NOVEMBER 9, 2026
Scarcity planning rarely looks like fear. It looks responsible, and it quietly lowers every goal that follows. Trust doesn’t ignore the circumstances. It just doesn’t let them write the plan.
Before you lock your 2027 plan, find the one line you built from fear and rewrite it from what’s possible. Then decide which version you’re committing to.
Earlier this fall I took a course on AI.
I went in thinking I was already using it. Most professionals think they’re using it, and I was right there with them. I figured I had a decent handle on it.
I didn’t. There were so many more capabilities, tools and things we could be using it for that I hadn’t even looked at.
After that course, it’s like we were shot out of a cannon. We’re now using AI to manage a lot of our backend, and it saves us countless hours every single week. We even recreated a project management tool we were using and customized it to exactly what we needed, all with AI.
Now, I haven’t been scared of AI. But it has been something I’ve been keeping a very close eye on, for myself and for my clients. What changed in that course had less to do with the technology than with where I was planning from, and that’s the part worth talking about while you’re building next year.
Because this is the season. Budgets, headcount, kickoff themes, the slide with next year’s number on it. And the circumstances are a lot right now: an uncertain economy, political disruption, global instability, supply chain issues. You name it, people are dealing with it. AI is a big part of that too.
Here’s what I’ve noticed, in myself first.
When a future is framed by circumstances, it is inherently limited. You look at what’s possible through those constraints, and so the goals, or the possibility of realizing those goals, come out much lower.
That’s what scarcity planning is. It rarely looks like fear. It looks responsible. It looks like a conservative forecast, a smaller bet, a kickoff built around “holding the line.” It sounds like the most mature person.
And it quietly caps everything that comes after it.
Before that course, I was holding AI at arm’s length. Not scared, just watchful, which is a very respectable way to stay exactly where you are. Understanding a little bit about what’s possible helped me lean into trust and away from any fear. Same circumstances. Same headlines. A completely different set of options.
The opposite of scarcity is trust.
I don’t mean blind optimism, and I don’t mean pretending the circumstances aren’t there. They’re real, and they have to be dealt with. Real trust means you don’t let them draw the edges of what you think is possible before you’ve even looked.
For you as you’re heading into 2027, that’s a practical difference. A plan built from scarcity starts with the constraints and asks how much is left over. A plan built from trust starts with what you’re committed to, and then deals with the constraints on the way. You still need the spreadsheet. The spreadsheet just stops telling you what’s possible.
So before you lock next year’s plan, try this. Find the one line in it you built from fear. You’ll know which one. Maybe it’s the goal you shaved down so nobody would be disappointed, or the hire you didn’t ask for, or the thing you decided not to learn because it felt like too much right now.
Then ask a different question about that one line: what would I plan here if I trusted what’s possible, instead of what’s in the way?
You might not change the number. But you’ll know whether the number came from you or from the headlines.
For me, it took one course to see how much I’d been planning around something I’d only scratched the surface of. I’d bet your version is closer than you think.
Key idea:
When your future is framed by circumstances, it’s limited before you start.
Takeaway:
Before you lock your 2027 plan, find the one line you built from fear and rewrite it from what’s possible. Then decide which version you’re committing to.
Build your movement:
What’s one line in your 2027 plan that came from fear? Talk about it with someone you’re close with.