If you’re feeling a little behind already, you’re not alone.

The holidays just ended. The new year just started. Some people are still decompressing. Some are mentally re-entering work. Some are already questioning the goals they made a few days ago. Some haven’t made any at all. And some are already moving at full speed, trying to create momentum before they’ve had a chance to catch their breath.

That range is normal.

Early January has a weird pressure to be aligned, motivated, and decisive immediately. As if the calendar flips and we’re supposed to know exactly what matters and how to move it forward.

So we speed up.

We plan. We optimize. We set goals. We push for momentum. Because expectations are high and motion is visible.

The risk is that speed without orientation doesn’t create progress. It just accelerates whatever direction you happened to be facing. Teams get busy. Priorities multiply. Activity increases. And before long, you’re measuring motion instead of movement. Not because anyone made a bad decision, but because no one slowed down long enough to notice what actually changed.

Not everything needs to be measured or acted on immediately.

Before refining the plan, pushing the team, or optimizing the next quarter, there’s value in noticing a few things first. Where energy actually carried you last year. Where effort didn’t translate into impact. Where urgency crept in without clarity. Those patterns don’t disappear just because the calendar flips. They either get identified or they quietly repeat.

As we start walking into the year, I’m not here to hand you another goal-setting framework or tell you to go bigger. I’m more interested in a better starting point.

What needs to be noticed before you decide what matters next?