6 Powerful Questions to Plan a 2026 You’ll Love | 13
Julie Cober:
What do we truly, truly desire? I always say, what do you deeply desire? Because your desire is your fuel. Whatever plan you put in place for next year, whatever goals you set, however that looks, the thing that is going to fuel that all the way through the year is your desire, your why. What do you want and why do you want it?
Imagine if [00:00:30] you were invited to a room filled with a collection of the most diverse, interesting, authentic women in business leadership and entrepreneurship today, sharing their stories of growth, courage, risk, and change. Women who've declared enough is enough. These rules of success I've been asked to follow no longer work for me and frankly, who made them up anyway. Well, there is such a room and my friend, you're here in it right now.
Welcome to “According To Who?” the go-to podcast [00:01:00] for successful women who are ready to question the current status quo, do things differently and rewrite her next chapter. I'm your host, Julie Cober, former C-Suite, corporate executive turned founder, CEO and peak performance mindset coach to the female founder on a mission to build, grow, and scale on her own terms. If you're craving more freedom, wellbeing, and true fulfilment both in your work and your life, guess what? You're going to love being in this room. [00:01:30]
Hello. Hello. Welcome back to According To Who. So we have a solo episode today. Today it's just me and I wanted to share with you this particular podcast episode will be dropping on December the 15th, 2025. So no matter when you're listening to this, if it's way in the future, what I'm going to share today can apply any time of the year, but this is something that [00:02:00] I like to do that I wanted to share with you before we go into a new year.
So that's the context of today. I want to talk to you a little bit about desire and I want to share with you six very powerful reflective questions that I like to ask myself and spend some time journaling on and really deeply going into before I start putting any kind of personal professional goals [00:02:30] or business plan in place. So I thought maybe you might not have heard these types of questions. This isn't often kind of a front end part of a planning process that I've heard about, so I thought it would be nice to share with you. So again, if we're, whenever you're hearing this, if it's beyond when we first dropped this episode, you can do this exercise any time of the year. You could do it at the beginning of every month. You could do it at the beginning of every quarter. You can do it annually.
I actually do this [00:03:00] exercise more than once a year, but it's something that I don't miss when I start my annual planning process. So December 15th, 2025, we are starting to think about the new year, right? Or maybe you're already thick into the planning process. I know I have been planning all, I usually spend much of the month of December, my pockets of time putting together my next year's plan and both personally and professionally. So goals that I have for my [00:03:30] business, things like revenue goals and sales targets and marketing goals and customer goals, and when am I going to provide free events like scheduling out the whole year, all the things. And then I also have my own personal goals. So I've been into that now for a couple of weeks and I will continue to do that right up until we launch the new year in January.
But again, you can do this anytime of the year. But so before I get into these six powerful questions that [00:04:00] I think if you take some time to answer, it will really set you up for a beautiful planning process and plan for next year. But I want to talk before I dive into those questions a little bit about desire. So desire is what we want, right? It is we're putting these plans in place, we're putting these goals in place, whether it's maybe you have some relationship goals, maybe you have health goals, [00:04:30] maybe you have money goals, maybe you have goals in your business if you're an entrepreneur, maybe if you're working for somebody else in your career, you could have career goals, all the things. So we have goals, things we want to achieve next year and through each month and quarterly and all the things. One of the things though, I always work with my clients on, we start with desire. So what are these things that we want? What do we truly truly [00:05:00] desire? I always say, what do you deeply desire? Because your desire is your fuel.
Whatever plan you put in place for next year, whatever goals you set, however that looks, the thing that is going to fuel that all the way through the year is your desire, your why, what do you want and why do you want it? Anytime we're mastering anything, whenever we're going after goals and what we do here in the legacy leadership academies, we set some [00:05:30] pretty big goals. We call them growth goals. We set goals that make us grow. So they can be very challenging at times and when goals are big and they're challenging, another way to look at it is mastering your craft, right? There's steps you have to take. There's several steps usually you have to take to get that goal. So when we're in a space of trying to master our craft, the fuel that allows us to do that and keeps us on track and takes us through the hard [00:06:00] days, we call them wall kicker days around here.
When we have a day where we want to kick a wall, things are not going our way or it didn't pan out the way we expected. We feel like the forces of the universe are conspiring against us. All those things. Sometimes we get into that mode. The desire you have for what you're trying to achieve, what you're trying to build, where you're trying to go, what you want in your life, how we're trying to create a life that we love. That's what we're doing around here. We have [00:06:30] goals that move us to towards creating every aspect of our life that we love. So that desire, whatever that is for you, that's the fuel. That's the fuel that's going to get you through you. We have to know what it is. And I always like to take this time of year with my clients to sit back and go, okay, is this still your desire with new clients?
When we talk about desire, is it even your desire? So often [00:07:00] we put things on our list in terms of goals we want to achieve and all the things because we think we should, right? Maybe society's telling us this is what we should want. Maybe we have loved ones in our life that are saying, yeah, we should want this. Maybe we're comparing ourself on social media and we should have a business like that, or we should have this promotion going on, or we should have this going on in our life. So that's the first step. Is this even your desire? Do you truly want it? And one of the tricks around this is if you've [00:07:30] been struggling, if this is a desire you've had for a while and you struggle to stay consistent in trying to achieve this and working to achieve this, that might be your first kind of red flag where you think, okay, is it time to really, is this even mine?
Is this something that I actually truly want in my life to move my life to be the grandest version of myself, to move my life to the grandest version of my life? And if it isn't and you think it [00:08:00] should, that's going to be a problem because that's not real fuel that will burn out very quickly. So ask yourself, is this my desire? Do I still want it? Maybe it was in the past and it isn't now. That's okay too. It's just always good to check in on these desires. One example I'll give you quickly around this, and then I'm going to jump into the questions. There's so much out in the personal growth and development market that [00:08:30] tells you you should do X, Y, and Z. Okay? So two examples I'll say in this, there's a lot of information out there around morning routines and how powerful they are and how there's brain science attached to it and start your day and win the day and all the things, right?
And I believe in a lot of that. I happen to be a morning person. I protect my morning routine [00:09:00] probably. I protect my children. I am an early bird. I always have been since I was a little girl. I get up, it's quiet in my house, I light a candle when this time of year, it's dark in the morning. I'm just an early bird. It's my most creative time of the day. I have various things I do, but I meditate, I journal, I read, I do all the things they tell you you should do. It is a huge desire of mine to get up and do that. And that's the way I love to start my day. Like [00:09:30] a deep, deep desire. I love it. I will protect it. Let's go to the opposite nighttime routine. There's just as much information out there on nighttime routines.
Oh, you should be doing this. Maybe meditate at night, read 10 pages, write in your journal, maybe have a warm wind down. Wind down. There's a wind down process. I have tried for years to put together a nighttime routine, and I [00:10:00] shamed myself for years. I couldn't stick to it. I kept telling myself, I'm a bad entrepreneur. I don't have a nighttime routine, and I really should be spending this time doing X, Y, and Z. And all the gurus say, we should do this at night. And there's just as many positives I'm sure scientifically for nighttime routines as well. But I have zero desire to do a nighttime routine. I'm tired at night. I'm tired because I think I finally realised because [00:10:30] I'm such an early bird and I'm up so early, naturally, I'm very not productive in any way, shape, or form at night.
So now I just gave myself permission to say, you know what? I want to do whatever I feel like at night because I had no desire to do what the gurus were telling me from a nighttime routine. So I just give you that as an example because I was shaming myself. I was beating myself up. I was saying, I'm not a good entrepreneur. I'm not this or that, [00:11:00] and that's just not true. It's because I had zero desire. So I just give those examples from a desire perspective, because you have to have it, especially if any of the entrepreneurs listening, but it's the same for everyone. But in entrepreneurship, you need to know what you desire, you're what you want and why you want it. If you don't have clarity on that, that's the first place to start. Because when things get tough, you have to go back to that.
Why am I doing this? Why did I start this business in the first place? [00:11:30] Same if you're in a career. Why am I doing this job? Why am I staying in this environment? Why am I putting up with this X, Y, and Z? So always know your what and always know your why. So that's what I'm going to say on desire. So now I'm going to jump into, these are six what I call powerful reflective questions that I ask myself before I start to do any planning. Every year I take myself offsite [00:12:00] out of my house as an entrepreneur. I spend a lot of time in my home. I'll go somewhere that I enjoy. There's an area north of my home that's kind of cottage country. I'll rent a hotel room or a cottage or something and spend some time planning. You don't have to do that, I just do.
But before I even start the planning process, I go through these six questions. So it's kind of like a 360 degree approach to this. So what I do [00:12:30] is I pull out my journal, and sometimes I even have a, actually, no, not sometimes that's not true. Every year I actually have a fresh kind of what I call planning journal. I like pen and paper, old fashioned. But you could do this on your computer, you could do it on Google, Google Doc, whatever you want, but something fresh that's starting the new year fresh. So for me, it's a journal and I start asking myself these questions and I write it at the beginning of the journal before I plan anything strategically. So the first [00:13:00] question, I call it I see. Okay? So when you look out at 2026, so you're sitting in wherever you are right now or whatever year you're listening to this right now, today, what do you see?
What do you vision? What do you see out a year from now in the year of 2026? Sometimes it feels good to close your eyes and start the visualisation process, but what do you see in your career? What [00:13:30] do you see in your business? If you're an entrepreneur, what do you see in your family? What do you see in your relationships? What do you see in your health? What do you see in your bank account? What do you see in maybe some charity work or philanthropic work you're doing? And you can list anyone. Those are just examples. And I want you to say, I see. And then you start to write that out. So you're starting the process of planting the seed of what you want [00:14:00] this year to look like. Okay, so then the second question is, in 2026, I believe that I am, fill in the blank, what do you believe about yourself in 2026? I believe I am. I want you to ask her, what do you believe about yourself? What do you believe you're worthy of?
What limiting beliefs do you know [00:14:30] that you have? Because we don't always have those conscious, right? A lot of our limiting beliefs are unconscious. But if you know, have a limiting belief, if you're consciously know that, what is it and could you change it? What is that limiting belief that I have and how do I plan to change it? What could I believe instead? That's just a way to flip this. This is starting to this question. What I'm doing is I'm starting to get you to reprogram and re-pattern your subconscious thinking. [00:15:00] So you could ask, how much money, time, resources, happiness, love, do you want in 2026? What do you believe you're worthy of in love and time and resources and freedom and loving every aspect of your life and being the grandest version of yourself, okay? And then also ask yourself in this question, this is all under, I believe I am.
Why is the time? Now, [00:15:30] you'll probably find most people that I work with, myself included, there's stuff that's year over year things that we've been wanting to change or things that we've been wanting to go after, and they're still on the list. So that's fine, totally fine. No judgement here. All you're doing in this exercise with these six questions is observing yourself, observing what you're thinking, observing what comes up, observing maybe what you say out loud, observing what you write, how you feel. These [00:16:00] are all really important ways to see where you're at to do that self-observation in that assessment. But why is now? Why is the time now for you to have what you want next year? Okay, so this third question you're going to ask yourself is, I am committing to fill in the blank. Okay, so what are you committing to in 2026?
What are going to be your top priorities? [00:16:30] And when I say top, this is not a list of 30 things or even 10 things. If you really want to focus and have change or move towards something or achieve something, or perhaps leave something AKA, like a job, what are the top priorities? I'm saying three to five things. Three to five things that you are going to focus on next year that's going to move you towards that life that you love. [00:17:00] And the grandest version of yourself. You want to keep the list small and you want it to be tied to your values. And if you don't know your values, that's an exercise you're going to have to do, right? What are your top values? You want it to be only the most important things, or it can get really overwhelming. This is what we tend to do. And I was like this for years. Big long lists, especially I find type A, high achieving, high performing [00:17:30] women. We can get stuff done, we can have long lists. This isn't a to-do list that we're putting together. You're going to be going into your goals and your actions and all of that later in your planning. But this isn't about that.
In the past, my one for this year, I'll share with you, I had three big buckets, health, marriage, business, I had specific things I wanted to achieve. Just those three things. That's all I focused on. [00:18:00] Okay, so that's the third question. The fourth question is, when would I usually stop? So if in the past you have tried to achieve a goal that could be still on your list or something that's still on your mind and you stopped at a certain point, there is usually a bit of a pattern in this. When we go for goals and we don't achieve them, and we start and stop, there's usually [00:18:30] a pattern here. And that's what I want you to try and figure out. So at what point do you usually stop? So an example I would use here is in health. So we know lots and lots of people that go into January 1st every year with a big health goal.
Maybe it's a weight loss goal. I use that as an example because it's pretty relatable. And it's what I mean here. This is why when I say the gyms are empty by February 1st, so we go in, we're going to lose 25 pounds. This is going to be the [00:19:00] year. I'm going to stay consistent. I'm going to go to the gym two days a week or three days a week and you and multimillions of others. And then you can't even get on a machine in the gym in January. And then in February they're empty. So that would be for those people. That's when they usually stop. So you want to identify what maybe you get through half a year on something and usually stop. Maybe it's only two weeks into January, whatever. At what point do you usually stop? And then also what gets in your way?
[00:19:30] This is where you have to be really honest. If we want change, we have to dig in on these questions so that we don't set ourself up for the same. I'm going to try again this year and nothing happens, nothing changes. And you can see that all of these questions I'm taking you within, I think you can probably see that by now. There's no really external here. This is all within you. Because the only thing that's going to change anything in your external world is you changing within, [00:20:00] right? That gym example, the reason why they're empty by February is because they've done nothing to change their identity.
You can muscle through the motions, like every weight loss strategy in the world works. How do we know that? Because tonnes of people have used them and it's worked. But why do some keep it off? And some don't. It's not the strategy. The strategy always works. It's the person implementing [00:20:30] the strategy. It's the identity that person holds. So if you've had health goals and you're gone out of the gym by March, you haven't done anything to change your health identity. And this question helps you to start looking at that. Okay? So question number five is what will happen if I stop? So when do I usually stop is number four? Number five is what will happen if I stop? What will your life be [00:21:00] like if you stop, stop going after the health goal? If you stop building your business, if you stop being consistent in your business, if you stop doing what you need to do at work to get the promotion, if you stop, we can give a whole bunch of examples.
What will your life be like if you stop? And how will you feel? And be honest with yourself here. And who will miss out? This is the most important part. Who [00:21:30] will miss out in the world if you stop going after your dreams? That's a really, really powerful question. It's probably you, but there could be others in your world as well. And then the last question that I ask myself in this reflective process, and this can take time, right? These are some pretty deep questions and powerful questions, but the sixth question is, what will happen if I don't stop? Can you imagine? Can you imagine if you just powered [00:22:00] through and you just decided, I'm not stopping. If this is the year 20, 26 is the year that you actually go for it. Whatever it is, is this the year that you reach all your goals? You set? You get to answer that question. It's your choice.
Write out, start to write out almost like a movie script. If I don't stop, I have in the past potentially [00:22:30] what could happen. Who will I be meaning you? Who will you be? How will you be? How will you show up? What thoughts will you have? What things will you say to yourself about yourself all day long within your thinking? How are you going to show up? How are you going to be different? What will be different? And how does that all feel? [00:23:00] So those are the six really big, powerful, reflective questions. I promise you, if you sit down, take some time. Maybe if you're through the holiday season, you have some time to yourself. I know it's a very busy season, and so what, even if you have to do this in January, it doesn't matter when. And like I said, you can do this anytime of the year.
You will start seeing some patterns, you will start seeing some programming that you have. And that's really what we're always, these types of questions are to help you [00:23:30] start reprogramming limiting beliefs that you have that are stopping you. If you've been having a goal or you want to, you're putting a goal on that you've had before or even new ones in your front, you're struggling to achieve it. There's something within you, within your belief system that's stopping you, right? And then, so there's those limiting beliefs that we need to reprogram to believe the opposite, right? And then also, remember checking back in on your desire. Is this really even your desire? [00:24:00] And if it isn't, if you have something on your list that's not your desire, what would you love? That is the number one question. I come back to time and time again everywhere, whether it's in here on my podcast, in my client groups.
What would you love? Truly? I know it sounds like an easy question, but it's not. But this is what takes you to your desire. And whatever comes up for you is perfect for you, perfect for you. [00:24:30] It's not what I desire. It's not what your neighbour desires. It's not what your spouse desires, your friends, what would you desire if you could wave your magic wand? What would you love? Because that desire, when it really hits from within you, and it'll probably come out through doing these questions, is going to be the fuel that gets you through the goals, the plans, the actions, the tactics, all the things that you're trying to achieve in 2026. Try [00:25:00] out these questions. I promise you they're powerful. And if you've never done it, it's a great exercise to do before you start the strategic planning of our regular goals and such. So hopefully that's helpful. I hope you have a great time planning this holiday season and into January 20, 26. And yeah, I would love, love, love, love if you feel like sharing any feedback on how these went for you. Alright, have a great day. [00:25:30]
Thank you so much for choosing to spend your time with us. I hope today's insights have empowered you and given you ideas and tools to start to rewrite your rules of success. If you love today's episode, please leave us a review and be sure to share it with a friend. And if you'd like to hear more from these trailblazing women, be sure to hit the subscribe button so you never miss out on another powerful episode. Don't forget to connect with me on LinkedIn or Instagram for daily doses of motivation [00:26:00] behind the scenes insight. And to keep the conversation going. For additional resources and strategies, visit juliecober.com and subscribe to my newsletter where you'll receive life-changing content delivered right to your inbox. And always remember, you have the ability to create any change you want in your life at any time. You are 100% worthy of living a life that you genuinely love, that's supported by work that you truly enjoy. Keep pushing [00:26:30] the boundaries, question your thoughts. Step into the elevated version of you. And until next time, always be asking yourself “According To Who?”.
According To Who?
