprised me when I wrote that down: I'm the one creating that feeling.
Not my schedule. Not my kid's hockey practice. Not the emails in my inbox. Me.
I'm the one who's been treating my life like a race I need to win instead of a life I get to live.
So what do I want to feel less of in 2026? That constant rush. That self-imposed urgency. That feeling like I'm always late to something, even when there's nowhere I actually need to be.
I don't know yet what I'm going to do about it. I don't have a system or a plan or a five-step process. I just know I wrote it down, and it felt true. And sometimes that's enough for right now.
What about you? What do you want to feel less of? Not do less of—feel less of. It might be the same as mine. It might be completely different. But I'm guessing there's something that's been sitting heavy on you all year, and maybe you haven't given yourself permission to name it yet.
QUESTION 2 - WHAT WORKED THAT I'M AFRAID TO ADMIT WORKED?
Okay, second question. And this one made me uncomfortable, which is how I knew it was a good question.
What worked that I'm afraid to admit worked?
I stared at my journal for a full two minutes before I wrote anything. Because admitting what worked means admitting what I should probably keep doing. And sometimes we resist that because it means letting go of the fantasy version of how we think things should work.
Here's what I finally wrote: Doing less worked.
Specifically, focusing on one habit instead of ten. Working on my business in 15-minute pockets instead of waiting for full days. Posting three times a week instead of daily. Saying no to opportunities that didn't align with my one big goal.
All year, I kept thinking, "This isn't enough. I should be doing more. Other people are doing more. Successful people hustle harder than this."
But you know what actually happened? I recorded 52 podcast episodes this year. Every single week. I built consistency in my business. I didn't burn out. I was present with my family. I actually enjoyed most of my days instead of just surviving them.
And I'm afraid to admit that worked because it means I have to let go of the story that more is better. It means I have to stop comparing my business—built in 15-minute pockets scattered throughout my day—to someone else's 8-hour-a-day business. It means I have to trust that small and consistent actually beats waiting for big blocks of time that never materialize, even though our culture tells us the opposite.
Here's the other thing I wrote that I'm afraid to admit: Rest worked.
The weeks I took completely off? I came back stronger. The days I stopped working at 3pm to just be with my kid? I had more creative ideas the next morning. The nights I went to bed at 9:30 instead of staying up to "get ahead"? I woke up ready to actually do the work.
But admitting that rest worked means I have to stop glorifying exhaustion. And that's uncomfortable because I've spent most of my life believing that tired equals productive.
So here's what I'm sitting with: Maybe the thing I'm most afraid to admit is that I don't actually have to sacrifice myself to build something meaningful. Maybe doing less, resting more, and focusing on one thing at a time isn't a compromise—maybe it's actually the strategy.
I don't know if I fully believe that yet. But I wrote it down. And that feels like a start.
What about you? What worked this year that you're afraid to admit worked? What small thing kept showing up that you've been dismissing because it doesn't look like what you think success should look like?
QUESTION 3 - WHAT AM I PRETENDING NOT TO KNOW?
Okay, third question. This is the one that made me put my pen down and just sit there for a minute.
What am I pretending not to know?
This question is hard because it requires you to be really honest with yourself about the thing you've been avoiding. The truth you keep dancing around. The reality you're not quite ready to face.
Here's what I wrote: I'm pretending not to know that I've outgrown my current business model.
And that sentence just sat there on the page staring back at me.
Because here's the truth—what I'm doing right now works. I've built something sustainable. I have clients who get results. I have systems that function. I've proven the concept.
But I've also hit a ceiling. And I know it. I've known it for months.
I can't scale what I'm doing now without burning out. I can't reach more people without completely rebuilding how I deliver value. The 1:1 model that got me here? It's not going to get me where I'm going.
And I'm pretending not to know that because rebuilding is hard. Starting over—even when you're starting from a place of success—is uncomfortable. It means letting go of what's working well enough to create space for what could work even better.
It means I can't keep playing it safe in the comfortable middle ground I've built.
Here's the other thing I wrote: I'm pretending not to know that I'm ready to be more visible.
And this one made me laugh a little because it sounds so ridiculous when I say it out loud. Like, I have a podcast. I show up every week. I'm literally recording this right now.
But there's a difference between showing up consistently and being truly visible, you know?
I've been keeping myself at a certain level of visibility. Not too much. Not too loud. Just enough to build something real, but not so much that I become a target for criticism. Not so much that people have opinions about me. Not so much that I can't control the narrative.
But the next level of what I'm building? It requires me to be seen. Really seen. By more people. In bigger spaces. With less control over how it's received.
And I'm scared of that. So I've been pretending I don't know that's what needs to happen next.
I keep myself busy with the work I'm already doing—the safe work, the proven work—so I don't have to face the fact that the business I want to build requires me to step into a level of visibility I've been actively avoiding.
Here's what really got me this morning: I'm pretending not to know that staying small is a choice.
I've been telling myself I'm building slowly, being strategic, being intentional. And those things are true. But they're also convenient stories that let me avoid the scarier truth.
I could go bigger. I could reach more people. I could build the thing I actually want to build.
But bigger means visible. Bigger means vulnerable. Bigger means I can't hide behind "I'm still figuring it out" anymore.
And the version of my business I've built—it's comfortable. It works. It lets me stay in control. It doesn't require me to risk very much.
But it's not the vision I wrote down three years ago when I started this. That vision is bigger. Messier. Scarier. And possible.
I'm just pretending not to know that it's time.
So what am I pretending not to know? That I've outgrown where I am. That I'm ready to be more visible than I've been letting myself be. And that staying at this level is safe, but it's not what I actually want.
What about you? What are you pretending not to know? What truth have you been dancing around all year that you're not quite ready to say out loud yet?
CLOSING - YOUR TURN
So those are my three questions. And my three messy, honest answers.
I don't have a neat bow to tie around this. I don't have a five-step action plan for implementing these insights. I just have what I wrote in my journal at 5:47 this morning while my tea got cold.
And maybe that's enough for right now.
You know what I love about these questions? They're not about productivity. They're not about optimization. They're not about squeezing more out of yourself or doing better or being more.
They're just about being honest. About sitting with where you actually are instead of where you think you should be. About naming the things you've been avoiding. About giving yourself permission to want what you want and feel what you feel and admit what you know.
So here's my invitation to you—and it's genuinely an invitation, not an assignment:
Find your quiet moment. Maybe it's early morning with your coffee. Maybe it's late at night after everyone's asleep. Maybe it's in your car in the school pickup line with the radio off. Whenever you can grab 15 minutes of just you and your thoughts.
And ask yourself these three questions:
What do I want to feel less of in 2026?
What worked this year that I'm afraid to admit worked?
What am I pretending not to know?
You don't have to share your answers with anyone. You don't have to do anything with them. You don't have to have a plan for what comes next.
Just write them down. Sit with them. See what comes up.
Because sometimes the most productive thing we can do is stop producing and just be honest with ourselves for a minute.
Take care of yourself this week. Find your quiet moment. And be honest about what comes up.
I'll see you next week and until then, keep making time for living.