The Cost of Momentum

January 25, 2026

Reflect

Leadership rarely looks the same across seasons, but it consistently asks for the same discipline.

For some leaders, things are working. Opportunities arise without being chased, conversations arrive already aligned with strategy and values, and progress feels earned. Direction appears sound, and by most measures, this looks like success. For others, the moment is defined by loss or transition. A role has ended, a chapter has closed, and the structure that once shaped decision-making has fallen away, replaced by uncertainty and open space.

What these moments share is not immediately obvious, but it matters. In both cases, the nature of leadership decisions quietly changes.

When progress builds, leaders stop choosing between misalignment and focus and begin choosing among credible options that all appear worthwhile. When structure disappears, leaders stop choosing within clear constraints and begin choosing without familiar guardrails. In each case, what becomes harder is not effort or commitment, but discernment.

This is the counterintuitive part. Whether things are accelerating or resetting, leadership becomes less about doing and more about deciding. The cost does not show up immediately in outcomes, but in how difficult it becomes to determine what truly deserves time, energy, and attention once conditions shift.

Anchor

This is the shift that often goes unrecognized:

When conditions change, discernment becomes the real leadership work.

Earlier stages reward responsiveness and range. Progress depends on openness, on saying yes, on building options. That logic makes sense when opportunities are scarce or fragile, and it can also feel essential when leaders are rebuilding after disruption. Over time, however, the question itself has to change.

At this stage, leadership is no longer about evaluating whether something is good. Most opportunities are good, or at least reasonable. The work becomes evaluating cost relative to capacity, direction, and timing, with discernment shifting from assessing ideas to assessing tradeoffs, even when those tradeoffs are uncomfortable or unclear.

This applies whether your days are full or suddenly open. Even when capacity exists, not every opportunity is worth the focus, flexibility, or emotional energy it quietly requires. Discernment is not restraint and it is not caution. It is precision, especially when the familiar signals that once guided decisions are no longer reliable.

Momentum

Here are two decision lenses you can use immediately, without adding process or pressure, wherever you are right now.

1. Change the question you answer
Instead of asking whether something is a good opportunity, pause and ask:
What would this require of me at this stage, and what might it quietly limit?

This question works whether your calendar is full or open. When the cost is unclear, the decision usually needs more time or distance before it becomes a yes.

2. Separate alignment from importance
Many opportunities feel compelling because they align with your values or direction, but alignment alone is not the test.

Before committing, ask whether this meaningfully advances what matters most right now, or whether it simply fits the story you want the next chapter to tell. Both can be true, but only one should earn sustained attention.

Discernment at this level is not about doing less or pulling back. It is about choosing in a way that preserves clarity and decision quality as conditions change.

As Annie Dillard once wrote, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” In leadership, how we choose among reasonable options is often how direction is quietly set, especially when the path ahead is still taking shape.

Next week: Staying Oriented as Things Speed Up How leaders maintain coherence when demands, expectations, and inputs multiply.

Subscribe to The Weekly Momentum.