We have all heard the phrase Carpe Diem. Seize the day.
In Choose Hard, M.J. DeMarco offers a subtle but important shift.
Don’t seize the day. Seize the moment.
We don’t make decisions in days, weeks, months, or years. We make them in moments. Every conversation. Every email. Every purchase. Every difficult discussion we avoid. Every opportunity we embrace. The present moment is the only place where a decision can actually be made.
DeMarco calls this Momentality. He describes it as life’s Axis of Power because every future consequence must pass through the present moment before it becomes reality. The future is simply the accumulated consequence of moments that have already passed.
Physics offers a useful metaphor.
Every rotating object has an axis. While everything else is moving, the axis remains stable, providing balance and direction. Without it, motion becomes unstable and chaotic. With it, enormous forces can be harnessed and directed.
Leadership is no different.
Markets fluctuate. Teams evolve. Competitors emerge. Technologies change. Yet the most effective leaders are anchored by something that doesn’t move as easily: their purpose, principles, and long-term vision. Those become the axis around which every decision rotates.
This is why strategic leadership is rarely won or lost in one dramatic moment. It is won or lost in thousands of ordinary ones.
- The decision to prepare instead of procrastinate.
- To ask one more question before making an assumption.
- To address a difficult issue instead of hoping it disappears.
- To invest in capability instead of chasing convenience.
Each choice appears insignificant. Together, they establish a direction.
DeMarco also reminds us that not every moment carries the same weight.
Some moments recruit for your future. Others quietly betray it. A single reckless decision can alter the course of a life. More often, however, decline happens gradually through what he calls treason flow: small, easy choices repeated so frequently that they become habits.
Organizations experience the same phenomenon.
Rarely do businesses fail because of one catastrophic decision. More often, they drift because leaders repeatedly postpone uncomfortable conversations, ignore weak signals, tolerate misalignment, or choose what is expedient over what is necessary. Strategic failure is usually accumulated one treasonous choice at a time.
That’s why the greatest competitive advantage isn’t speed. It’s awareness.
The ability to slow down in the moment long enough (sometimes it takes just 10 seconds) to recognize that a choice is being made, and then deliberately choosing the one that aligns with the future you are trying to create.
The future isn’t built tomorrow. It’s being built now – one moment at a time.
Strategic Reflection
What moment are you facing today that deserves more intention than reaction, and what future will that choice begin to build?
About Giselle
Some of the most costly decisions begin with a wrong read of the situation.
I’m Giselle Hudson, The Pre-Fixer™. I am asked to intervene when something important needs to be better understood before a consequential decision is made.
As The Pre-Fixer™, I act as a strategic thinking partner, working with leaders to examine what they are seeing, separate what they know from what they may be assuming, consider what else might explain the situation, and surface what may not yet be visible.
I don’t fix; I pre-fix. My work happens before the solution is chosen, helping leaders build the understanding from which better decisions can be made.
Through my daily Strategic Alignment Journal, I explore leadership, decision-making, business and the patterns that shape organizations, following the questions and observations that help us understand situations more clearly before deciding how to respond.
What are you trying to make sense of right now?
