The Curation by Nour Hassan

Nour Monday Monologue [MM] : 7 Principles To Elevate Your Year

• Nour Hassan • Season 12 • Episode 149

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In this episode our founder Nour Hassan shares 7 simple principles to make 2026 the year of follow-through, drawing inspiration from a season of change, new motherhood, and hard-won lessons about time in her own life. The focus is on curation, boundaries, systems, depth, escaping comparison, aligning with future you, and trusting quiet work.

• framing the year as intention and follow-through
• ruthless curation of time, circle, content, energy
• saying no without explaining to protect bandwidth
• systems over motivation with a weekly 5 a.m. check-in
• choosing depth over noise and reducing scrolling
• detaching from other people’s timelines to end comparison
• aligning actions with future self through honest questions
• trusting quiet work and pausing without public validation

Thank you so much. If you take anything from this episode, let it be this. You don't need to reinvent yourself for 2026. You just need to kind of simplify and return to what matters most. Curate your life. Protect your energy, trust the work you're doing, even when it's quiet.

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SPEAKER_00:

Hey everyone, welcome back to the Curation Podcast. This is your host, Nur Hassan, and I just cannot wait to be back on track this year with all of the things that I have fully, fully, fully picked, selected, and edited and curated for you guys. I mean, you have been requesting solo episodes so much more, and I've made 2026 the year of solos because I feel like they bring you so much value, and I also really enjoy recording them. So this is gonna be an English episode, and it's gonna share with you the seven principles that I believe will help you to make this year a significant level up in your life. So write this down, note it down, whatever you need. These are principles that I've talked about more extensively on different episodes, different solos, but I'm gonna kind of like bullet point them for you guys because I feel like I really want to give you value in this episode. So it's really an episode about making 2026 the year that you say what you are gonna do and then actually do it. Okay, with no pressure, no resolutions, no such thing as perfection. We're basically setting intentions here in this episode. So the seven principles I'm currently currently personally carrying into the new year are rooted in everything I've learned from building this platform. Setting boundaries, choosing solitude when you need it, and creating a life that actually feels aligned with the principles and the things that you want to achieve in your life. Okay. And it's funny because I've gone through quite a lot in the past couple of weeks in the month of December, and I'll talk more about that. I had a baby, I uh was pregnant for the majority of last year, and I didn't share that online at all. And I just think that it was an incredible experience that makes you realize how finite your time is and how much really life goes by in a flash. So I guess that was my pregnancy announcement after the fact, but I'll do an episode specifically on that. Let me know if you guys want to actually hear more about that. So, my first point is to curate your life ruthlessly this year, you guys. Listen, everything is a curation, your time, your circle, your content, your energy. 2026 is not about adding anything. I was listening to the diary of a CEO and he had one of my favorite podcasters, Chris Williamson, on. You can't add, add, add. You need to see and select and check the things that you feel are already there. Let's say you have five top goals or five top things that you want to do, and you need to remove one of them and replace it with another. So I want to give an example. For example, you know what? Let's say this year is about getting fit. So we're gonna need to eat healthy, we're gonna need to hydrate, we're gonna need to make sure that we're doing all of those things. So we're not gonna also read a hundred books a year. That's not what the year is about. So you need to really edit, you need to learn the art of editing your life. Ask yourself does this elevate me or drain me? What do I need actually to curate my life for you ruthlessly? Ruthlessly me, like literally, no, no, no, no, no exceptions to make sure that you get where you want to be. Say no without explaining. I have an entire episode on saying no. I'm obsessed with this concept, you guys. I'm obsessed and I will rant on and on about it until the end of time. Like, you don't need to justify your boundaries anymore. This is the year of saying no. It's not a rejection, it's self-respect, and the right opponent opportunities will come your way. Like, you can't think about, oh my god, I have to say yes to everything because eventually one of these things is gonna work out. That mindset, I really think social media has made us so, so, so jaded. So, I don't even know how to explain it, but like we really feel like being a yes man or a yes woman is how these people get where they are when the one thing no one will tell you, but I am here to tell you, is that the only way to get where you want to be is by saying no. It's by looking at a bunch of parties that you need to go to and only going to one. It's by checking your social calendar and deciding that no, you will not go out on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. You're gonna just go out on one of those days, you're gonna use another day to recharge, you're gonna use a third day to learn, a fourth day to work out. You cannot spread yourself so thin and expect to have time left for deep work or any sort of, you know, substantial self-work, even on yourself. That's kind of the main thing that I've learned, I want to say, over a decade of working and hustling and doing all of that is that you really are totally astray and in the wrong direction. If you think that being everywhere all at once is the map or blueprint or road map or whatever. I don't know why I said map a million times, but it is not the way to get to where you need to be, guys. This is like, oh my god, if people spoke about this more on social media and if they were honest about actually how little they do, how selective they are, how kind of curated their life is, especially the most successful people in the world, then you know what? We would all be kind of in a different place. And ultimately you have to understand one thing like no influencer is gonna tell you that they're not everywhere. But the ones that do spread themselves too thin, that ruin their brand, that are everywhere, that accept every gifting, every event, every party, every single thing, credibility is what you're giving up here. So you need to choose, do you want, you know what I mean, to be everywhere, or do you want to be credible? I think the answer is obvious, but you have to think about it. My third point is that you have to build systems. I fully don't believe in motivation. I don't think it's a thing. I don't even think it's something that comes and goes and fades. I just think it's something that it's like a fleeting feeling. You can't rely on it. You have to have habits and routines and structures that set you up for success. And even if that means making it so simple, guys. Like I speak about this so much, and it is my tried and tested and true method to totally 180 your life, which is the waking up at 5 a.m. once a week, the weekly check-in. I need to like trademark this concept. I don't believe in doing anything daily, I don't think it's possible, and especially now that I'm a mom, I don't think it's even like an option for several years to come because every day is so different. And I'm a manifesting generator in human design, which basically means that every day for me has to be different, or else I will factually get extremely bored. So the 5 a.m. weekly check-in, where you wake up in the morning, you sit down with yourself, you journal, read, have a cup of tea, stare at the wall, do whatever you need to do to just be with yourself and your thoughts and just ask yourself, like, hey, how are you? Like, what's up? How are you doing? How has the past month been, the past couple of weeks been? How has it been for you? This is so essential and so important. And like, I cannot emphasize enough how this exact method changed my life. It allowed me to look inward, it allowed me to come back to myself and sort of, I don't know, like fully, fully connect and understand who I am, you know, why I am doing what I'm doing, what the goal is, what are the things that I absolutely am doing on autopilot, but I don't actually enjoy. And so that's one system or one structure that you can put into place, but it can be so much simpler than that, guys. It can be like, I don't know, a weekly 9 a.m. Pilates class. It can be um a kind of daily or every other day little walk with your friend or whatever. Systems are more important than motivation. Don't ever rely on wanting to do something because as human beings, we never really want to do the hard thing, but the hard thing is what gets you to where you need to be. So that's kind of a point that I will always come back to. I will always talk about. This next point is literally the theme of 2026. I think for most people who have been online now for like over a decade, there's that whole 2016 trend, like throwback to 2016 and whatever. Like, I feel like people are doing that because of this exact point that I'm about to share with you on how to choose depth over noise. Basically, less scrolling fewer opinion and just more being present, more really sitting with yourself and understanding. Okay, like where am I getting value? Do you know what I mean? We're looking for depth, we're looking for value, we're looking for real kind of authentic people and content. I think we are over the era of being, I don't know, filtered, overly edited, AI generated, all of that. It's interesting because I have a platform called The Curation, but curating doesn't mean being fake, it's actually the opposite. It means being so real with who you are and what you like and what you don't like that you're not out here just, you know, absorbing everything that comes your way. I think the information overload has finally hit us like a truck. And this point is just about really narrowing down and choosing the thing that gives you joy, the deep, beautiful, like inspiring creators and content and whatever it is, hobbies that make you want to keep doing what you're doing and make you feel alive. Last thing, detach from other people's timelines. Okay, guys, I lied. This is not the last thing. I have two more points after this, but detaching from other people's timelines is so important. It's the comparison game. Again, comparison is the thief of joy. I don't know how exactly we can do this. Like we are ultimately in the thick of being a generation that kind of can't avoid comparison, which is actually a bit of a tragedy. But if you really train yourself to see your life as its own timeline with its own start and stop, with its own beginning and end, with its own everything, you'll understand that you can't look at what other people are doing and when they're doing it. And I'll talk more about this when I share my story about, you know, getting pregnant and having a baby and etc. That whole experience made me realize that truly the saying, we plan and God laughs is just, it is so true. It's so true. And if you compare yourself to other people's timelines, you not only will not be able to progress in your own timeline, but you're just going to be absolutely miserable. So this point had to be on here because we're leaving that in 2025. My last two points are probably the most important and probably the hardest to kind of execute. So aligning your actions with the woman you're becoming is my next point. And what does that mean, honestly? It means you have to ask yourself regularly, regularly, what would future me do? If I was 80 years old, sitting with my 80-year-old self, what would she look at me and tell me, I wish you'd done more of that. I wish you'd done less of this. I heard this brilliant question that I want you guys to really think about. I want you to answer this for yourself, okay? If your life was a movie and the audience was watching, what would they be yelling at the screen? Screaming, dying for you to realize about yourself, about your life. What is the one thing they would be yelling at you? Please leave the job, break up with the guy, get back to your I don't know, hobby, you know what I mean? Start the business. Call your mom. What would it be? Because that's the thing that you need to do. What would the audience be absolutely yelling at you right now? Because it's something that you know is there, it's something that you are sure exists inside you, but you can't see it. And I find this question so useful, and I've answered it for myself because it helps you align your actions with the woman you want to become or the man, you know, the person that you are hoping to be, because that person, you're not there yet, but you're getting there. And if you don't ask yourself these types of questions, and if you don't discipline yourself and have enough self-love to stop and pause and respond to whatever answer it is that came up in your head, you won't be able to rise to the occasion, guys. You won't be able to get it done. So please ask yourself that question. I think the last thing that I want to say, and it is the seventh point in my seven principles blueprint, is that you have to trust the quiet work. And this has been, I think, the biggest, biggest challenge for me. Like technically, I took a couple of months off, and I just cannot, for the life of me, get used to the idea that maybe you have to take a couple of steps back to keep moving forward. Maybe it is in the quiet moment, in the rest, in the pause that we have our biggest revelations about what we'd like to do with our life, what we wish to achieve, what we actually love, what we don't love. And I think just because we grew up in such a, I don't know, we were fed that whole boss girl narrative or whatever it is, and my audience is predominantly female. So yes, I am speaking in in that tense, but I'm just saying that not everything needs to be shared, announced, and validated. Okay. Growth happens silently before it becomes like this whole visible social media extravaganza. You know, if you stay consistent and aligned and honest, everything will come, but you need to every once in a while stop and think about where you're at and kind of trust the quiet moment where between the travel and the events and the podcasts and the stages and the mics and all of the crazy, crazy, crazy things that happen and the next phase, where are you gonna pivot? Because you can't keep doing the same thing. And if it's working, great. But I mean, there's always an elevation, there's a next level waiting for you. So how are you gonna get there? So, yeah, I mean, like those are my main points. This is my blueprint, and I hope you guys get some value out of this episode. I really want this year to be the year that collectively, myself and my audience, we level up more than ever. And it's not something that I just talk about, I really practice what I preach with you guys. I want you to do all of the things we spoke about on this episode, and and my seven points, I love the number, are just as simple as they sound, but not as easy to implement. Like curate your life ruthlessly, say no without explaining yourself, build systems and don't rely on motivation. Choose depth over noise, detach from people's timelines, align with the actions of the woman you want to become, and trust the quiet moments. Take a pause, take a minute, ask yourself what comes next. And what would the audience be yelling at the screen, hoping for you to realize before it's too late, before the movie ends, right? So I'm so happy I'm back on the mic. Thank you so much. If you take anything from this episode, let it be this. You don't need to reinvent yourself for 2026. You just need to kind of simplify and return to what matters most. Curate your life. It's what I always say. Protect your energy, trust the work you're doing, even when it's quiet. Thank you so much for being here, guys. I can't wait for more meaningful content this year. And I'll see you on my next episode.