The Quiet Decisions
As an executive coach, I spend a lot of time helping leaders step back and notice what time is actually doing in their lives. This weekend, our family had one of those moments.
Twelve years ago we took an Easter photo.
Three little boys in outfits they picked out themselves. Please do not miss the colorful socks and wristband choices. Rich and I are trying to get everyone to stand still long enough for a picture.
This weekend, we attempted to recreate that photo. Same family. Same pose. Still trying to get everyone to stand still for the picture. Completely different lives.
Back then the boys were primarily baseball players. Spring meant dusty diamonds. If you had asked us what our future looked like, we would have said without hesitation that we were raising a college baseball family.
Soccer was not the plan.
Somewhere along the way, that changed. One season. One team. One opportunity that quietly turned into something much bigger than we expected.
Fast forward twelve years.
One son has launched his career. One is finishing college this semester after ending his college soccer career at the NCAA Final Four. Our youngest is returning to play after a significant injury, deciding where he will play soccer and go to college.
None of that was visible in the photo twelve years ago. In fact, we were navigating an exceptionally hard season medically with one of our kids. It was a journey we held close to the vest. One that required a kind of quiet courage that does not make headlines but shapes families in ways that last decades.
Today, as I looked down the row at these strapping, handsome, good men, I was overwhelmed. By the journey. By the courage. By the growth.
What This Has to Do with Leadership
The decisions that shape the next decade rarely feel like big leadership moments when they happen.
They are usually small directional choices.
The team you join.
The coach you trust.
The opportunity you say yes to.
The hard season you stay through instead of quitting.
At the time, those decisions feel ordinary. But give them a decade. They shape character. They shape resilience. They shape the people you become.
Today's photo reminded me that life and leadership are not built in the big moments everyone sees. They are built in the quiet decisions no one thinks are that important yet.
Until a decade passes. And you realize they shaped everything.
A Moment for Your Own Reflection
We work with leaders every day who are in the middle of decisions that feel small but are not. If this reflection landed for you, sit with these questions this week:
What quiet decision are you living through right now that you might be underestimating?
What hard season are you considering quitting that might be forming something essential in you?
If you gave your current decisions a decade, what would you want them to have built?
If you are navigating a season that calls for more, we would love to talk. Sacred & Strategic exists to walk with leaders through exactly these kinds of defining moments.
