Every January, we confuse ambition with progress. Most resolutions fail not because we lack discipline, but because heroic effort doesn’t scale. Sustainable change works the same way great businesses do: clear long-term direction, fewer priorities, and disciplined routines that compound over time. High performers don’t rely on motivation. They design rhythms that protect energy, sharpen judgement and make progress inevitable.

If you’re familiar with the Flywheel concept from Turning the Flywheel, you’ll remember when author Jim Collins sat down with Jeff Bezos and the Amazon team. It was the early 2000s, before Amazon Web Services existed, when Amazon was purely a product and e-commerce business.

Recently I was invited to facilitate a Quarterly Planning session for a mid-size professional services firm. The firm is well established...