#53: Don’t Wait for January: Start Dreaming About 2026 Now

This is the time of year when everyone’s telling you to plan your next big move. But you can’t imagine thinking about that now with the busy holiday season so near. 

What if 2026 didn’t start with a plan… but with a dream?

What if you knew what you wanted for yourself next year?

What if you could have the clarity in 15-30 minutes?

You don’t need a goal or a plan yet. But this tiny pocket of time right now is the most powerful place to start dreaming about 2026. And in this short episode, I tell you exactly how to do it.

Plus, I got a powerful (and free) tool for you to use that makes it so simple for you to reconnect with your own dreams — even if they’ve been buried for a while.

Download the Start Dreaming Again Guide  and then imagine letting that dream marinate and breathe in the background until 2026 arrives.

3 KEY TAKE AWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:💭 

1️⃣ Your first step to clarity is dreaming the dream.

2️⃣ The act of naming a dream shifts how you move through your days.

3️⃣ Getting clear on what you care about and what you’re moving toward is one of the most powerful things you can do for yourself.

What do you really want for yourself next year?

It all starts with clarity. Not a plan. 

DOWNLOAD THE FREE START DREAMING AGAIN GUIDE

Check out all my coaching and course offerings - Coachcarlene.com

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

You're never too busy, too tired, too old, or too anything to pursue your dreams. Welcome to the Distracted Dreamer podcast, where you'll learn how to move all those never-ending distractions aside and chase your dreams with confidence. Hello, hello, my friend. Welcome back to the Distracted Dreamer. I know how busy you are, and I'm so grateful that you're taking the time to tune in. Um, today is a shorter episode. So you can use the rest of the time that you'd be listening to do something for yourself. And I'm going to tell you exactly what that is. But first, I gotta know: do you feel yourself bracing for it? You know, you know what I'm talking about. It's a couple weeks before the holiday season is upon us. And sometimes it can feel like the holidays are happening to you instead of with you or for you. And all that beautiful family time, the meal prepping, the shopping, the decorating, it can, well, it can feel overwhelming. And then boom, it's the new year, and all the pressure of you gotta have goals and you gotta have a plan and the whole shebang, it leaves you feeling behind. And maybe you wonder if you should even bother. But I got something in my ear saying, take advantage of this precious pocket of time before the holidays are here, and I'm inviting you to join me. Now, you know, most people, we wait until January to figure out what we want. Now, hear me out. I'm not saying to do your New Year stuff now. No, no, no, no. That's exactly what I don't want for you. You don't need to do more right now. But maybe you do need to start dreaming for 2026. Now, I don't mean like in a high pressure kind of a way. I mean more like in a get curious, get inspired, get clear kind of way, you know, before you're exhausted and you have no brain cells left. Because I know I can't dream when I'm overwhelmed and my to-do list is as long as a CVS receipt. What is it with those receipts, anyways? Like what a waste. Does it does anybody look at those receipts and like fill out the surveys or use the coupons? Anyways, I digress. But my point is you want to get clarity now, not when you're trying to recover from the holidays, but now before all of that takes over. So the best way to start strong in January is to start dreaming now. Now, notice I didn't say to start doing now. I said to start dreaming now. You can do that. Because here's what I've learned, and maybe you've felt this too, is that clarity, it doesn't just arrive because you want it to, right? You're not going to be clear on what you want just because the calendar says, oh, it's January 1st. No. And your desire, well, desire does not happen when you're exhausted. The only thing that you desire when you're exhausted is rest. That's it, that's the dream to rest. And dreams, they don't show up when you're rushing, they appear when there's a quiet and a calm about you. And they show up when you slow down just enough to listen. And right now, right here in this little sliver of space that we have before the holidays really hit, you have that window. It's not a huge, wide-open window, but it's open wide enough for you to take 15 or 30 minutes to sit and be with yourself, and you will find that your dreams, they will join you. And this is why I believe now, not January, not when things calm down, is actually the most powerful time to begin dreaming again. And I say begin because I'm not asking you to make a big plan or to commit to a project or to pick a word for the year. I'm just inviting you to remember what you want. Even if it's small, even if it feels messy up in your head, and even if you don't know what to do with it yet. Because when you do this now, something powerful happens. You actually start to move differently. And you're gonna start to make choices that honor what actually matters to you. And I am making this so simple for you. So I know you're gonna say, Carlene, I do not know how to dream. No problem. I got you. You are also gonna tell me, I don't have any time. I I got no time. And I am telling you that this is so simple that you can't afford not to take the time to do this. So I put together an amazing tool for you. And it's called Start Dreaming Again: Three Gentle Steps to Rediscover What You Really Want. So you can go grab the guide at coachcarline.com forward slash dreamer. And I'm also putting the link in the show notes below. So you have two places you can go get it. You can type in coachcarlene.com forward slash dreamer into your browser, or you can click the link in the show notes. So this is a really simple but powerful tool. And I actually walk you through the entire guide in episode 46. I did that episode. It's kind of like a workshop where we're workshopping through the guide together. How cool is that? So I am right here with you through the entire thing. And the guide, it shows you how to dream. And the AI prompts and the responses that AI gives you, it coaches you to reveal those dreams and it helps you understand what those dreams mean. Now, these prompts and the responses that you get, they are written in my voice. Seriously, people have told me, oh my gosh, this is amazing. It's like I'm having a conversation with you, Carlene, my coach. Yes, I am your coach inside all of this. And everything is crafted to help you start hearing yourself again. And it's not about knowing what you want yet. You do not need to know what you want to click download and get this guide. Nope. All you have to do is be willing to be honest when you fill in the blanks of the props. That's it. And you have to have a little bit of courage to see what your dreams are and to see yourself clearly again. And you don't have to do it perfectly. You don't even have to be ready. You just have to be willing. And I know you are because you're here. This is the same three-step process that I use. I didn't have this guide a year ago, but I took what I learned a year ago and I created this tool for you because I learned that there is so much value in letting your dreams marinate for a bit before you do anything with them. And that's what I did. And I know I ended up creating something very different after I sat with a dream and dreamt it than what I would have created if I took action right away. And that is why I want you to take advantage of this precious pocket of time. Time to let your dreams marinate and breathe quietly in the background. Okay, like I started to say, it was one year ago. We'd been in our new home in Tennessee for about nine months. Now, don't get me wrong, our house here in Tennessee, it is everything I dreamed of. It's beautiful. It's in a neighborhood I love. It's peaceful, but it still didn't feel like mine yet. It didn't feel like us. And I realized what I really wanted was to take my time room by room and bring my personal touch into each space. You know what I'm talking about, you know, some color on the walls, art that actually means something to me, area rugs that make the room feel cozy, better lighting, and spaces that invite us to live and work and connect and relax. And when I named that dream, and I actually spoke it out loud to my husband, to my kids, to my friends, something shifted. And it wasn't just this someday idea floating around in my head anymore. It became real. And then after the holidays, they all reminded me of it when I got distracted. And I was like, oh, I'll get to it later. No, no, no, no, no. They didn't let me forget what my dream was. And now our entire entryway, it feels so much more inviting. In my office, this is like a place where I want to work, where I can actually focus and I can let the creative energy flow. I love it. And that formal dining room, yeah, we were never going to use it. I turned it into a piano and reading room. And our beautiful baby grand, it sits at the center of it. And there's this big, comfy swivel chair by the window that looks out into the woods. Oh, it's just the best place to read. And that dream, the one I almost didn't name because it just felt too small. It almost felt like a to-do. I didn't really know it was a dream. It changed how I feel every day. So it wasn't really about the colors on the walls or the things filling the space. It was about how all of that made us feel like we were home. That was the dream. But I cringe to think what I would have created if I rushed that process and didn't just sit with it for a while. And you know what? It reminded me that when you take a dream seriously, that no matter how small it seems, or even if you don't think it's a dream, that your whole life starts to shift around it. And that's what can be waiting for you in 2026. Not a perfectly executed plan, but clarity around what you want for yourself in 2026. So what's your dream? Well, if you're like, well, I don't know. Well, that's okay because that's where this tool, this guide comes in. So again, go grab it at coachcarleen.com forward slash dreamer. And I've put the link below in the show notes for you. And then tune into episode 46 where I walk you through all of it. And when I say all of it, I don't say all of it because it's a lot, because it's not. It is very, very simple, very concise, and so easy to do. So once you do it, even if you don't know what to do with that dream yet, that's okay. I'm just inviting you to let that dream matter. Let this be the year that you don't just dismiss yourself and your dreams. Instead, name your dream, and you're gonna do that when you go through the exercise. Write it down, speak it out loud to people, and give it space to become something more to you. And you know what? It starts with one tiny decision to not wait until January. And then the next decision is to go download the guide right now. To give yourself the gift of remembering what you want before the world gets really, really loud again. Because when you begin now, you're gonna give your dream time to breathe and to marinade. And that's how 2026 becomes a year of alignment for you, not just achievement. So if you're feeling like you've been in survival mode, like a lot of us feel, if you're tired of feeling disconnected from your own desires, or if you're craving clarity before 2026 sneaks up on you, well, getting clear on what you care about and what you're moving towards is one of the most powerful things that you can do for yourself. So go get the guide. It's at coachcarline.com forward slash dreamer and go tune in to episode 46 where I walk you through it. And I just want to say thank you for being here. And if you know someone who deserves to start dreaming again or who needs to start dreaming again, share this episode with them. And you just have to remember this. You still have dreams, and they still matter, and they're still waiting for you. And I'm gonna be right here, waiting to welcome you to our next conversation. Bye for now. Oh, and one more thing. This is the legal language. You know, the stuff that the lawyers put together, and they say that I need to read this to you. So here we go. This podcast is presented solely for educational and entertainment purposes. I'm just your friend. I'm not a licensed therapist. This podcast is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, professional coach, psychotherapist, or other qualified professionals. Got it? Good. I will see you in the next episode.