The Map & The People: Everything You Need for an Excellent 2026
The Full Listener's Guide
We explore the complete framework for chasing excellence and why the people you surround yourself with might be the single most important factor in whether you actually get there.
You’ll learn how to build context-independent peace of mind, why health gives you the freedom to chase what truly matters, how the Five Factors create the foundation for everything else, and why the people around you determine 95% of your success or failure.
This is both the map and the crew you need for 2026.
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5 Big Ideas
1. Peace of Mind Requires Both a Map and a Crew
You can have the clearest framework in the world, but without the right people around you, it won’t matter. And you can have incredible relationships, but without knowing where you’re going, you’ll drift.
This is why these two conversations belong together. The first gives you the complete roadmap from daily habits all the way to peace of mind. The second reminds you that the people you surround yourself with will determine whether you actually get there. As we head into 2026, the question isn’t which one matters more - it’s whether you have both.
Think of it this way: the map tells you where to go, but your crew determines whether you’ll actually make the journey.
2. Context-Independent Peace of Mind is the Destination Worth Chasing
Not the peace you feel when you get the promotion. Not the calm that comes when the championship is won. We’re talking about a sustainable, context-independent sense of fulfillment that exists regardless of what’s happening around you.
This is what we’re all actually chasing, even when we think we’re chasing something else. The raise, the title, the achievement - those are just short-term hits of dopamine disguised as the destination. Real peace of mind comes from knowing your values, living authentically, and chasing what truly matters to you, not what the tribe says you should chase.
As you think about 2026, ask yourself: are you chasing context-dependent wins, or are you building a life where peace of mind is the norm, not the exception?
3. Health Gives You the Freedom to Actually Live Your Values
Here’s the framework in one sentence: health gives you freedom, freedom lets you chase what truly matters, and chasing what truly matters leads to fulfillment and peace of mind.
Without health, you’re the passenger, not the driver. You’re reacting to what life brings instead of actively creating the life you want. Health isn’t about looking good or hitting PRs - it’s about being an asset instead of a burden. It’s about having the energy, focus, and resilience required to do the hard work of living intentionally.
The Five Factors - how you train, eat, sleep, think, and connect - aren’t just wellness tips. They’re the daily prescription that creates the foundation for everything else you want to do in 2026.
4. Your Crew Accounts for 95% of Your Success or Failure
Dr. McLeod’s Harvard research is clear: the people you habitually associate with determine as much as 95 percent of the success or failure in your life. That’s not motivational fluff - that’s biology.
Your mirror neurons subconsciously mimic the behaviors and attitudes of those around you. If you surround yourself with driven, positive people who challenge you and want to see you win, you’re more likely to do just that. If you surround yourself with victims, complainers, or toxic relationships, your body perceives that as a constant threat, suppressing your immune system and keeping you in a chronic state of stress.
This is why crew isn’t one of the five factors - it affects all five factors. The people around you influence how you train, what you eat, how you sleep, how you think, and how connected you feel.
As you set up 2026, the single biggest thing you can control is your environment, and the single biggest thing that influences your environment is the people in it.
5. Surrounding Yourself with the Right People Demands Intention
The word “surround” matters. This isn’t about having one good friend you see once a year. It’s about being surrounded - day in, day out - by people who lift you up, challenge you, and make the hard work easier just by being in your corner.
Strong social connections increase health outcomes by 50%. Social isolation is worse for you than smoking 15 cigarettes a day. This isn’t about being an extrovert or having a big social circle - it’s about frequency and quality. It’s about relationships that demand the wildly inefficient work of showing up, being present, and investing time in people who want to see you win.
As you head into 2026, ask yourself: are you surrounded by people who want to see you win, or are you isolated, drifting, or stuck in relationships that drain you? Because awareness is the first step, but intention and action are what actually change your environment.
3 Reflection Questions
1. Do you have both the map and the crew for 2026?
Be honest: do you know where you’re going, and do you have people in your corner who will help you get there? Maybe you have clarity on your goals but feel isolated. Or maybe you have great relationships but lack direction. Having an excellent year requires both - a clear framework for what you’re chasing and a crew that makes the journey sustainable.
2. Where are you chasing context-dependent wins instead of building context-independent peace of mind?
Think about what you’re currently pursuing. Is it something external - a title, a raise, a milestone - that you believe will make you feel fulfilled? Or are you doing the deeper work of figuring out what truly matters to you and aligning your daily actions with those values? There’s nothing wrong with external goals, but if they’re your only measure of success, you’re setting yourself up for wild pendulum swings.
3. Who needs to be added to (or removed from) your environment in the next year?
This is the hardest question, but it’s the most important one. Look at the five people you spend the most time with. Are they people who challenge you, lift you up, and want to see you win? Or are they people who drain you, pull you down, or keep you stuck? Creating the environment that makes it easy to live well requires ruthless honesty about who’s in that environment - and the courage to make changes when necessary.
1 Key Takeaway
An excellent 2026 requires both knowing where you’re going and surrounding yourself with people who help you get there.
The framework without the crew is just theory. The crew without the framework is just comfort. But when you combine both - when you have clarity on what peace of mind means for you and you’ve built an environment that makes chasing it possible - that’s when transformation happens.
This is what awareness, intention, and action look like in practice. Awareness is understanding the complete roadmap from daily habits to peace of mind. Intention is deciding that you’re going to chase what truly matters instead of what everyone else says you should chase. And action is both doing the daily work of the Five Factors and doing the harder work of surrounding yourself with people who want to see you win.
As you close out 2025 and look ahead to the new year, don’t just set goals. Build the map. Find your crew. Do the work of figuring out what truly matters to you, and then create the environment that makes living those values possible.
Because at the end of 2026, you won’t remember the wins or the losses as much as you’ll remember who you became and who was with you on the journey. Peace of mind isn’t about avoiding difficulty - it’s about having both the framework to navigate it and the people who make you believe you can.
That’s what an excellent year looks like. And you already have everything you need to make it happen.
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