Are you climbing the right mountain?
Are you making progress toward the right goal?
Imagine you are a mountain climber who realizes halfway up that you’re ascending the wrong peak. Each additional step takes you closer to the top, but farther from your desired destination. You stop for a minute and consider “I’ve put so much work into getting to this point, can I really turn back now? What will people say? Will my followers lose faith in me?” The bravest act, then, for the leader is not to climb higher but to descend, to acknowledge your misstep, and to start again on the right mountain.
It’s not regression; it takes an enormous amount of courage to pivot towards what really matters.
As leaders, we can sometimes fall into the trap that moving forward in any direction is better than retreat. But as Stephen R. Covey says: “If the ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step we take just gets us to the wrong place faster.”
Take five minutes and consider your current trajectory:
- Realize when you’re making decisions based on past investments rather than future benefits.
- Understand that past decisions don’t have to dictate your future.
- Embrace the freedom to make choices based on what’s ahead, not what’s behind.
- Every misstep is a lesson, not a loss. Shift your perspective from what was spent to what was learned.
- Regularly reassess commitments and be willing to disengage from those no longer serving your ultimate goals.
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