Creating Space for What Wants to Unfold in 2026

👋 Hi my name is Roslyn, I’m a 2x founder and executive coach. I help founders fall in love with building their companies again. Learn about working 1:1 here.

Hi there,

I hope your 2026 has been energizing and easeful so far.

I got back from Costa Rica two days ago. Yes I went back! In my plant medicine ceremony in November I received a clear message to bring my husband back with me, and I’m so glad I did. It was a magical trip filled with surfing, yoga and papaya, but also reflection, connection and basking in the space of possibility around the life we want to co-create together. 

I’m coming back feeling refreshed and energized for the year ahead. When I look back on 2025, I can see it was a seed planting year for me. It was a year of a lot of inner work, deep healing, and expansion (I wrote about that here). And with this expansion I’m feeling more ready to step into a bigger vision for Within.

With all of that being said, you might assume I’m heading into 2026 with big goals and plans. And while I’m open to whatever this expansion brings, I’m approaching goal setting very differently from how I did in 2025. 

That’s what this newsletter is all about:

• Why my 2025 goal setting method wasn’t fully aligned

• My 2026 alternative: setting intentions and creating space to unfold

• What this looks like in practice at Within this year

If you’re in NYC, join us on our next Within Walk this Friday, January 9th, or for Pickleball, Pilates & Intention-Setting on Saturday, January 25th. Scroll down to “Happening at Within” for more details. 

THE OLD GOAL SETTING PARADIGM

Last year I wrote a newsletter on Setting Up for Success in 2025, and I still believe in what I wrote. However, as I reflect on the type of business planning I did for Within last year, I’m realizing it wasn’t fully aligned with what I needed at that moment in time.

Don’t get me wrong… the business plan itself was thoughtful and comprehensive. It covered mission, vision, values, annual and quarterly goals, ideal customer personas and offerings, brand, marketing and sales strategy, ops and systems, OKRs, and milestones. All the things you’d expect.

But when I look back at the intention behind that plan, it wasn’t coming from the most grounded headspace.

Here’s why:

I was trying to use it as a way to control my future. “If I just create the perfectly considered goals, track my KPI’s and position my business correctly, I’ll have the revenue and income I want and will finally feel like a capable business person who is doing good in the world, and therefore I am enough.” (This was unconscious of course!). 

Just a friendly reminder for all of us (myself included): You can’t manage the future by taking actions in the present. What you can do is navigate the present in a way that leads to the emergence of desirable futures, often futures that could not have been imagined or designed in advance. (I’ll get into this later). 

I was in the camp of trying to design my exact future and pull the “right” levers to get there. (It didn’t work!)

My plan assumed that once I hit my outer goals, I would finally feel good enough. In truth, I wrote it from a place of deficiency. I believed that if I organized my outer world to prove I was capable, thoughtful, and impressive, I would finally feel whole and worthy of respect, admiration, and connection.

One of my biggest lessons of the year is that it’s the inner work that unfolds that sense of worthiness. It doesn’t arrive once you have the money, the things, the partner, the friends, the homes, the recognition, the awards, or the successful exits. (I interact with many post-exit founders who still struggle deeply with this.) Worthiness comes from learning to love yourself. I know that can sound broad — and hard — and I’ve written more about my own journey of opening my heart over the past year here).

I didn’t fully trust myself. Much of my plan was influenced by “what’s typically done in business.” While parts of it were absolutely authentic and aligned, other parts borrowed heavily from conventional go-to-market wisdom that didn’t actually energize me. As the year unfolded, I noticed that the more I followed that script, the more drained I felt. It wasn’t until I started listening to my intuition — and allowing myself to grow the business in ways that felt fun and natural — that things began to flow.

I didn’t fully trust the universe. I assumed I knew exactly what I wanted and what the best possible outcomes could be for me. I didn’t leave room for the possibility that the universe might know better — that there might be something even more aligned waiting for me.

And I got my lesson.

What I needed last year wasn’t to crush my goals or sail into massive success. I needed to struggle. I needed to heal some deep core wounds. I needed to be shown — through my business, my relationships, and my life — where I still needed to expand, soften, and unfold into greater wholeness.

In many ways, the business plan didn’t serve me because as I repeatedly fell short of my quarterly KPIs, I felt shame. Instead of celebrating how much I had learned and grown — as a new business owner, a new coach, and a human — my inner critic told me I had failed. It made me question everything: Is this actually aligned? If it is, why am I not “succeeding”?

I was measuring a year that was meant to be about inner work using ambitious outer metrics.

According to the Chinese zodiac, last year was the Year of the Snake — associated with wisdom, intuition, transformation, and quiet, strategic growth. There’s an emphasis on depth, discernment, and moving with intention rather than force.

This couldn’t have been more accurate for me.

It wasn’t a fast year. It was a year to figure out who I am, how to love myself, and how to align with a new way of doing business. That process came with tension. It required a tremendous amount of inner work. And along the way, I was aligned with the best healers, teachers, and peers I could have asked for.

Looking back, the inner transformation I experienced was exponentially more valuable than any outer result I had hoped for. If I had to choose between the outcomes I originally wanted and the inner work I received instead, I would choose the latter again and again. It’s priceless to me.

In hindsight, I wish I had approached my planning process in a way that allowed for — and even celebrated — how the year actually unfolded and the gifts that emerged through the difficulty.

So this year, I’m doing things differently. 

This may feel a bit controversial, especially if you love annual and quarterly goals. I invite you to read with an open mind — take what resonates and leave the rest. And if you’re craving a more traditional planning approach, you can always revisit last year’s article.

CREATING SPACE TO UNFOLD

The basic premise for how I’m approaching this year is simple:

1. Taking time to reconnect with mission, vision and values

2. Setting aligned, loosely held intentions for the year

3. Creating the space for myself and my business to unfold

This approach honors the reality that our most meaningful moments don’t always come from bold resolutions or rigid plans made on January 1st.

The work isn’t about crafting the perfect roadmap and forcing ourselves to stick to it through discipline alone. It’s about creating the conditions for wisdom, creativity, and clarity to emerge — and having the agility to pivot, let go, and lean in when needed.

“Complexity scientists like David Snowden, creator of the Cynefin framework, remind us that in complex systems there is no linear relationship between cause and effect. You can’t manage the future by taking actions in the present.

What you can do is navigate the present in a way that allows desirable futures to emerge — even when those futures couldn’t have been imagined in advance.” (Excerpted from Aletheia’s Advanced Coaching Program.)

So how do we do that?

1. MISSION, VISION & VALUES 

The first step is to set, or revisit, your mission, vision, and values. As you, your business, and your team evolve, these may naturally want to evolve too. I strongly encourage taking time to iterate on them so they continue to feel aligned, inspiring, and actionable.

VISION

Your vision describes the long-term impact of your work, the world you’re trying to help create.

Consider:

• What is the bigger idea I’m advancing through my work?

• What is the world I’m seeking to create?

• What do I want my work to mean beyond profit?

At Within, my vision is:

To help advance a more conscious way of doing business—where entrepreneurship is a path of self-expression, integrity, and spiritual growth, and where founders build from purpose, intuition, and care for themselves, their people, and the world.

MISSION

Your mission describes the current purpose and actions that you’re taking to reach that long term vision.

Consider:

• What is the impact I wish to have in the next 1-5 years?

• How do I progress my vision? 

At Within, my mission is: 

Through coaching, content, and community, I create spaces where founders feel profoundly supported to clarify their vision and build meaningful, impactful businesses without sacrificing their wellbeing.

VALUES

Values are the principles that guide your decisions, especially when things feel uncertain or hard. They help you stay in integrity.

Consider:

• What do I personally stand for, no matter the circumstances?

• What tradeoffs am I willing to make to stay in integrity?

• What behaviors are rewarded and rejected at our company?

• What moments have made us most proud as a team and why? 

At Within, the values guiding me this year are:

Trust

I lead from trust—trusting my purpose, intuition, and creativity, and making space for stillness and safety so that my inner guidance can come through. I trust the timing of my life, that the right people and opportunities will align, and I trust both myself and my clients as wise, resourced, and creative beings with the answers within them.

Love

I choose love as a way of being: with myself in moments of challenge, imperfection, and growth, and with others through open-hearted connection, collaboration, and care. Love guides how I show up for my community, my work, my relationships, and the life I’m building.

Bravery

I practice bravery by taking aligned action even when fear is present, allowing myself to be seen, to risk rejection or failure, and to operate on my growth edge. I also create spaces and provide the support, safety, and resourcing that allow my clients to be brave in their own work: to take bold, authentic steps and build from truth rather than fear.

2. SETTING INTENTIONS

So this is where things get a little different from what I suggested last year. 

Previously, I encouraged setting annual, values-aligned goals — both financial and non-financial. In hindsight, this is where I set myself up to struggle. As a relatively new business, my goals were more aspirational than grounded in lived reality.

There are a few common issues with goal-setting in business.

Leaders often set targets based on what they want to happen, sometimes pushing ambition into unrealistic territory. On the flip side, when teams are involved, targets can get sandbagged to ensure success. The result is often a compromise number that doesn’t fully reflect reality or possibility.

Goals can also be restrictive. They leave little room for intuition, creativity, or the possibility that something even better than what we planned might emerge.

So what I’m going to suggest instead here is intention setting. 

While goals are oriented around outcomes and external metrics, intentions are oriented around alignment, values, and inner state. They clarify how you want to show up, what you want to be in integrity with, and the quality of presence you want to bring to your work and life as things unfold.

Intentions act as a compass rather than a finish line. They support you in making choices that are coherent with who you are becoming — especially in moments of uncertainty, growth, or challenge — while still allowing outcomes to emerge naturally over time.

My intentions this year: 

• To align more deeply with my dharma through my work at Within.

• To approach my work with trust in—and love for—myself, my clients, and life itself.

• To create community spaces where people feel deeply seen, held, and supported on their entrepreneurial paths.

• To step more fully into my role as a teacher, in the forms that feel most aligned and natural.

• To deepen my presence and skillfulness as a coach in service of others’ unfolding.

• To continue healing, expanding, and resourcing myself so I can work at my growth edge and bravely unfold into more whole and expansive versions of myself.

• For my financial needs to be met in ways that provide safety, support, and freedom of expression for me and my family in this season of life.

• To be aligned with the people, places, and opportunities that help me feel supported, connected, and fully expressed.

If you’re a business leader, perhaps instead of going in with a revenue or profit goal, you state an intention based on the impact you want to make with your customers and team and how you want to make it.

For example:

Instead of: “Our goal is to make $1M in revenue this year,”

Your intention might sound like:

“To build the financial sustainability needed to support our team, deepen the quality of service we offer our customers, and grow in ways that feel aligned, intentional, and supportive of the people behind the work.”

It doesn’t remove ambition but rather grounds it in the desired state underneath the number. The revenue still matters, but it becomes a byproduct of aligned action rather than the sole driver of decision-making.

3. SETTING QUARTERLY MILESTONES

Last year, I set quarterly milestones for the entire year upfront — and I didn’t complete many of them. What did happen was that as I took aligned action and focused on my inner work, new clarity emerged. My vision sharpened. What felt energizing and meaningful became clearer. And my priorities shifted.

This year, I’m only planning one to two quarters ahead. I invite you to notice what feels right for you. Full clarity for the year is not a prerequisite for forward movement.

I recommend this structure:

• Quarterly goal:

• How does this align with my vision, mission & values?

• What does success look and feel like?

• What might get in the way?

• What support do I need?

• What are 3 small steps I can take to get started?

For example, here’s my Q1 goal for Within:

• Q1 Goal: Launch an online community for existing and past clients, co-created with the group to support meaningful connection, shared learning, and intentional unfolding.

• Alignment with Vision, Mission & Values: This supports my vision of creating safe, intentional spaces where founders feel supported, seen, and able to grow together.

• What Success Looks & Feels Like: Strong engagement and retention after three months, with a felt sense of love, growth and mutual support.

• What Might Get in the Way: The urge to control the process or fear of being fully seen in a leadership role.

• Support Needed: Trusting intuition and allowing guidance to emerge through stillness and co-creation. Expansion from other communities I admire.

• Three Small Steps to Start: Define a simple structure, send initial invitations, and schedule the first gathering.

4. CREATE THE CONDITIONS FOR UNFOLDING

This is the most important step. Plans, intentions, and goals are not static — they evolve as we do. You want new insights, ideas, and desires to emerge and be integrated as they arise.

Rather than optimizing every moment to stay on plan, I’m choosing to hold the plan lightly and focus on creating the conditions where clarity, intuition, and creativity can emerge. 

So how do we do that? 

CREATE SPACE FOR INTUITION TO COME THROUGH

Create the conditions for stillness. 

Intuition needs stillness. It can’t speak when you’re in back-to-back meetings or looping in overplanning, overworking, or rumination. Start your day with a contemplative practice, even if it’s just 15 minutes. Create gaps in your day to walk outside, do chores without a podcast, or sit quietly with a cup of tea. Take a bath without distractions. Book a retreat — or create a simple at-home version.

Without space for new wisdom, we default to old programming.

Create safety in your body. It’s difficult to receive intuitive guidance when you’re in fear, anxiety, or chronic activation.

Support your nervous system with the basics: sleep, nourishing food, and movement. Learn to notice signs of activation and build a simple toolbox for returning to safety and connection — breath, humming, orienting to your surroundings, gentle movement.

If activation feels chronic, professional support can be helpful.

I wrote more about this here. 

Learn how to listen to your body’s messages. Your body communicates long before your mind catches up.

Practice noticing sensations, emotions, and subtle cues: tension, contraction, expansion, excitement, resistance. Over time, you’ll learn what alignment feels like in your body, not just in your head.

I wrote about how to listen to your body’s messages here.

Building trust in your intuition. When intuitive nudges arise, experiment with following them, even in small ways. Notice the outcomes. As your body learns that it’s safe to listen and respond, trust builds. Over time, intuition becomes something you can rely on for larger decisions as well.

CREATE A COCOON OF SUPPORT

Surround yourself with people who believe in you.

New ideas and intuitive pings are fragile. They often don’t make full sense at first, and it’s easy to talk yourself out of them before they take form. This makes relational support essential.

Notice whether the people around you are oriented toward possibility — or whether you feel you need to have everything figured out before sharing what’s emerging. Seek friends, mentors, and coaches who help you explore why something could work, not just why it might not.

USE CHALLENGES TO HEAL AND EXPAND

Instead of seeing challenges as roadblocks or signs to stop, view them as invitations to heal and grow.

Feeling stuck may point to protective parts trying to keep you safe from failure or judgment. Resistance around selling can reflect a rejection wound. Difficulty being visible often connects to fear of being seen or taking up space.

Rather than forcing your way through fear, change how you relate to it. Meet challenges with curiosity and compassion. Over time, setbacks become experiences you trust yourself to navigate and you relate to problems with more strength, capability and creativity.

CONCLUSION

As I step into this year, I’m choosing less control and more trust. Less attachment to a fixed outcome, and more devotion to alignment, presence, and unfolding.

If you’re feeling pressure to have it all figured out, I invite you to try softening. To clarify what matters most, set intentions you can return to, and create the space for something wiser than your plans to emerge.

VISION, MISSION & VALUES

• What is the bigger idea I’m advancing through my work?

• What is the world I’m seeking to create?

• What do I want my work to mean beyond profit?

• What is the impact I wish to have in the next 1-5 years?

• How do I progress my vision?

• What do I personally stand for, no matter the circumstances?

• What tradeoffs am I willing to make to stay in integrity?

• What behaviors are rewarded and rejected at our company?

• What moments have made us most proud as a team and why?

INTENTIONS

• What are my intentions for 2026?

• How do I want to show up as a leader this year?

• How will I integrate my mission, vision and values into my actions?

• What’s the quality of presence I want to bring to my work and life?

• What do I want to be in integrity with this year?

QUARTERLY GOALS

• Quarterly goal:

• How does this align with my vision, mission & values?

• What does success look and feel like?

• What might get in the way?

• What support do I need?

• What are 3 small steps I can take to get started?

CREATING SPACE FOR UNFOLDING

• How will I create the conditions for stillness in my life this year?

• What can I do to create safety in my nervous system?

• How will I build trust in my intuition and body’s messages this year?

• Who do I want to surround myself with that expands, supports and believes in me?

• What practices, tools and support will I rely on to transform challenges into opportunities to heal and grow?

WITHIN WALKS

We’re hosting our first Within Walk for female founders of 2026 this Friday, January 9th.

This Within Walk is in partnership with AskPetal, an AI Health Agent helping women understand how hormonal rhythms impact daily energy, rest, fitness, nutrition, and mental focus.

So naturally we'll be talking about all things cycle syncing for founders (aka how we can harness the power of our monthly rhythms in how we build our companies).

We’ll be discussing:

•⁠ ⁠When do you feel most energized and clear in your monthly rhythm — and how do you align your work with that (if at all)?

•⁠ ⁠​How does your body tell you it needs rest, and how do you usually respond?

•⁠ ⁠Have you felt physical or emotional consequences from ignoring your body’s natural rhythms and signals?

•⁠ ⁠​What’s one change you could make this month to harness the power of your monthly rhythms?

PS, if it’s freezing, we’ll stay inside the cafe and I’ll lead a discussion around our theme instead of walking outside!

Join me for a day of movement and 2026 intention-setting on January 25th, in partnership with Break Sports. I mean, truly can you name a better combo than pilates, pickleball and intention-setting?!

Use code WITHINVIP to get your ticket for $10. Can’t wait to see you! 🙂 

• 1:1 Coaching: If you’re looking for support in unfolding in 2026, I’d love to meet you. Book a free coaching consultation to learn how we can work together.

• Walk with us: Join for our next Within Walk.

• Let’s be friends: on LinkedIn and Instagram. I share more startup content and what’s going on behind the scenes there.

• Finally, tell me how you liked this newsletter. I read every piece of feedback.

I hope you have a beautiful start to 2026!

With love,
Roslyn 💚