Episode: 375 - Build Your 2026 Vision in 2 Minutes
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As we wrap up 2025 and look toward a new year, it’s crucial to adopt a mindset that transforms your financial life in 2026. Brad Nelson, founder of Debt Free Dad, highlights a simple, yet powerful idea that focuses less on budgeting harder and more on where you place your attention. The key to a successful financial year lies in building a clear, meaningful vision that naturally pulls you forward toward your goals.
Why Vision Matters
Your brain focuses on what you tell it is important. As we transition into the new year, it's vital to shape our focus not on the problems but on visions that pull us. This approach shifts the traditional method of pushing for financial change, which often involves more energy, willpower, and short-lived resolutions. Instead, establish a pull vision—a natural and effortless movement toward the life you desire.
The Ingredients of a Successful Money Vision
Brad emphasizes that a solid vision incorporates three fundamental elements: clarity, emotion, and identity.
1. Clarity:
It’s essential to know exactly what you are moving toward. Vague money goals are uninspiring. Instead of saying, "I want to be debt-free," say, "I want to wake up without an anxious knot in my stomach every morning." Clarity provides the direction needed to achieve your financial goals.
2. Emotion:
Emotional drives are more powerful than numerical ones. While numbers are tangible, they lack the longevity needed to sustain change. Attach emotional significance to your goals, such as wanting your children to feel secure or desiring less financial tension with your partner. Emotional resonance strengthens long-term commitment to your financial vision.
3. Identity:
Who are you becoming as you improve your finances? Embrace a new identity by seeing yourself as someone who follows through, plans ahead, and makes confident financial decisions. Your new identity will not only help build your habits but also drive real results.
Quick Exercise for Creating Your Vision
To set yourself up for success in 2026, Brad suggests a straightforward exercise:
- What is one thing you want your money to do for you next year? (Think clarity)
- How do you want your life to feel next year? (Focus on emotion)
- Who are you becoming in the process? (Embrace your identity)
Answer these questions to develop a focus that aligns with the life you aim to create and maintain. This newfound clarity will act as a filter for evaluating decisions, ensuring they contribute to your desired future rather than detracting from it.
Conclusion
As you implement this mindset shift, select a single focus area of your financial life to grow this month. The work done inside Debt Free Dad’s program, Roots, embodies this by fostering clarity, confidence, and habits that last. A shift in focus will lead to a shift in results.
If breaking free from living paycheck to paycheck, reducing stress, and building savings are goals you resonate with, Brad’s program "Simplify My Money" offers step-by-step guidance. This resource, delivered each Sunday, is designed to streamline your financial control and decision-making.
Make 2026 the year of transformation by creating a vision that not only pulls you forward but also aligns with your identity and emotions, ensuring lasting financial happiness.
For more insights, resources, and tools for managing your financial journey, subscribe to our updates and prepare to take your first steps toward a successful year.
Resources
The Totally Awesome Debt Freedom Planner https://www.debtfreedad.com/planner
Connect With Brad
Website- https://www.debtfreedad.com
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/thedebtfreedad
Private Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/debtfreedad
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/debtfreedad/
TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@debt_free_dad
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@bradnelson-debtfreedad2751/featured
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Transcript
Brad Nelson:
So as we close out 2025, I want to leave you with one simple idea that has the power to change your entire financial life here in 2026. Now it's not about budgeting harder or being more disciplined. It's about shifting where you put your attention because what you focus on, it really does determine the direction of your year.
Announcer:
You're listening to the Debt Free Dad podcast with Brad Nelson. Brad and his co-hosts experience the anxiety of living paycheck to paycheck before learning the fundamentals of financial success. They are now on a mission to empower regular people to pay off their debt for good and enjoy happier, less stressful lives. Keep listening for inspirational interviews, tips, tricks, and practical advice to gain financial freedom.
Speaker:
So today we're going to be talking about how to build a clear, meaningful vision that can actually pull you forward into a brand new year. Hey guys, I'm Brad Nelson, founder of Defree Dead. I paid off about $45,000 of debt. I've been debt-free now for more than 12 years. I've also been fortunate enough to help thousands of other people save and pay off tens of millions of dollars with the work that we do here at Defree Dead. Now, after listening to this episode, if you are ready to take things to the next level, you're ready to break free from living paycheck to paycheck. You want to reduce stress, you want to build savings, finally pay off your debt for good, but maybe you're not sure where to get started. We've created some incredible free resources on top of this amazing podcast that we have. And we're going to be sharing some details about how you can get some of those later on in today's episode. Now, if you've ever felt like you're constantly trying to push yourself into better money habits, you're pushing yourself to spend less, you're pushing yourself to stay motivated, you're pushing yourself to stick to the plan. Today's episode is going to feel like a big exhale. Because the truth is, you don't need more willpower here coming in the new year in 2026. What you really need, and what we talk about a lot here on the Deaf ReDad podcast, is you need a vision that actually pulls you forward. Now, again, this is something that we talk about not only a lot on this podcast, but also inside roots, because it's one of the biggest shifts people make when they finally break old patterns. And as we head into a brand new year, this is the perfect time to talk about this topic. Now, let's share why this matters. Because here's the reality your brain, it focuses on what you tell it is important. And whatever you focus on the most, that's what's going to grow. So if you focus on stress, guess what? You're going to get a lot more stress. If you focus on fear, you're going to get a lot more fear. If you focus on progress, though, if you focus on confidence, you focus on the tasks that are going to create more confidence. You focus on your purpose, your vision. Your brain is going to look for ways to support that. You see, most people spend their whole entire money life focused on their money problems, which is easy to do. I used to do it too. We focus on things like we're behind. However, we're going to get caught up, or I messed up again, or I never can just seem to get this right. And your brain, it just keeps scanning the world and your environment for proof of those thoughts. Now, a pull vision is going to change the whole direction of your mindset. You see, most people try to push their way into financial change. Now, push sounds like I need to stop spending money, or I have to try harder, or I can't screw up this time, right? Or we have that scarcity mindset or that limiting mindset of I can't buy those things that I enjoy. You see, push requires a lot more energy. It requires a lot more motivation and willpower. And let's be honest, those things, you'll right, and as you're listening to this, we all know that those things wear off pretty quick, especially when you think about New Year's resolutions, people usually quit within just a few weeks of the new year. Now, a poll vision, it's kind of the opposite. It makes good decisions feel natural because they're connected to the life that you actually want to live. So poll will sound something more like this. I want to build more breathing room in my life, or I want a calmer life. I want Sunday nights to feel peaceful again, or I want more choices, more options. You see, when you have a vision that pulls you, you're not forcing yourself to change. You're moving forward with something that actually matters to you and something that you really want in your life. And this is where real transformation really begins to happen. Now, Inside Roots, we teach that a money vision or a wire purpose, it has like three kind of areas or pieces to it. Number one is clarity. What exactly are you moving towards? What do you want your life to look like? You see, vague goals, they don't really motivate anyone. Just the idea of I'm gonna pay off my debt or I want to be debt-free isn't enough. You need something to pull you towards that. Your brain needs focus, it needs like details of exactly what you want. So instead of, again, like I said, I want to get out of debt, try, I want to wake up without that anxious knot in my stomach every single morning. Or I want a budget that feels peaceful, not restrictive. Or I want to be able to cover car repairs without it always feeling like panic or emergency mode all the time. Clarity and getting really detailed in what you want, it creates the direction that you really need. Now, the second area is emotion. Why does this matter to me? Like, why does this work matter? Numbers don't drive change. As exciting as it can be to see your savings grow, as exciting as it can be to see your debt get paid off, that wears off as well. It will be exciting for a little while, but eventually you're gonna get bored with it. Now, being that those numbers don't drive the change, then what does emotion, right? You're gonna stick with a plan when emotional reason, when you have some emotion behind it and it's meaningful. You know, maybe it's wanting your kids to feel more safe and secure, or maybe you want less tension with your partner when it comes to finances. Again, maybe you want more margin, you want more breathing room in your life. You see, wanting to stop living reaction to reaction and really putting some emotion behind it really is gonna drive that motivation that you're looking for because again, it has meaning behind it. When your vision is emotional, your decisions will follow that. Now, number three is identity. Who are you actually becoming by improving your finances? This one is huge. And again, I get that these can be really deep and sometimes they can almost be like, oh, I can't do that. It's way too touchy-feely for me. But I'm telling you, these things really do work. You can't build a new financial life with an old identity. Not I'm trying to be better with money, but instead, I'm someone who follows through. I'm someone who plans ahead. I'm someone who is a good saver. I'm someone who is confident in my financial decisions and my financial future. I'm building a stable and peaceful home. Your identity is going to drive those habits. And your habits, they're gonna drive your results. Now, here's a quick exercise for you guys as we kind of wrap up 2025 here and look to 2026. And I get as you're listening to this, especially if you're listening to this as this episode airs, you know, we're right in the midst of the holidays. And I get, you know, you don't have a lot of time. That's why this is really quick to do, and it's gonna really kind of help you focus on after the holidays and moving into the new year. And this is something, again, that we talk about a lot inside Roots and we have our members do. So grab your phone, grab a notebook, a piece of paper, whatever. Answer these three questions. All right. Number one, what's one thing you want your money to do for you next year? Again, think with clarity. What's one thing you want your money to do for you next year? Number two is how do you want your life to feel next year? Again, not just about money, but just how do you want your life to feel next year? Think emotion here. And then number three, who are you becoming in the process next year? And this is all about that identity. Now, again, this only takes two minutes, but you know, take some time while you're driving to work or while you're on lunch break or while you got those little pockets of time throughout your day. Think about these three questions. These three questions are gonna completely shift the decisions that you begin to make, starting even this month in December, as you're listening to this brand new episode, or starting especially in 2026 in January. Now, here's the cool part. Once you create your vision or your why or your purpose, this is the best part about it, is that you are now actually gonna build a filter for your life. Because before you start to spend now, now that you have this clarity, you have this identity, you have emotion behind why you're doing the things that you're doing, you are going to now ask, is this purchase that I am so drawn to make, is that gonna move me closer to the life that I now want to create, or is it gonna move me further away from it? This one question is gonna save you a ton of money. It's gonna save you a lot of stress, it's gonna save you a lot of guilt, it's gonna save you a lot of regret because it reconnects your choices with your future instead of your impulses. So here's the challenge I want to give you. Pick one thing to focus on this month, one area of your financial life that you're gonna grow simply because you're giving it a lot more attention. Not 10 goals, not a whole new year's resolution list, just one point of focus that will pull you forward. Because when you shift your focus, you're gonna shift all of your results. This is the work, again, that we do inside roots every single week in our membership and accountability program. We build clarity, we build confidence, we help people build the habits that actually last. And you're fully capable of making those shifts as well. You don't need perfection, you just need good direction because what you focus on is gonna grow. Now, guys, if you're ready to break free from living paycheck to paycheck, you want to reduce stress, you want to build savings, finally pay off your debt for good. But again, maybe you're struggling with where to get started. Don't worry. Like I said, we've got you covered. Simplify My Money is sent to you each and every Sunday to your email. It is your step-by-step roadmap to better financial control. And you're also gonna learn some easy to follow strategies to manage your money effectively. It's gonna give you some help with making stress-free money decisions, like we talked about on today's episode. These little tips are gonna help you simplify your financial life with proven tasks that actually work. And you're gonna gain the tools and confidence to tackle your financial goals head on. You can sign up for Simplify My Money by clicking the link at the top of the show notes. Thanks for joining us on today's show, and we will see you guys on the next episode.
Announcer:
Thanks for listening to the Debt Free Dad podcast. Connect with us on Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. Just search Debt Free Dad. If you found value in today's episode, please leave us a rating and review. We so appreciate it. For resources, show notes, and links mentioned in today's show, visit debtfreedad.com. Catch you next week.
