Key Journal Prompt · Rapid Transformation

Michael Clegg

3d • 📒 Journal Prompts

Key Journal Prompt

What would my 2036 self be frustrated to discover I was still tolerating after September 2026?

1. FRAME — What is 2026 actually about?

Start with Ben’s original questions, but press beyond the first answer.

What does 2026 mean to me and my life?

If I had to give this year a title, what would it be?
What is the deeper theme beneath everything that has happened?
What has 2026 been trying to teach me that I resisted learning?
Where have I changed most since January?
What has become clearer about who I am?
What has become clearer about who I am not?
What matters to me now that mattered much less nine months ago?
What did I think 2026 was going to be about—and what has it actually been about?

Then ask:

What would make 2026 a genuinely pivotal year rather than simply another year?

2. THE 2036 VIEW — Let the future judge the present

Now go ten years out.

Imagine it is September 25, 2036.

You are looking back at this period of your life.

Ask yourself:

Why did 2026 turn out to matter so much?
What decision did I make in 2026 that changed the trajectory of the next decade?
What did I finally stop doing?
What did I finally become willing to pursue?
What relationship, opportunity, capability, or identity began here?
What did I have the courage to walk away from?
What did I stop needing permission for?
What did my 2036 self eventually realize I was dramatically underestimating in 2026?
What did I think was a huge risk then that now looks obvious?
What did I nearly miss because I was too busy maintaining my current life?

And one especially useful question:

What would my 2036 self be frustrated to discover I was still tolerating after September 2026?

3. FLOOR — What can no longer come with you?

Hardy defines the floor as the cutoff: what you filter out and therefore no longer do. A bigger future raises that floor because many current options simply cannot produce the future you want.

So ask:

What am I tolerating that the next version of me would immediately eliminate?
Where am I lowering my standards because something is familiar, comfortable, profitable, or hard to disappoint?
What commitments belong to an earlier version of me?
Which goals once mattered but are now lesser goals?
What am I continuing simply because I have already invested time, money, reputation, or emotion into it?
What activities make me feel productive while actually keeping me small?
What relationships or roles require me to remain an outdated version of myself?
Where am I solving the same problem repeatedly instead of changing the system?
What am I saying yes to because I fear what saying no would mean?

The recent Hardy/Myron conversation is particularly relevant here: they describe strategy as saying no to almost everything—including attractive lesser goals—and note that past-self goals can remain alive long after their original premises have changed.

Then make it concrete:

By December 31, what are 3 things I refuse to still be tolerating?

4. FOCUS — What actually matters between now and December 31?

This may be the most important part of the call.

Hardy argues that goals are not merely targets; they are filtering mechanisms. A sufficiently meaningful goal should help you strip away noise and expose the few paths that matter.

So instead of creating ten priorities, force compression:

If only one meaningful thing could be fundamentally different by December 31, what should it be?
What result would make the rest of 2026 feel disproportionately successful?
What problem, if solved, makes several other problems disappear?
What opportunity deserves significantly more of my attention?
What am I giving attention to that has almost no relevance to that outcome?
Which three activities produce most of the movement?
Which three activities create most of the complexity?
Who could accelerate the outcome dramatically?
What would I stop doing if I were completely committed to the result?

Then complete:

My defining outcome for the rest of 2026 is: ________.

The three things I will disproportionately focus on are:

The three things I will deliberately stop, decline, or deprioritize are:

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Key Journal Prompt