Before You Set Your 2026 Goals… Ask This One Life-Changing Question

As 2025 comes to a close, let’s ask a question that might stop you in your tracks:

What if 2026 gives you everything you’ve ever wanted?

The new job. The higher title. The bigger house. The nicer car. More money, a relationship, maybe even the “dream life.”

Would you finally feel fulfilled?

Or would that familiar emptiness still find you once the excitement fades? I hate to disappoint you but nothing external will make you happy until your life aligns with your internal values.

The Secret to Real Fulfillment Isn’t More. It’s Alignment

Before 2026 begins, take a pause. Sit with yourself and ask two simple but powerful questions:

1. What values matter most to me?

2. What do those values actually mean in my daily life?

   
   

Because fulfillment doesn’t come from what you achieve. It comes from what you honor.

Take the word flexibility, for example. For one person, it might mean controlling their own schedule. For another, it’s leaving work in time for their kid’s soccer game or having the freedom to work remotely. Same word, very different definitions.

Naming your values isn’t enough. You have to define them and then design your life around them.

When You Honor Your Values, You Feel Fulfilled

When your values are met, you feel grounded, peaceful, and purposeful. When they’re violated, you feel friction, stress, resentment, frustration, even anger.

For me, one of my core values is peace and I protect my peace at all costs.

Peace means:

• I rarely take meetings before 11 a.m. because mornings are my grounding time.

• I start my day with intention, focusing on three meaningful tasks, not a never-ending to-do list.

• I refuse to glorify overwork or push past exhaustion. If I need a 20-minute nap, I take one.

• I go to bed around the same time every night.

That rhythm keeps me centered. It’s not about perfection. Sure, life still throws curveballs,  but when my peace is intact, I can handle any unanticipated crisis calmly.

And that’s the difference between surviving and thriving. When your life aligns with your values, fulfillment becomes constant, not conditional.

How to Step Off the Treadmill in 2026

When I first left corporate, I was conditioned to stay busy, to say yes to everything and measure my worth by my output. I had to retrain myself to stop chasing pressure and start choosing peace.

Every time I said no to the wrong client or walked away from a project that didn’t align with my values, I reclaimed more of my life.

You can do the same. It starts with reflection. Write down these two questions and answer them honestly:

1. What’s not in alignment for me right now? (What causes stress, friction, or exhaustion?)

2. What am I going to stop doing in 2026 so I can honor my values instead of betraying them?

   
   

Because no promotion, paycheck, or relationship will ever bring peace if your daily life conflicts with your core values.

Fulfillment Lasts. Happiness Fades.

If you keep chasing things, 2026 will look exactly like 2025. Sure, you’ll be busy and productive. You’ll also be unfulfilled. 

But if you start chasing alignment instead, you’ll find something infinitely more valuable: fulfillment.

Fulfillment isn’t a finish line. It’s a state of being. It’s waking up grounded, living purposefully, and ending each day with peace, even when things go wrong.

And the beauty is this: even if you don’t get everything you think you want, you’ll still have everything you need, because you’ll be living in alignment with your truth.

To listen to the full podcast on Work Unscripted, click here.

The journey is yours…