Welcome to the final post of Your Most Aligned Year.

If you missed the previous posts, you can check them out here:

Episode 1: Rethinking Goal Setting: Why Your Identity Matters More Than Your Goals

Episode 2: How to Set Revenue Goals That Actually Mean Something (Good/Better/Best Framework)

Episode 3: Monthly Themes + Quarterly Planning: How to Create a Flexible Business Plan

Thank you so much for joining me for this series.

This is the final episode in our series, and perhaps my favorite. I mean this topic? Ooh, I love talking about habits.

Listen to the full episode below:

LISTEN ON SPOTIFY | LISTEN ON APPLE PODCASTS | LISTEN ON YOUTUBE

Consistency Is Everything

I often say that when it comes to marketing specifically (we'll use this as an example), every marketing strategy works. The difference is consistency.

The people who do well on a specific platform or with a specific strategy do well because they're consistent at the end of the day.

That's what success honestly comes down to. Can you be consistent?

And consistency stems from this authenticity in creating goals and creating plans so that you WANT to show up, so that you see why it's important, so that you can see the benefit.

This is why the identity shift at the beginning is so important, because that's how you show up consistently. And these habits are everything.

If you've been in my world for a little bit, you might have heard me talk about Atomic Habits. This is a book that absolutely shifted the way that I show up and how I take care of myself, how I create habits in my life, in my business.

It's really about taking those small steps, setting yourself up for success, and that's what today really is focused on.

Goals vs. Habits

I want you to think about your goals as telling you where you are going, and your habits are how you're actually gonna get there.

They are the vehicle in this travel roadmap that we are on.

There's a quote from Atomic Habits that I love so much, and I literally think about it every single time I'm setting goals or struggling with consistency or anything:

"You don't rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems."

Your habits are your system. If you have strong habits, you will rise to your goal. And your habits stem from your identity.

Do you see how all of this is connected?

Most people focus all of their energy on setting the goal, and then they wonder why nothing actually happened or nothing actually changed.

But the reality is: your current habits have created your current results.

If you want different results, you need different habits.

And my guess is you want different results, whether that is specifically in your business, in your life, an identity shift, just like we talked about in the very first episode.

The Habit That Changed My Life

One of the habits that absolutely changed my life (and this is something I actually got from Atomic Habits) was this idea of treating my body and my business the way a professional athlete would, and really asking myself: What are the habits? How do those individuals train? What are the things that they prioritize?

Because it's super similar, in my opinion.

A professional athlete? We gotta get great sleep. We gotta show up in different areas of our life. We gotta train our bodies, we gotta train our minds. We have to train all of these different things.

You might not think of it that way. I was an athlete for most of my life, but this really shifted so much for me:

My habits around fitness
My habits around sleep
What I put in my body
How I structure my day

All of those different things. And it has trickled into my business, which is something we will be talking about.

So think about again, your goals as the outcome, but your habits are really about the identity.

Who do you need to be to achieve those goals, and what does that person do on a regular freaking basis?

What Does Your Future Self Do Daily?

To begin this process of the habits you need to start incorporating into your life and business, you need to go back and think about that future version of you and what habits match that identity.

Some of these habits will be things that you have done or are currently doing that are serving you. Some of them will most likely be new, or you are going to be called to uplevel that existing habit.

I'm gonna use working out as an example here. Obviously this is just an example. Working out, fitness, is crucial to me and my mental health, how I show up in all areas of my life as a mother and as a business owner.

So please know this is just an example, but maybe you are already consistently working out and you are being called to add additional time to that, to change how you are working out, to adjust the intensity, whether that's add more or actually add less depending on what your goals are and what you need.

So that's just an example of you might already have a habit that's working for you, but really evaluate and think about that future version of you and what shifts you need to make to that, as well as adding on habits that you need in order to hit those goals. Things you aren't already doing.

So what does the future version of you do daily?

Now, yes, you can create monthly goals. Yes, you can create weekly goals. I want you to really focus on those daily habits.

Ask yourself:

How do they start their morning?
How do they show up in their business?
How do they take care of themselves?
How do they manage their energy?
How do they manage their schedule?

These are the questions I want you to start asking yourself because it's important to ask yourself these questions about the future version of yourself. Because this isn't about forcing habits that work for someone else. It's about choosing habits that align with your identity, the person that you are becoming.

When habits match your identity, they will feel natural. They will not feel forced.

My Beef With Morning Routine Videos

And that is so fundamental when it comes to consistency. This is why I have beef with morning routine videos. Okay, I get it. I also want to see what people are doing, but also I know that I can't take that for myself.

I have this very specific story that I've shared before around when I first became a business owner. I remember going into a Facebook group and saying, "Okay, I just went full-time in my business. I just left my nine to five. I have a kiddo, what are you doing? How are you starting your morning? I'd love to hear from other business owners."

And I kid you not, most of the feedback was like, "The first thing I do every single morning before I do anything else is I meditate for one hour."

And I was like, what? Did you miss the whole part about having a newborn baby?

This is great in theory. And I started to really question myself, and I was like, "Oh my God, is that the only way that I'm gonna be able to be successful as a business owner?"

When I tell you the majority of people were saying things like this, it blew my mind.

And I could have very easily been like, "Oh crap," or tried to do that and then failed miserably. Instead, I really started to think about what are the tiny steps that I can take?

And so I started with 10 minute meditations on the floor, wearing headphones while my son played at my feet, or I held him, or I breastfed him or whatever. I had to make it work for me.

And that's what I really want you to do with these habits. Make these habits ones that fit your life and the direction in which you're going, because if you don't, you will not stick to them.

I absolutely would not have stuck to an hour meditation every single day. I would've given up after three days max. It would've been too frustrating if I had to stop every five seconds.

But because I made a smaller habit, my morning routine was 10 minutes every morning.

My morning routine now, as my son has gotten older and I have practiced this and I have expanded? This is an hour of working out, of movement, of mindset, of meditation.

But it would never have gotten to this point if I hadn't started with something that was accessible and I could build a consistent habit around.

So again, when habits really match your identity, who you are at your core, they feel natural. They don't feel forced.

Personal Habits vs. Business Habits

Now I want you to think about what business and life (personal) habits you need to establish for yourself in 2026.

And this is also something you will want to evaluate every 90 days, just like we talked about in the last episode.

And yes, you need both of these and they need to be separate.

I want you to create very specific personal ones and very specific business ones because they're equally important and they also impact each other. Especially your personal habits.

Your personal habits, I would argue, are the most crucial. If you only start the first 90 days with your personal habits, your business will improve as a result. I guarantee you.

Because personal habits support your foundation. These are:

Your morning routines, how you start your morning
Your movements, your exercises
Your rest, your sleep
Your creative play, your hobbies
Your connection with your family

Your personal habits directly impact your business success.

When people come to me, especially on our Academy calls or any one-on-one, and they're really struggling with consistency as a business owner or they're struggling with showing up, I'm always wanting to dive deeper into what's actually happening in their personal life.

Are they taking breaks?
Are they getting sleep?
Are they moving their body?
Are they fueling themselves?
Do you drink any damn water in a day?
Are you getting your electrolytes?
Do you actually have time where you are shutting off your business brain and fueling your creativity in another way?

And no, that's not listening to business podcasts. That's not what that is. It's reading a book. It's writing, it's listening to music, it's movement, it's dancing, it's gardening. It's whatever that is for you.

Those different habits that you have are going to make you a better business owner because if you are burned out, if you are not feeling lit up, if you are not getting enough damn sleep and water, no business habit will save you. It won't happen.

Your Business Habits

Then once you've established what those personal habits are (again, just start with three or five, three to five), what are your business habits?

Because the business habits are what's going to create consistent revenue. But again, you can't have business habits without personal habits. The business habits will not save you if everything else is crumbling around you.

One habit that I think is essential that I'm actually gonna share with you (that I think is more of a personal habit but it really feeds into my business) is scheduling everything.

This is actually a personal habit that I have so that I can see what I have the capacity for and to also make sure that I am giving myself time for the different areas of my life, as well as filling up my own cup.

So scheduling my workouts in my calendar so I can see that, one, I'm actually freaking doing it. And color coding those things is a fantastic habit.

I have:

A different color for homeschooling
A different color for Brandmerry things
A different color for activities with my friends and my family
A different color for my morning routine

Even baking, which I love to do, or gardening, I will put that shit on my calendar because it also allows me to look at the week and see: Where did my time and energy go? Am I serving all areas of my life?

So I shared this with you because it kind of feeds into the business habits.

But having weekly content creation days is a fantastic habit to adapt. Think admin or backend days where you could check the finances, pay the bills, invoices, whatever.

Money dates: Having a weekly money date where you log your sales and you log your expenses and you're just really keeping an eye on what's happening in your business.

Having specific habits on:

Audience building activities (do you have a community that you check in with regularly?)
Sales activities

What are these rhythms that you are creating for yourself as a business owner?

And again, I want to say that the personal ones for me are daily because they're the foundation. The business ones tend to be more weekly because you are doing a million different things as we know.

And so these are things that you can, I mean, I want you to schedule these on your calendar. Don't just say "On Mondays, I create content." I want to see it on your calendar. Is there space? Is there a two hour window where you create content or whatever that looks like for you?

I do this with my filming all the time, or my podcast, like recording this, so that my whole freaking family knows. So then we're also getting into something about boundaries, which we're not gonna talk about inside of this particular series, but these are the types of things that do help with those relationships as a business owner.

So I want you to choose three to five habits in each category to start off with.

And again, if you're like "Michelle, January, February, March is just an absolute shit show. I do not have time for all of that," start with the personal ones. Please, please, because that will carry over into the way that you are able to show up for your business.

Small Actions Compound Over Time

I love thinking about things as these small actions that compound over time.

Anytime I'm getting ready to take on a really big project (I'm in the middle of a rebrand right now, actually by the time this episode came out, it's probably already out in the world), but that felt like a lot. It did for a really long time, because I'll even convince myself sometimes like, "Oh, I'm taking on this big project," and then I get really overwhelmed.

And every single time when I strip it down and I just take the first step and then the next step and then the next step, it takes away all of the suck, all of the hard.

And so for this branding process, I just got my pictures taken. And then that fueled the copywriting, and then that fueled the next thing and the next thing.

And that's exactly what this is. It's about taking those small steps and letting that compound over time.

And remembering that consistency in doing something beats perfection every single time.

Showing up and doing it again and again and again, you will improve. It's the same with confidence, right? Taking those small steps even before you think you're ready and repeating it and doing better and fine tuning it and continuously showing up over and over and over again. You'll have the confidence to stand on a stage one day.

If right now you're like, "I am scared to post my own social media post," it's these small, consistent actions that really bring you the results.

You don't need to overhaul your entire life in January. You just need to start taking those small steps.

So focus:

If you want to start really posting consistently on social media and you're not right now? Start with three times a week. That's gonna work out better than posting every single day for two weeks and then absolutely burning out and not posting at all.
Moving your body for 15 minutes a day (if that is a habit for you) is better than trying to go to the gym for an hour and a half and not sustaining it.
Doing a 10 minute meditation with a little baby and doing that every day is consistently going to happen over trying to fit in an hour meditation.
Having weekly money dates for your life and your business is going to be a million times better than ignoring it until it comes time for taxes.

Progress isn't linear. Trust the process, and take the consistent steps.

The habits that you are going to choose today (three to five in each category, preferably) are going to create your reality 90 days from now. Are going to be why you are that person at the end of the year that we visualized in day one.

What Happens When You Fall Off Track?

Again, inside Brand New Plan, I give you more of a structure around this if you want to dive a little bit deeper. You can check that out at brandmerry.com/newplan.

We talked about the habits. We talked about how important they are. You get it. I know that you get it. You can probably feel my intensity as I'm speaking.

But what happens when you fall off? Because I gotta tell you, it's probably gonna happen.

It happens to all of us. Maybe not all the habits, but one, maybe two. What happens when life gets in the way? What do we do? Have a plan for that too.

You will fall off track. Everybody does.

Life happens. Kids get sick. You might get sick. (I'm on a goal to not get sick in January. I'm gonna report back and let y'all know how it goes, but I swear every January I freaking get sick.)

Launches get messy, energy will dip.

This does not mean that you have failed.

The goal is not perfection. It's about your ability to return back to the habit, to make those adjustments.

Start with the easiest habit first if you fall off. Get back on. Give yourself grace. Really feel connected to your identity so that if you do fall off the horse, as they say, if you do get off track, you're so connected with your identity and the future version of yourself that you get right back on again.

But also think about: What are you gonna do if that happens?

I'm all about that. "Oh, I'm not feeling great. Maybe this is where you're at right now in January. Okay, I have this habit. I've been doing so great with it, but I'm not feeling amazing and I know that I need to prioritize sleep, or I know that I need to prioritize this. But I really want to show up and do my habit."

Or: "I'm gonna give myself three days of resting. I'm gonna get back into it this day." And it's back in your calendar.

Have these conversations with yourself. Figure out what the plan is because it's probably gonna happen.

So how do you get back into it? It's not about never failing. We're all gonna fail. It's about getting back to it. Returning back to what you were doing. Not giving up.

Bringing It All Full Circle

As we wrap up this final episode of the series, let's bring it back. Let's bring it all full circle.

I want you to think about:

Your word from day one as what is going to guide your decisions this next year.

Your identity is what is shaping your goals, who you are becoming.

Your revenue goals that we determined, they are so much more than just saying "I have a six figure business" or "I have a $300,000 a year business." They fund your life priorities. They fund your life, your identity.

Your roadmap is what is going to give you direction for the year, but make it flexible and adaptable based on how your identity shifts, based on how you evolve as a person.

And your habits are what's gonna make it all possible. Coming back to those core principles, those core and consistent things that you do.

This is the system. This is how it all works together.

You're not just planning your next year in business. You're intentionally designing your life, my friend.

This is so much more than plans. It's alignment, it's authenticity. It's you. It's your damn life. Live it honestly.

Thank You for Being Here

We've done a lot over the last four weeks. And even if you just take one tiny little thing away from all of this that allows you to create your most aligned year, that allows you to confidently step into the next version of yourself, that allows you to take these authentic and aligned steps? I will have done my job.

Because that's truly what it's about: realizing that these decisions come from you. They're already within you. You just have to give yourself the space to access them, to listen to them, to trust them, and then to follow through with them.

And I really hope that the tips and the strategies and things that I have shared with you inside of this series have helped you start the process of doing just that.

You have everything that you need for your most aligned year.

Now it's about execution. Now it's about showing up for yourself. Now it's about trusting the process and remembering that this plan is yours and yours alone.

It can evolve, it can shift, and it absolutely should grow.

I'm really proud of you for doing this work because I know it's not easy, and thank you for joining me and allowing me to guide you through this process over the last four weeks (or four days if you're a binge listener).

Want to go deeper? Again, if you want to take this process even deeper, I highly recommend that you check out Brand New Plan. You have lifetime access to it. You can repeat the process every single year. It includes:

Audio trainings that go more in depth into these topics
A six part process
A very in-depth workbook (Google Doc style) to ask you these questions, to go even deeper, to give you the audit, all of that jazz

And it's available now, but the doors are closing very, very soon and it will not be available again until next year. Check it out at brandmerry.com/newplan.

Again, thank you so much for joining me in this series. If this series served you in some way, please let me know over on Instagram. You can find me at @michelleknight.co.

And I would absolutely love if you could share this with someone else that means a lot to you: a friend, a fellow business owner, a family member. Because I think that this type of work is really, really crucial for us as we are now all adults, and it's different from what we were taught as planning when we were kids. It takes the whole person into consideration and I just think more and more people need to know that this process exists so that they can truly live their most aligned life.

Thank you so much for joining me. I will be back with another mini series later this year. Be sure to subscribe to the Authentic Brand Builders Podcast so you don't miss when that is released.

And be sure to come follow me over on Instagram at @michelleknight.co, where I will keep you in the loop with all the exciting things coming down the pipeline.

Thank you again, friend. Cheers to your new year, and I will talk to you soon.

Michelle

Tune in now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube Podcasts to hear the full episode and all the tips.

P.S. Ready to build a revenue-generating brand? One that not only stands out online but also makes it easier than ever to create high-value content? Tune in to my free brand class and learn my Build a Better Brand Method. Watch now at brandmerry.com/class.

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