Focus on 1 thing this year

Simplicity as a strategy for 2026.

Hey friend,

It’s the first week of January.

I’m sure your brain is already spinning with everything you’re supposed to focus on this year.

Get healthier. Be more present. Improve your marriage. Grow your business. Read more books. Drink more water. Eat less crap. Spend less money. Be a better parent. Be a better person.

It’s exhausting.

And we’re only a week in.

Here’s what I want to offer you today:

What if you could drastically improve every area of your life by focusing on 1 thing this year?

After two decades of coaching, I’ve sat across from thousands of people.

CEOs. Navy SEALs. Pastors. Stay-at-home moms. Chick-fil-A operators. Grammy winners. Reality TV stars. People from every walk of life.

You would think they all have different problems, and on the surface, they do, but here’s what I’ve learned after thousands of hours of research and coaching:

As humans, we’re all running the same basic operating system.

We all share the same fundamental hardware. The same internal programming. That means transformation doesn’t have to be complicated. Once you understand your operating system, you can work with it instead of against it. Essentially, you can “hack” your internal programming to improve every area of your life.

If you frequently read this newsletter, you probably already know I’m alluding to The Seven Primal Questions.

But you might not remember how I discovered them or WHY they are so powerful, which is why I want to take a moment today to help us refocus on “the thing underneath the thing that drives everything” in 2026.

Where did The Seven Primal Questions come from?

I’ve always had a bent for taking complex things and making them as simple and useful as possible.

I’m a voracious reader. Most afternoons, you’ll find me on my back patio with a book in hand—psychology, neuroscience, trauma, personal development. I nerd out on everything related to healing and growth, and I actually enjoy the complexity of it.

But I also recognize that this is my full-time job.

Most people don’t have hours per week to read academic papers or decode therapeutic jargon.

They just want to heal, grow, and move forward with their lives. That’s why I made it my mission to find the simplest path to transformation for all of my clients. That’s my north star as a coach: improve the client’s condition as quickly as possible, so they can spend less time scrambling and more time in their gifting.

After meeting with thousands of clients, I began to notice a pattern.

There was always something deeper than my client’s presenting problem.

There was something beneath the unwanted behaviors they wanted to change. Something even deeper than the emotions they wanted help processing. All of that matters—but I realized it was all stemming from something underneath.

The root issue: an unmet need.

This unmet need usually came in the form of a question.

So I started exploring with every client: Is there one question driving your life? A question you’ve been asking your whole life—one you’re desperate to get answered with a “yes”?

At that time, there was no model. No framework. No seven questions.

Just an open-ended exploration to find the root issue for each of my clients.

Over time, patterns emerged. I started writing down the questions I kept hearing. First, I had about 15. Then I narrowed it to 13. Then 9. Then, finally 7. I stopped at 7 because I couldn’t get any simpler.

• 7 core needs.

• 7 questions.

• Each of us has one of them as our core driver.

Why focus on your Primal Question this year?

Because it’s not just one area of your life. It’s the operating system running underneath all of them.

Your Primal Question is shaping your marriage. Your parenting. Your career. Your friendships. Your health. Your relationship with money. Everything.

Most people don’t realize this. They try to fix each area separately—like they’re twelve different problems requiring twelve different solutions.

That’s like trimming branches off a tree.

Cut one, another grows.

You can do that forever and never actually change anything. This is why so many people feel exhausted by their own growth. They’re working constantly, but nothing fundamental ever shifts.

The Primal Question takes you to the root.

And when you address the root, the branches start taking care of themselves.

Here’s my invitation for 2026.

Don’t add more to your plate this year.

Subtract. Instead of scattering your energy across a dozen goals, focus on understanding the one question that’s driving everything. Learn to recognize when it’s running the show. Practice reminding yourself of the truth—that, in many ways, your deepest need is already being met. You just have to look for it.

Here are a few action items for you to consider:

• Take the Primal Question Assessment (take it again if you’ve already taken it before).

• Read (or re-read) The Seven Primal Questions book.

• Do 1 thing every day to meet your need (or to remind yourself that it’s already met).

Warmly,

Mike Foster