How To Lead A Quest

21 Contextual Momentum

Just pause reading this, and have a look at the date today.

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I know, right? Can you believe how quickly the months have flown on by?

Most cannot. We find ourselves perpetually surprised by the passage of time. Months go by, and yet we still haven't progressed that important piece of pioneering work. We've been busy, and we keep saying we'll get around to it, but other urgent things always seem to crop up, and so we don't.

Part of this is due to the default view of most of our productivity tools (whether they be calendar apps, task managers, diaries or wall planners) confined to a day, a week or a month. And so our focus becomes contained within those parameters — we think in terms of daily, weekly or monthly priorities, and therefore struggle to progress our quests and the bigger projects that matter.

RITUALS CHANGE THIS.

They are the sacrosanct time we dedicate to ensuring meaningful progress. But how do we go about creating such rituals? When do these sacred routines occur, and what purpose do they serve?

MOMENTUM IN CONTEXT

If you get the big, compelling why behind leading a quest (outfoxing the Inevitable Kraken of Doom by unlocking new value, pioneering new growth arcs and securing enduring relevance — refer to figure 4.1 on p. 46), and the what (pioneering leadership and Quest-Augmented Strategy — refer to figure 5.1 on p. 60), then we may ...