6 Best Values for 2026: No. 1 - Responsibility

Life has a way of throwing things at you that feel completely random, chaotic, and deeply unfair. Maybe someone sideswipes your car, your company downsizes out of nowhere, or you show up for a routine medical checkup only to get hit with an unexpected processing bill before the needle even touches your arm.

When you're constantly playing defense against a world that feels out of whack, the default reaction is to look around and wonder why this garbage keeps happening to you. You work hard, you try to do the right thing, and yet it feels like you're just an innocent bystander getting targeted by outside circumstances.

But here is the truth of the human system most try to ignore: your external environment is an exact reflection of your internal state. If you are constantly hiding away from looking at your role in your life, you might have missed that you’ve positioned yourself right next to an automatic ass-kicking machine.

Episode Overview

In this episode, we dive into the absolute number one value of 2026: responsibility. This isn’t the dry, compliance-driven version of paying your bills on time or doing your chores. We are talking about response-ability—your fundamental ability to respond to anything and everything that shows up in your lifetime. We break down how your deeply ingrained habits function like an unguided property manager for your life, and explain why reclaiming your status as the absolute owner of your mind and your life changes your entire experience of reality.

Key Ideas / Takeaways

• The Life Property Manager: Why your unconscious habits, beliefs, and patterns function like an auto-pilot manager waiting for you to step up and authorize real structural upgrades.
• The 2026 Value Hierarchy: Why integrity, joy, kindness, communication, and proactive growth are simply structural scaffolding to support real spiritual responsibility.
• Proactive vs. Reactive Growth: The critical difference between analyzing your life early or waiting for your system to break down the hard way.
• The Head-in-the-Sand Trap: Breaking down why the belief that "bad things just happen" keeps you stuck in the FOG (Fear, Obligation, and Guilt) and blocks real momentum.
• The Medical Lab Reality Check: What a surprise $50 collection bill at a blood lab revealed about my own unconscious assumptions regarding the healthcare system.

Why Listen

This conversation is a direct invitation to stop acting like a passive tenant who constantly complains about the broken plumbing in their life. If you are ready to transition from being a victim of random circumstances to the empowered creator who actually owns the building of their life, this episode gives you the mental blueprints to take back the keys.

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Transcript

Justin Wenck: 0:00

It's time for the number one best value of 2026. We've gone through five others, and this is a big one. This is the one that if you really, if you got this one, your life is just going to be so so incredible, and I want it for you. And many of you, when I tell you what it is, you're going to be like, I do this. I got this one down, and you might have it on one level, but there's a whole other level to this value that is just a game changer, and it's why the other values matter so much because it helps you to value this value on the level that it will change everything, and that value is responsibility. So let's get started. Are you ready to live a life with enough time, money, and energy? Have relationships and connections that delight you? Are you ready for the extraordinary life you know you've been missing? If so, then this is the place for you. I'm a best-selling author, coach, consultant, and speaker who's worked in technology for over two decades. I'm a leader at transforming people and organizations from operating in fear, obligation, and guilt to running off joy, ease, and love. It's time for engineering emotions and energy with me, Justin Wenck, PhD. Okay, so responsibility. You're probably like, okay, Justin, I I know I know how to be responsible. I pay my bills. I go to work. Take care of things that I do. We're talking about a whole other level of responsibility here. This is not just responsibility for things that you have consciously, you know, because remember we've gone through so many other key values this this year, and you know, number six, we started with integrity, right? Where it's like you, you know, you sign up for something. If you say I'm going to do this, you do it, and doesn't even matter if it's for another person. It's like self-integrity. This level of responsibility, and I often like to prefer to kind of think of it as responsibility because it's your ability to respond for anything and everything that shows up in your life, and going, oh, I had a part in this, I, I had something to do with it, and you're like, hey, wait a minute, but somebody somebody crashed into me, or you know, somebody fired me. Like you know, and it was random. Like I didn't do that. I get it. I get it. I've I've been there, and so this is what a lot of people get wrong. It's not to say that there aren't other ways that people are responsible, but this is about what kind of a life do you want to live? Do you want to live a life where you are the victim, or do you want to live the life where you are the creator? You are the owner. You are in the driver's seat of this lifetime, and once you say I'm the owner. You no longer get to be the victim. You never, ever, ever doesn't mean that somebody might not legally be responsible. Doesn't mean that you you know somebody needs to exit your life because they're somebody that's not in alignment with you. That somebody that isn't in alignment with your values. But what it means is that you look in the mirror and you go, "Whoa, how do I work with this, and how do I shift so that I have the life that I want to have? And so I'm going to explain to you a very, very helpful metaphor for this. But first, let's just quickly go over what are the values that we've gone through so far. I already mentioned that number six was integrity, and five was joy, four was kindness, three was communication, and two was growth. These really all support this number one value of responsibility, and they're key because responsibility, in some ways, is effectively like saying, "I'm I'm valuing what many would call enlightenment. It's that being in touch with just how the universe works, how the world works, how your world works, and it doesn't really matter what you believe or not. A lot of this stuff is like you know, gravity or electromagnetism. It doesn't care if you believe in it or not. Do you need to believe in gravity to understand its effects and to work with it in ways that are beneficial? No. Similar to electromagnetism, do you need to understand Maxwell's equations to? Able to benefit from a cell phone or a computer that is utilizing those complex equations and principles in the background, but you you you need to allow them to work for you and with you. So pretending that this isn't how it works is not, and this is what responsibility is really about is just understanding that okay, how I work with my world is how my world is going to show up with me, and my world is a reflection of what's going on inside of me. We've talked about this a lot before, and what a lot of people miss is they mistake what's going on out there for the be-all, end-all, the only thing that matters? What you see in your environment, you know the the house you're living in, the people you're hanging out with, your bank account, your health. This is just all there to show you what is going on inside of you. These are your beliefs, your identity, right, and And these are the things that you want to look at when something happens in your life that you're like, "Fuck, that sucked. I did not like that. I did not want to have to, you know, pay. It's funny. I've been, I've been kind of in a bit of a health kick after my after all of my travel, because I, you know, yeah, it was you know going to places, eating the foods, and you know exercise being kind of weird, even though it was like walking a ton, but challenging to get other workouts, and so and it's like you know get back and it's like okay, let's go have the annual checkup, and it's like okay, there's some things aren't exactly where I want them. I want them to be, so been making some changes. And it's how do you you you got to see? You know, are are these changes are having the impact that I want, right? And the thing is, is this is a lot like you know talking about growth when we did this. The second most valuable value of 2026 is you can either wait for growth to happen to you, or you can be proactive. And I'm being proactive because your body will let you know if something's out of whack one way or another. Getting like your blood work, your labs, and those things done more regularly, more proactively. That's that's the that's the wise way to go about instead of waiting for like oh my gosh I there's a giant lump here or I had to get rushed to the hospital right that's waiting for you know things to for growth to happen to you so I'm being I'm being proactive and so I had to get I you know I didn't have to I chose because I I want to see how my how things are going based off of the shifts that I've been making to get get some additional get some lab work done, and I show up and the guy's you know just about to he's getting ready to poke the needle in my arm. He's like, oh, you have a bill that needs to be paid, and what is this? This is Quest Diagnostics, and I just were they. These phlebotomists are incredible, skilled people. Like I didn't feel anything when the guy finally put the needle in, but the fact that they make them do everything-they're the receptionists, and apparently they're also the bill collector. He's like, "You owe you owe $50. Looks like for may 14, and do I not get it done if if I don't pay? And so I paid, but you know, do I want that? No, but it's like okay, was there a little bit of of something that is expecting there to be something problematic when I go through something in the in the area of healthcare because it's kind of like ooh it's in the air that the U.S. health system is just like an overpriced pain. Yet, does that have to be true for me? Is that something that I've bought into? Is that something that I believe has to be part of it? So it's like you know, you might be like, well, you should go and you should like complain to your senator, and there should be a law against it. You should complain to Quest, and you should go talk to your insurer, and you should you should have not paid that. There's all all those things, and there's nothing wrong with any of that, and those are things that maybe, maybe I'll do, maybe I won't. Yet the most important thing of being responsible for your life is that looking internally and going like, ooh, what do I believe about healthcare? What do I believe about making improvements with my health, and starting to question those. Look at those, because ultimately, I'm the one that's creating all of this that I experience, and you're the one that's creating everything that you have, are, and will experience, and. Here's where a lot of people get, you know, annoyed or frustrated. Because I get it, awful shit has happened to you. I don't care who you are. You've had some things happen in your life where you're like, "That was no. I would never do that to myself. I would do that to somebody else, and I sure as hell wouldn't have signed up for that. I get it. I've had those. I've had those things. It doesn't matter what it is. Really, it really doesn't. Because even to the the Karen that like her coffee order is wrong, it feels like the worst thing in the world, right? We are emotional beings, and working with the emotionality, that is part of the biggest reason why we are here is to be able to feel in these bodies our experiences, and the feelings are the indication. It's what allows us to recognize what is happening within us, and that gives us the opportunity, the opportunity to experience joy, experience fun, have a chance to be kind and compassionate, improve communication, not just with others but with ourselves, and then to grow. You know, not just not just in our job, but to grow as humans, to grow as more than a human, even right. And so when you're like, I wouldn't, I wouldn't choose that. This is where a really helpful analogy comes in of how, in a way, you chose it, but you didn't choose it, because a lot of this has to do with perspective. Now, I've talked about you know some of my home ownership times back in the past, which current I currently rent, and there's so much I like about it. And I've often felt that one of the ideal things for me would be if I owned a home, and then I hired a property manager to manage it, and then I basically just rented from myself. And because it's it's one of the things I really didn't like about home ownership was oh something breaks I have to I have to call a bunch of handymen or this or that or the other thing you know and I have to schedule and do that was what I love about being a renter is I just call one person I go this isn't how I want it to be and then they either fix it or they don't right, and your life is effectively set up this way, where you are the owner of your life. You have decided you you're going to rent it because you don't want to be fully responsible yet. And part of this makes a lot of sense because there's a little bit like when you're growing up, when you're a child, you you don't know everything about this world. You don't know all about it. So you know, imagine you're a new homeowner. Like there's a reason why often it's like, oh, we'll give you the home warranty and these other things. And it's why it's good to have a good realtor that you can kind of ask, like, oh, I was supposed to change the filter. I didn't know that, and they, you know, as you don't know everything. So there's some wisdom into offloading that responsibility. But when you're grown up, it's time to be that responsible owner again. It's not to say that you still don't want to have that property manager of your life, and this property manager is effectively it's your habits, it's your beliefs, it's your identity, your patterns. These are great because like you don't want to have to be worrying about every little thing. But what's happened is, as the owner, you were you basically stopped being the owner, and you were just the landlord, or you were just the the tenant of your life, and you're like, "Hey, these shitty things just keep happening to me. Stop the stop the shitty things. No more shitty things. And property manager right goes,"Okay, see adding it to the list. They don't want the shitty things. All right. Let me let me see see what the owner says. See if they'll they'll pay for that. And the owner is no response. Nothing. So it's like, well, I guess we're not fixing that. Just gonna keep doing the shitty things. And then it's like, oh, horrible horrible thing happened. Don't make the. I think you kind of get it, and it's really all you have to do is remember that you are the owner and get the message that like oh shitty things are happening. Oh, I guess I should do something about that. I should do. I should. I should get this fixed. I should change something. I should empower the property manager, the life manager, to to make the changes. I need to put some some energy, some effort, some work in. I need to be a responsible owner of of my human life, and that's what it is to be responsible is to. To own it, and so whatever happened, whatever does happen, whatever will happen, and this is where the perspective shift is so key, is because it's often such a big habit to want to blame someone else and to just go, "Woe is me! This is not what I wanted. This is not what I signed up for. Things are not going going the way that I want. Somebody's doing this to me. Somebody's doing this to me. I'll share this. I don't know if I've ever shared this story before, but when I was in college, I think it was as as like after after I had like my first my my breakup with my my first girlfriend. As like I got no friends. What do people do? And it's like, oh, they go out drinking and partying. So went out to this party, and they had something called jungle juice. And if you're not familiar with jungle juice, congratulations. What it what it is is it's basically like you take any kind of hard alcohol, and you take any, and you put it into a a jug or a big punch bowl, and then you start adding stuff. And it's basically add as much alcohol as you can, and you start adding, you know, like soda and juice and whatever, so that it's basically as drinkable as possible, being as high in alcohol as possible. That's the idea. Dangerous stuff. Dangerous stuff. I had way too much. It was my first day, and you know, end up end up getting home, and then I wake up, and there's vomit all over me, all over me, and all over my bed. And my thought was, who did this to me? Who did this to me? Somebody must have broken in. Come upstairs, vomited all over me, and then seeing that they had done the job they came to do, they left taking nothing, doing nothing else, just leaving, leaving that vomitous, wretched mess all on top of me. That's that's seriously what I thought happened. For and then, oh, I did this to myself. I did this to myself, and that's that's a lot. What our lives are like. We're just we're unconscious. We're unaware. We don't actually know what's within us, what we're doing, how we're operating, and the things that happen to us, the things that we don't like-they're not here to punish us. They're here to inform us of what we've taken on, what we're carrying around, that was never ours is not ours, and is not meant to stay with us. And it's the opportunity to be totally response able, able to respond by seeing it, acknowledging it, changing it, and then seeing how life shifts. And the more I do this, the more I see my life shift in the most amazing, fantastic, and wonderful ways. And you might be wondering, well, how do I make these shifts? It's a lot of what these these episodes on this show have been about. It's what is a lot in my book, and it's the the practices that I teach, so really would just you know encourage you to get in contact with me or yeah go check out the links in the description, so that you know if you're you're curious. I'm really curious about you, like how's this landing? Like what? What's coming to you? Thinking of like being totally responsible for your life, 100% no matter what happens, no matter what somebody does the worst thing to you. Would you be able to go, who, boy, what part of me did that? What part of me created that in my world? What is it that is time for me to take a look at and go? All right, there's some shifts to be made, and then are you willing to write to write that check and make the change? Because once you see it, it doesn't go away until you make a shift. But then, when you make the shift, the shift changes. It happens. It goes away, and little by little, you start having the most amazing life. Yet, if you just want to keep your head in the sand and just go, I don't know, I don't know why I keep getting my ass my ass kicked. My head's in the sand. I keep feeling my ass getting kicked. It's like well, because you've created such a kickable ass situation. Pull the head out of the sand and then start seeing what's going on around you. If you if you put your head in the sand right next to an ass kicking machine, that's that's often how a lot of a lot of us have set our life up. Just we didn't. Know it, you didn't know it, so it's not saying it's your fault. I'm not saying it's your fault. A lot of the stuff you weren't consciously aware of. Well, oh, believing believing that that bad things happen to good people, like that's bullshit. But you but you might have taken that on. There's a lot of horrible, horrible beliefs you've taken on. That's you know the previous episode about what's been renting space in your mind. You've been allowing all sorts of stuff to be a tenant in the house of your life with you, and they don't belong there. And it's time to be the the landlord and go get the get the fuck out, get out of here. It's nonsense. This is my life, and I'm gonna do what I want, enjoy it, and this is it's gonna be fun, right? So, with that, you got this. You can be responsible. It's only bad until it's not until you decide. Oh, it's going to be good. When you decide it's going to be good, it's going to be good. So with that, thank you and good day. Thanks for tuning in to Engineering Emotions and Energy with Justin Wenck, PhD. Today's episode resonated with you. Please subscribe and leave a five-star review. Your feedback not only supports the show but also helps others find us and start their journey of emotional and energetic mastery. You can also help by sharing this podcast with someone you think will love it just as much as you do. Together, we're engineering more amazing lives.