The ending shapes everything that comes before it. In stories, in strategy, and in the year you are about to live.
Yet most people never start there.
We plan from January forward, stacking goals and actions, hoping they add up to something meaningful by December. This issue flips that approach. It starts with the ending and works backwards, using story and science to shape the year you want to be talking about twelve months from now.
Inside, you’ll find:
How to start with the end and work backwards to design your year
A research-backed fun fact on writing goals, visualization, and planning in reverse
A short video that brings this idea to life visually
Enjoy starting at the end, then letting the year rise to meet it…LG
Founder Story Tip: Start With The End
New Year’s inspires everyone to put plans in place for the year ahead.
New goals.
New expectations.
New promises to yourself.
But there is a different way to think about it.
One that centers on story.
Instead of starting with actions, you start with the ending.
You work backwards from the story you want to be telling a year from now.
So before you rush into 2026, pause and start with the end in mind.
Begin to treat the future like a story that already exists.
The outcome is not luck. It is authored.
THE MOCK PRESS RELEASE
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, had a unique way to manage his tea leaves. He required teams to write internal press releases before building new products.
Not for the public.
Not for marketing.
For clarity.
Writing the press release forced clear thinking about customer value before any work began.
If the story did not make sense on paper, the idea stopped there.
Only once the ending was clear did the team work backwards to make it real.
That is the approach you are about to take.
Before you plan the work, you write the story.
PICTURE THE MOMENT
Imagine New Year’s Day, one year from now.
You are welcoming in 2027.
The year is complete.
What do you see when you look back?
What do you feel as you talk about it?
What words come out when someone asks how the year went?
Picture the moment clearly.
The room you are in.
The tone of your voice.
The ease or pride you feel when you describe what happened.
This process helps visualize the story you will tell 365 days from now.
A study in the Journal of Applied Psychology found that people who visualized the outcome and the process of achieving a goal improved performance, increased confidence, and reduced stress.
How you picture the end matters as much as the goal itself.
Oprah Winfrey has spoken for decades about picturing outcomes before they happen.
She visualizes how success feels in her body and in the room in that future moment.
Calm.
Confidence.
Alignment.
That internal picture guided decisions long before results showed up.
She steps into the moment emotionally before it exists.
GIVE IT A HEADLINE
Strong storytelling depends on clarity.
If 2026 were a chapter in your life, what would its headline be?
A great headline captures the spirit of what happened.
It grabs attention.
It makes people want to know more.
It makes the future feel real.
Say it out loud.
Your headline is not just a summary. It is a north star you want to live up to.
Marc Benioff built Salesforce into a $35B brand by using bold headlines that became rallying cries.
“No Software.”
“The End of Software.”
“The Cloud Cannot be Stopped.”
These were not taglines. They were slogans about the future they were building.
They were declarations the team had to make true.
Simple.
Clear.
Repeatable.
The headlines aligned the company internally and externally before the work fully caught up.
Your headline does the same.
It makes the ending real enough to chase.
WORK BACKWARDS FROM THE ENDING
Once the ending is clear, the rest becomes logic.
If that story is true on December 31, 2026, certain things had to happen before it.
By fall, what needed to be visible to others?
By summer, what had to be quietly in motion?
By spring, what decision had to be made without full certainty?
This is not about controlling the year.
It is about orienting it.
Sketch four dated milestones, one per quarter.
Each milestone should include a clear metric shift, an external-facing win, and an internal objective completed.
These mini endings make the big ending plausible.
Reed Hastings framed Netflix in chapters.
From DVDs by mail.
To streaming.
To a global content platform.
Each phase had a clear narrative identity.
He named the chapter first, then built toward it.
Small wins made the big ending believable.
USE PROOF NUMBERS TO TELL THE STORY
Choose 3-5 proof points that would make your future update undeniable.
Revenue.
Users.
Press mentions.
New deals closed.
Key hires.
Do not list them as raw numbers. Write them as narrative sentences.
Bert Jacobs uses simple numbers to tell the $100M Life is Good story.
$78 left in the bank.
48 shirts sold on the street.
1 design that sold out in 45 minutes.
Those numbers grounded optimism in reality.
They made belief feel earned.
BEGIN TODAY
The headline is set.
The milestones are clear.
The setbacks are expected.
The metrics are named.
Now write the first scene.
One email.
One outreach.
One build task.
One customer conversation.
Make something happen in the next 48 hours that becomes the opening scene of your 2026 story.
Then let it unfold into your best year ever.
Fun Fact: The Brain Likes a Good Ending
Research from Dominican University found that people who wrote down their goals were 42% more likely to achieve them than those who did not. Writing forces clarity. It turns intention into something your brain treats as actionable.
Another study published in Psychological Science found that planning backwards improves motivation, confidence, and performance. When people start with the ending and work in reverse, they think more clearly and feel less pressure.
Write it down. Picture it clearly. Work backwards. Turn your future story turns into lived experience.
Video to Watch: The Journey Is the Destination
“YETI’s Brand Anthem” video shows how defining the emotional destination gives every journey meaning. Set to a soulful cover of “A Thousand Miles From Nowhere”, the film captures the beauty of a place of quiet purpose, grounded exploration, and choosing the road because it feels right. More than gear or landscapes, this piece reminds you that when the ending is clear emotionally, the journey becomes the reward. That is the power of starting with the end.
Watch here:
Need help with your story? I got you.
Send an email to [email protected] and someone from my team will circle back with you.