#58: Redefine Your Realistic in 2026

BLUF (BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT)

If you’re reading this going into 2026, you probably want a change in at least one area of your life. Not because things are terrible, but because you know there’s more.

The hard part is not desire. It’s the route. Most people can’t see a clear path, so they fall back into “be realistic,” which usually means staying close to status quo and listening to outside voices more than their internal compass.

So instead of a motivational speech, here is a true case study of the art of the possible.

Marc Weisi went from demanding Wall Street career to a life that looks a lot like mine in structure. One world, two physical nodes. Today, he lives between San Juan, Puerto Rico and the US Northeast, having earned his five freedoms. The socioeconomic rhythm is different in Puerto Rico, and his nervous system gets to feel something different every day. He is learning again. New environment, new culture, new people, new pace.

Most importantly, this is not a final destination for him. It is one iteration of Try Life On. He built the skill of designing his life and, once you have that skill, you can apply it again anytime. Different place. Different work. Different chapter. Same skill.

This is a longer read, on purpose. The goal is not inspiration. The goal is to show you the skills and sequence to apply it your own way.

The full convo: YouTube (link) or TLO podcast ep. 141 (link).

WHAT TO LOOK FOR AS YOU READ (THE SKILLS)

Here is what to look for in Marc’s story. They are repeatable moves. This is method, not motivation.

He recognized life is something you practice, not a destination. Ran weekend experiments, Thursday to Sunday, to practice a different rhythm and see what it did to his nervous system. He tested the life first, then made the life real.

He learned the two-node concept by living it, not by theorizing it. Two-node simply means this: one world, two physical bases. Based in New Jersey then began practicing what it would ‘feel’ like adding a second physical node in Puerto Rico. Two-node becomes normal through repetition.

He did not burn the boats. Used his W-2 as fuel and downside protection while building options. He built in parallel for years using nights, early mornings, and weekends. The paycheck reduced risk and gave him a safety net while he built real leverage.

He did not overthink the path. Just ‘did’ and course corrected. He did not need to see the full staircase. He took steps, adjusted, learned, and kept moving. Even the hotel ownership piece was not some perfect master plan. It was a sequence of course corrections.

Protected his signal from wrong voices; surrounded himself with people who had already done it. He was not overly concerned with the opinions of coworkers, neighbors, or anyone committed to the status quo. Instead, he intentionally stayed in touch with people who had already made lifestyle jumps. Tribe is leverage.

Reduced friction and recovered time and energy. He noticed how much energy commuting and corporate pace were costing him. When remote work gave him time back he used that reclaimed time to accelerate the transition.

As you read pay attention to where and how these moves show up. Then think about how you could iterate them for your own journey.

THE SETUP: “IS THIS IT?”

Marc is a former coaching client from 3-4 years ago. When I met Marc he was doing well by traditional standards; a demanding finance career, a clear professional path, the kind of job most people would call success.

Ten years in he started sensing something was off, the gut feeling many of us have. The work was fine, the pay was fine, but the day to day did not feel fulfilling. He looked at the next levels up, his boss and his boss’s boss, and realized he did not want their lives. That was the beginning. Not a crisis. A realization.

THE FRAMEWORK PHASE: TRY LIFE ON (PRACTICE FIRST)

Marc did not make a dramatic decision. He did not blow up his career. He did not announce a brand new identity to the world.

He did what the Try Life On framework is built for. He started testing a lifestyle before committing to it.

He leveraged a simple, but effective, practice I taught him. Take short trips and pay attention to how you feel. Do not wait for a vacation window. Do not treat it like a major life event. Run a small experiment. Leave Thursday, come back Sunday, notice what changes in you.

For Marc, those experiments led to Puerto Rico. He was drawn to the island because it has a different rhythm, culture, and pace. He visited multiple times. He did not need to know it was the answer. He kept testing what it felt like to live in that environment.

THE BIG SHIFT: NORMALIZING A NEW LIFE

This is an important part of his story. Repetition changed his sense of what was possible.

At first, a different lifestyle can feel like a fantasy. Something you do once in a while or watch other people do. But when you repeat it, it becomes familiar. Once it becomes familiar, it starts to feel normal. Essentially your nervous system and subconscious mind come to accept it.

That matters because most people do not fail due to lack of desire. They fail because they never normalize the new identity. Marc normalized it by experiencing it repeatedly, not by thinking about it.

He used a filter the whole time: “How do I feel when I am here?” When he noticed he felt better, more energy, more clarity, more excitement to start the day, he paid attention. He did not talk himself out of it.

THE BRIDGE: W-2 AS ENGINE AND DOWNSIDE PROTECTION

Marc’s story is also useful because it was not an overnight leap.

He built this in parallel with a demanding job. Nights, early mornings, weekends. He used his income as a practical tool. It funded the transition and protected the downside.

He lived below his means. He tracked what came in and what went out. He gamified cutting costs without sacrificing his quality of life. Then he used the difference to build assets and options.

He also pointed out something people underestimate. Energy loss from friction. He used to commute about an hour and a half each way. When remote work became normal during COVID, he got back about three hours per day and that time return accelerated everything.

He did not have to become a different person. He removed enough friction to do what he already wanted to do.

THE DECISION POINT: INSTINCT GETS LOUD

Even with progress, Marc wrestled with leaving his job for two years. That's normal. A job is not just a paycheck, it's psychological safety.

Then the decision stopped being theoretical. His father was dealing with health issues. Marc asked his employer about working remotely so he could be closer to him. That situation clarified the real question. Was he building a life where he could show up for the people who mattered, or was he protecting a setup that felt safe but did not actually fit anymore?

This is where instinct or inner voice took over. He did not ignore it. He did not dilute it with outside opinions. He made the decision and left.

Marc left his career at 37.

THE RESULT: ONE WORLD, TWO PHYSICAL NODES

Marc’s life now is not retirement. He is active. He is building. He is involved in projects. He still consults.

The difference is ownership of time.

Today, he lives between San Juan, Puerto Rico and the US Northeast, having earned his five freedoms systematically over the past few years. In practical terms, it is similar to how I live between Maryland and Lebanon. One world, two physical nodes.

There is a nervous system benefit people underestimate. When you have grown up in the Northeast corridor, New York, Boston, DC area as I did, the socioeconomic rhythm is what it is. You can love your roots and still admit you are not growing there anymore. Many people are not. They are just repeating.

When you step into a different culture and pace, your nervous system wakes up. You notice new details. New people. New foods. New language. New ideas. You become a beginner again, which is one of the fastest ways to grow as a human.

That is not a vacation. That is a new operating environment.

THE 2026 LESSON: REMOVE STATIC AND REDEFINE “REALISTIC”

If I had to summarize what made Marc’s shift work, it was not one big brave moment. It was a sequence:

1. He tested a different rhythm instead of debating it.
2. He built options while keeping downside protection.
3. He did not allow outside voices to override his internal signal.

This is the Try Life On part that matters going into 2026: your life can change quickly once you stop letting peers, coworkers, family and default culture set the limits of what’s possible.

And one of the most common ways people will try to pull you back into the default setting is with a single word: realistic.

When someone tells you to be realistic, what they often mean is:

1. Stay close to the status quo.
2. Do not take a step into the unknown.
3. Follow the social rules for what life should look like.
4. Do not trust your internal voice. Trust the crowd.

Realistic often means fear of unknown dressed up as wisdom.

Try Life On does not ignore practical. Marc’s story proves that. He built incrementally. He protected the downside. He used his income as fuel. But he refused to let other people’s fear define his ceiling.

Your internal compass does not speak in group consensus. It speaks in nudges, energy, curiosity, and a quiet knowing. If it keeps pointing somewhere do not silence it to make other people comfortable.

THE LEARNED SKILL OF LIFE DESIGN

This is important to say directly. Puerto Rico is not the point. San Juan is not the point. Even the two-node model is not the point.

The point is that Marc built a lifestyle design skill set that can never be taken away. He proved to himself that his life is portable. He proved he can shift environments, shift work, and shift rhythm.

Once you build that capabilty, you can apply it again anytime. Different place to live. Different style of work. Different chapter. Same skill.

Most people are not lacking discipline. They are lacking the lived proof that they can change their life. Marc has that proof now.

A SIMPLE WEEK-1 PRACTICE FOR 2026 (DO + COURSE CORRECT)

If you want to use this story instead of just reading it, do this:

Step 1: Pick one lifestyle experiment you can run in seven days.
Examples: a new morning rhythm, one no interruption block, a weekend test trip, a hard stop time one day per week, a new environment routine.

Step 2: Track one thing: how you feel.
Energy, clarity, peace, motivation. Not perfection.

Step 3: Course correct once.
Make one adjustment that makes the experiment easier to repeat.

That is it. That is how this works in real life.

CLOSE

I am sharing Marc’s story now because a lot of you are quietly sitting with that “Is this it?” question. You do not need to solve your entire life in one decision. You need a method and a next step.

Try. Do. Course correct. Reduce static. Follow your internal compass.

I'm grateful for you. I'm grateful for this one life.

Happy New Year. See you in 2026.

Maurice