Daily Thought for Change

For a long time, I felt that networking was a waste of time.

Not because relationships don’t matter.
But because most networking felt fake.

Meeting more and more people.
Exchanging smiles, business cards, LinkedIn requests.
With no real framework for turning any of it into something meaningful, except hoping that luck, timing, or serendipity would magically do the work.

It wasn’t clicking.

I can’t keep up with endless surface-level connections.
And I don’t want to.

There’s no depth there. No real trust.
And I don’t feel good pitching my business to every person I meet, hoping that maybe one day they’ll need me.

By the time they do, we’ve usually gone our separate ways.
And when that moment comes, people don’t choose the best option, they choose the one that comes to mind first.

Luck plays too big a role in that system.

And honestly?
I want to eliminate luck as much as possible from my success equation. If it's there - good. If not, I want to still win.

Yesterday I came across a post by Sharran Srivatsaa, entrepreneur and investor, President and Managing Partner at Acquisition.com with Alex Hormozi. He wrote:

“Your network isn’t who you know.
Your network is who knows you can deliver.
Connections mean nothing without credibility.
Build credibility first.
Show up consistently.
Deliver results.
The network builds itself.
Focus on the work. Not the networking.”

That gave me chills. I felt - that I could work with. In fact, that what I understand and prefer.

This year, I started doing something different.

On January 3rd, I ran a Clarity Reset, a free space for strangers to reflect on their 2026 direction.
No pitch. Just value.

Then I ran my first-ever 5-day challenge, High-Performing Entrepreneur Reboot.
One hour a day. Real tools. Real value. Real connections.

I also onboarded 5 new clients for free for a month.
Not as a gimmick, or hack.
But so they could experience what I can deliver.

So that when the time is right, they don’t just “know me.”
They know I’m useful.
They know I can help.
They know I deliver.

Let me ask you this:

Do you think these connections are gonna be tighter and better than with someone you’ve randomly met a couple of times at another networking party, vaguely understanding what they do?

In 2026, I’m putting this approach to a real-life test.

Not trying to network with the right people.
But trying to be genuinely useful to the right people.

Let’s see where it goes.

Einstein famously said:

“Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results.”

Maybe the answer to networking isn’t doing the wrong thing harder.

Maybe it’s doing what we already know works.

Over to you, dear reader,

Where are you still hoping that “the wrong thing” will finally work this year?
And what might happen if you tried different instead?

What evidence do you have that your brain isn't lying to you?
How is it working for you?
What are other possible outcomes?

Yesterday I blogged about cognitive biases, the ways our brain gets reality wrong.

The halo effect, for example.
The first impressions.
How the way someone looks influences how smart, competent, or trustworthy we think they are.

Wikipedia lists around 200 cognitive biases. They’re still being added.

Then there are cognitive fallacies, or errors in logic, and we have dozens or hundreds of them as well.
Like: “If you’re a bad person, you must always be wrong.”
Or: “If you’re a good person, you must be right.”

That’s not how reality works.

The bottom line is simple and uncomfortable:
our brain is a terrible judge of objective world.

So no, don’t listen to everything you hear in your head.

At the very least, take it with a grain of salt🧂
The same way you would with advice from someone else.

A good question is,
how do you do that consistently?

Here’s a simple framework I use with clients.
3 questions I shared above.
Best asked in writing, so your logic is recorded and can be evaluated and checked against reality later, by you, or by someone else.

1. What evidence do you have?

Not vibes.
Not stories.
Not intuition.

Actual evidence you’re reasonably sure of.

If you don’t have much, ask:
How can I test this assumption before going all in?
How can I dip my toes before diving?

Small experiments beat big leaps based on our biased thinking.

2. How is it working for you?

Whenever clients propose a plan, even when I know it’s probably unrealistic, I say:
Try.

And after they do, I ask:
How is it working for you?

Because if it isn’t, continuing in the hope that you’ll magically change or the world will adjust is usually just wasted time.

Time that could’ve gone into something that actually works.

3. What are other possible outcomes?

Not just the best-case scenario your brain shares with you enthusiastically.

All the other explanations.
All the other paths this could take.

Annie Duke, world's poker champion and decision scientist, introduced me to decision trees, mapping all plausible outcomes before deciding, not just the desired one.

Even better: invite an outside view.
Ask yourself: What would my friend say here?
Or actually ask them. Or ask ChatGPT. Or Claude.

Then consider probabilities.
Downside costs.
Upside potential.

Is the potential upside worth the potential risk? How likely are both to occur? On what evidence?

No, you don’t need to analyze every idea to death.

But before you invest serious time, other people’s time, money, energy, or say no to things that might work better - it’s good decision hygiene to scrutinize your own thoughts the way you’d scrutinize someone else’s advice.

Over to you, dear reader,
Where do you need to doubt your own thinking more?
And what small thinking habit could help you do that consistently?

Not every idea that comes into your mind deserves your attention.
Not every idea is meaningful.
And not every thought you think is good for your life and is worth keeping.

Wikipedia lists around 200 cognitive biases, predictable ways our thinking goes wrong.

A cognitive bias is a systematic error in thinking.
It happens when we process and interpret information in ways that feel logical and true but aren’t.
Biases are mental shortcuts. They help us navigate a complex world quickly, just not always accurately.

Example of a bias: availability heuristic.

We give more weight to information that comes to mind easily or vividly.
Plane crash headlines. What's social media algorithm keep bringing to you? What keeps coming into your email.

Your brain (and mine) will literally judge something as more true or more important simply because it appeared in your head more often.

Nobody becomes bias-free.
But almost everyone can build better decision-making habits to work around bias to get better results.

One simple practice:
Keep a parking lot for “great ideas”, like an idea journal (many successful entrepreneurs have them)
Write your ideas down.
Evaluate them later, during a reflection session, every week or so.
Don’t start executing just because an idea showed up.

The more mature business owners I’ve worked with, the ones who built something substantial from nothing, know this well.

To build something great, you must say no to a lot of ideas.

They’ve also learned that ideas are almost nothing on their own.
Without the right opportunity, matching resources, timing, a sprinkle of luck, and a truckload of sustained execution, ideas stay ideas, and sometimes a waste of time.

I once heard Alex Hormozi say:

“Every day I could have about 100 ideas about things in business I could work on. When I write them down most of them sound like total nonsense a month later.”

Most things we regret later, or keep repeating even though we know they’re not working, started as ideas too.

A thought.
An assumption.
A decision that felt right in the moment.

If every idea were a good one, we wouldn’t:

• Prioritize social media over our learning

• Choose food that makes us sick, not healthier

• Stay in relationships that drain us instead of growing us

Not everything that comes to your mind is working for you.
Not every idea is possible (for you).
Not every idea is a good investment of your time.

When I coach clients, I know something important:
Every suggestion I make needs a clear explanation of why it’s worth their consideration.

But when we hear our own thoughts, we rarely apply the same standard.

We assume: If I thought it, it must matter.

And that’s where things quietly go wrong. Sometimes for years and decades.

So, over to you, dear reader,

Where are you still treating your ideas as the most important source of truth in your decisions, and where would a more deliberate evaluation process lead to better results?

It was Day 2 of the High-Performing Entrepreneur Reboot challenge I’m running.

Someone shared an insight:

“I looked at all the goals for our company and realized I had to put some down because it’ll take too much from other goals, and I’m not sure it’ll be worth it. So maybe this goal is for later.”

One of the things that I really wanted participants to take away from this challenge, the thing that makes more people fail than the hardest challenge ever could - diluted focus.

Not discipline.
Not motivation.
Not willpower.

Diluted focus.

We start yet another year with noise in our heads🤯
Feeling late.
Feeling behind.
Feeling like if we don’t start everything now, we’ll miss our chance, again.

And that’s exactly why we fail at most of the things we start.

Because we want to have it all now.
Because we want to start it all now.
Because step-by-step feels too slow, too boring, too unimpressive.

Someone wiser than me once said:

“You can have it all. Just not at the same time.”

The most fundamental truth of any real achievement is simple:
To get it, you must keep going.

And to keep going, you need to do what you’re capable of now, while slowly building the capacity to do more.

Sprint into a marathon as a newbie and you might beat the elite runner… for a moment.
But not for long.

Guess who wins in the end?

The one who didn’t go all-in at the start.

At the beginning of this year, instead of listing 50 goals, I asked myself a different question:

What do I really want to create that would make this year meaningful?

Not:

• run races

• write a book

• make a million bucks

But this:

• build a business that grows sustainably and consistently, and that I’m proud of

• bring my parents to a warm place for winter

• finish a meaningful coaching certification with people I deeply admire

Small list.
Clear list.

Focused list.

And if I do that, I'd have the happiness, and the foundation for everything that comes next.

A quick spoiler: I just won a scholarship for a Self-Actualization Coach certification, accredited by ICF and all, from the Center for Human Potential, led by scientists I genuinely admire.

I’m also on Day 3 of my first group challenge, part of my plan to get great at working with people at scale, and grow my business.

And it’s only January 7.

Last night, lying in bed, I had a quiet, uncomfortable insight:

“Angela, the only reason you’re not further ahead…
is that you never truly focused, with clarity, on any ONE thing.”

Maybe this is the year I finally do.

Over to you, dear reader, 

Where could you use less ambition, and more focus, so you finally give yourself a fair chance to win the prize you actually care about?

What would have to be true for me to win?

In the strategy book Playing to Win, one of the core practices is to brainstorm many different ways to win in a specific market, with a specific customer, toward a specific goal.

And then you ask one filtering question:

“What would have to be true for this to actually play out?”

This helps to see clearly the odds of any strategies to succeed.

I use a version of this with my clients who want to change careers, shift businesses, or start something new.

First, I ask them to brainstorm everything:
All the things they might do.
All the projects.
All the gigs.
All the business ideas.

Then we slow it down, we ground it.

We write criteria.
Boundaries.
Their life's reality checks.

What would have to be true for this idea to have a real chance of winning in your REAL life?

Income requirements.
Skills you already have, or would need to build.
Connections you’d need access to.
Market dynamics.
Actual customers, not imagined ones.

Where can you realistically win, instead of where you hope you’ll win if luck happens?

This is usually when something clicks.

Not everything that’s a “great idea” has a high chance of success for you.

Especially if you care about certain lifestyle.
Energy.
Health.
Freedom. People to take care of.
Or you have a very specific definition of success.

This principle worked at scale.
Procter & Gamble is the flagship case in the book.

And I keep seeing it work in the micro, too.

I’m currently listening to a 5-hour podcast with Alex Hormozi, where he walks through how he got to where he is today. From $1000 in the bank to over $100 000 000 of revenue in a weekend.

One detail caught my attention.

He used to keep a small trampoline next to him and bounce on it between sales calls.
(Tony Robbins does something similar before going on stage.)

Why?

To get his energy light, bouncy, playful.

Because energy transfers.
And high energy increases YES-rates.

So Alex asked, consciously or not:
What would have to be true for me to win?

One of those things was consistent high energy (which he's not naturally at).

So he didn’t “hope” for it.
He built a system that made it more likely.

Over and over again, when I look closely at success, of people, teams, companies, it’s rarely random.

It’s clarity about how you want to win.
Honesty about what must be true.
And then designing systems that shorten the odds.

Not motivation.
Not willpower. Or luck.
Design.

So, over to you, dear reader,

Have you thought through your winning strategy?
And more importantly, have you set up your life so winning is the default, not a struck of luck?

We were talking about taxes and company setup in one of the entrepreneur groups I’m part of.
The usual fork in the road: figure it out yourself, or hire someone to do it with/for you, explaining things as they go.

There are nuances, sure.
But in most cases, unless you’re genuinely fascinated by tax law and want to spend your limited, non-renewable time on it, the struggle isn’t noble. It’s a waste

More than that, it quietly steals your best resources.
Time. Attention. Cognitive energy.

Resources you could be using where you’re actually dangerous.
Where you create value.
Where only you can solve the problem. ("Who not How" is a phrase I love by one business coach I follow)

Or… you can try to win every battle yourself.
(I’m not sure how many wars have ever been won that way.)

One of my unofficial mentors, Tim Ferriss, once explained how he deals with social media and junk-food temptations.

He removes the apps.
Turns off notifications.
Never keeps food he wants to eat less of in the house.

“Yes, you can train your willpower, but why would you want to? You might need it for something else in life and work.”

Another mentor of mine, Alex Hormozi, put it even more bluntly:

“The most sure way to change is to put yourself in a situation where you have no other choice but change.”

Same idea. Different words.

If you talk to almost anyone who’s overcome a lot, who people label as “disciplined”, you’ll usually find the same pattern.

They don’t rely on heroic self-control.
They design conditions.

They make the right action the path of least resistance.
They remove exits.
They stop negotiating with themselves.

Instead of spinning their wheels in battles that never needed to be fought.

I tell my clients this all the time:

“Don’t try to battle it out by becoming a different person.
Be the person who builds systems that make the right choice inevitable.
Save your energy for the battles that actually matter.”

Over to you dear reader,

Where are you still fighting, when changing the circumstances would effortlessly take you to the next level?

I ran a small experiment yesterday.

I hosted a group, guided reflection session.
The first one of its kind for me.

This time, the focus wasn’t on me delivering tools, frameworks, or knowledge.
It was on holding the container.
Providing just enough structure.
And letting everyone do their own work.

It felt weird at first.
Expanding in the middle.
Quietly rewarding at the end.

I even got a client out of it without trying.

But that wasn’t the point.

The most important thing was this:
For the first time, I did something purely as an experiment.
Not as something that had to work.
Not as something that needed to turn into a product, a funnel, or a plan.

And because of that, everything felt lighter.

Instead of judging the outcome, I could reflect on it.
With curiosity.
With honesty.

Do I want to do it again?
If yes, why?
If not, what do I want to try instead?

That shift alone changed everything.

In a world that’s changing faster every day, you have a choice.

You can cling tightly to a few fixed things,
work, routines, roles, identities,
hoping they’ll stay stable, getting frustrated when they don't.

Or you can get clear on your values and purpose,
choose a direction,
and then design small experiments in that direction.

You test.
You learn.
You reflect lightly.
You adjust.

Not because you failed.
But because you’re paying attention to why it's important in the first place.

I came across a simple framing on the Good Life Project that I’m carrying with me into 2026 and beyond:

Direction over directives
Experiments over rigid plans
Reflection over judgment

For a world where the terrain keeps shifting.
And the only real constant is you.

Over to you, dear reader,

What’s one direction you’re choosing to expand into this month?
What are one or two small experiments you could try, without pressure to be right?
And when will you pause to reflect on how it’s actually working for you?

In my 18 years of coaching and 38 years of living, I’ve learned this:

You don’t wake up different.
Not on Monday.
Not on your birthday.
Not even on New Year’s Day.

If change lasts, it’s because you worked for it.

So what actually stops us from changing, from working on it? We say we want it, right?

Professor Katy Milkman, author of How to Change, talked about this on the Mel Robbins Podcast. She names at least 7 very human, research-backed reasons:

• It’s hard to start

• We’re impulsive, we choose pleasure now

• We procrastinate, “later” feels safer

• We forget

• We default to what’s easiest

• We copy the people around us

And here’s the good news.

There is a lot of research showing how to work with each of these, without becoming a different person, and without suddenly getting superhuman discipline, motivation, or willpower.

I’m going to share what I’ve learned from this podcast, from research, and from almost 2 decades of coaching real humans, including myself.

Hard to start?
The podcast talks about the Fresh Start Effect. New Year’s, Mondays, birthdays, any meaningful for you date can create momentum.

But you know what works even better?

Making the first step ridiculously easy.

James Clear, the habit guy, suggests shrinking the habit down to 2 minutes or less.
I’d go further: break it down until you feel an actual urge to start now.

If it still feels hard, it’s not small enough. Or not simple, not clear enough. Clarity and simplicity before willpower.

Impulsivity?
Find, or create, something you genuinely enjoy.

Someone once asked me, “How do I start exercising if I hate it?”
Simple: don’t start with something you hate.

Dance. Walk with music. Lift weights while watching your favorite show. Many of my clients binge Netflix only on the treadmill or stationary bike. And then you see their watch showing they've been on a bike for 2 hours!

Pleasure doesn’t have to be the enemy. It can be the vehicle to where you wanna go.

Procrastination?
Deadlines help.
Accountability helps.
Rewards help.

In short: raise the stakes.

But here’s barrior not often talked about - clarity. Or, better say, confusion. How, when to start, not having all the resources etc
When the first step is clear and simple, resistance drops fast.

I always say: clarify and simplify before starting.
Everything becomes easier from there.

You forget?
So does everyone.

That’s why smart people use calendars, alarms, checklists, and other humans. Surgeons and pilots rely on checklists, not memory. Why should you be any different?

Concrete plans matter: when, where, how, with whom.

For example:
“When I make my morning coffee, I’ll send WhatsApp messages to my clients.”

Coffee appears. Messages get sent.
That’s called an implementation intention, and it works really well for the human brain.

Feeling lazy?
Congratulations! Your brain is working as designed.

The fix isn’t motivation. It’s environment.

Make things easier by default:

• Cut fruit and leave it visible

• Buy prepped vegetables

• Exercise at home instead of “someday at the faraway gym”

• Put books where your phone used to be

• Keep junk food out of the house

Most people know this. Very few do it.
We like to think we’re above biology.

We’re not. You are not.

“But nobody does this in my family.”
Or: “Everybody around me scrolls, eats badly, and never moves.”

Then choose a different comparison group.

If I’m going to scroll, I curate what I scroll - change, health, research, business, self-development, cool workout moves. The algorithm listens. Make it listen to something to program a better you!

What matters isn’t what your neighbor does.
It’s who you choose as your reference group.
Your role models. Your standards.

So, who are you comparing yourself to in 2026?

The bottom line: If you’re serious about change, stop relying on strategies that don’t work for the human brain.

Work with it. Cause you got one.

Over to you, dear reader,
Knowing your patterns, your obstacles, where you fail, what new system will you try?
How will you design change more intelligently, brain-friendly in 2026?

On New Year’s morning we went on a sunrise hike with a friend.
It was… beautiful.

Some people, but not many.
A bit of traffic, but nothing overwhelming.
Plenty of space. Plenty of quiet. Plenty of beauty for all of us to enjoy.

Later that day she sent me an Instagram video.

Same place.
Sunset hike. (New Year's Eve)

Traffic was intolerable.

Cars stuck for miles.
People watching the sunset from inside their cars because they couldn’t leave them.
Not here. Not quite there. Just… stuck.

And I had an insight.

In life.
In business.
In almost any pursuit.

Harder things have shorter lines.

Waking up at 4AM on New Year’s Day.
Doing the thing before it’s popular.
Choosing effort over convenience.

If you’re someone who doesn’t enjoy crowded competition, there’s a simple strategy:
Choose what most people FIND hard and do more of it.

But that’s not even the most important part.

What’s more interesting is this:
I’d choose that 4AM hike every time.

Not everything that’s hard for most people is hard for YOU.

And one of the most underused strategies for winning is choosing challenges where your effort-to-reward ratio is unfairly good.

For me, that looks like:

• Waking up early

• Long stretches of solo work

• Studying, learning, figuring things out

• Being in uncertainty most of the time

• Technology and new skills

• Consistency over time

• Discomfort

• Trying things that might not work

• Producing a lot of ideas and content

• Talking to strangers

• Seeing patterns

• Creating frameworks

• Being a bit (or a lot) of a non-conformist

• ...

None of that bothers me much.
Most of it, I actually enjoy.

So as part of “winning” 2026, the question I’m asking myself and you, dear reader:

What do people consider hard but I find relatively easy?
And how can I double down on that to win?

If you look closely at people who accomplish a lot, you’ll notice a pattern.
They’re almost always leaning into what the world calls “hard” but what they experience as a challenge they thrive on.

Over to you, dear reader,

What are your strengths?
Your quiet superpowers?

The extra mile is never crowded.
What’s the mile you’ll gladly walk?

My only New Year’s resolution is this:
being unapologetic about being me.

Now let’s talk about ants🐜
Stay with me.

In ant colonies, there are 2 kinds of ants.

Warrior ants.
Big. Robust. Built for defense. They attack predators, butcher large prey, carry heavy loads.

Worker ants.
Small to medium-sized. Built for precision and endurance. They forage, build nests, tend to the queen and the young.

Same species.
Completely different bodies. Completely different lives. I'd imagine compeletely different personalities.

They don’t just do different jobs.
They become different, through hormonal and nutritional cues, mostly. It's like 2 different species!

I imagine the warrior ant as a little more aggressive.
Does some lifting in his spare time.
A bit individualistic.
Maybe even heroic.
Probably has an ego to protect in every battle.

The worker ant?
Couldn’t care less about trophies.
More communal.
Focused on fitting in, avoiding unnecessary conflict, protecting the system, the status quo so the colony thrives.

Neither is better. Both are needed.

Without either of them, the colony collapses.

I think we humans have something to learn from ants. I think I have something to still learn from ants.

There is space, and purpose, for all kinds of people.
All kinds of traits, bodies, personalities, skills, and ways of being in the world.

Just because something feels wrong, unbalanced, or uncomfortable to me doesn’t make it universally wrong.

It’s just different.
And it’s not my job to judge it.

But it is my job to understand how I am wired, and what I'm here to live.
Worker or warrior.
And stop apologizing for it.

I once heard a phrase I love:
“Strong opinions, held lightly.”

It echoes advice I’ve received from some accomplished people:
Be sharper.
Be more opinionated.
Say what you mean.
Live what you mean.

And keep learning, and be willing to change.

Over to you, dear reader (and a note to myself):

What do you need to change to live more true to yourself in 2026? Unapologetically, consistently, and ready to change?

Happy New Year!