Pushing The Boulder for The 6-Month Kickback

It’s July.
 
I have a question for you – in January of 2026, where will you be?
 
What will you be doing?
 
Who will you be?
 
SITUATIONAL IMPROVEMENT
July isn’t exactly a time for New Year’s Resolutions, but we’re squarely halfway through the year.
 
Coincidental timing that I just discovered – 6 months ago I wrote a piece on how, practically, we can create improvement in our own working life. (https://www.meyerfire.com/blog/its-my-fault-so-what-has-to-change)
 
The concept is fairly simple. If I want different results than what I’m getting today, then I first need to accept the responsibility for my own path, and be actively willing to alter my own trajectory.
 
The concept is – it’s my fault – now what do I need to change about my situation?
 
WHAT HAS TO CHANGE?
Today, I want to expand on that just slightly.
 
Six months from today – what has to change? What do you want to be different? Who do you need to become to achieve that?
 
If you’re fine with everything staying the same just as it is today, then great! You’ve found a nice niche. Build on it and continue the course.
 
But if there are things that you’d wish were better. Were easier. Were less-stressful. Were more impactful… then it’s time to take action on altering what things look like six months from now.
 
Just in my own experience, it’s the 6-month window where the change actually comes to fruition.
 
I’m not talking about short-term tasks. Short-term goals. Easily achievable things.
 
I’m talking about the things we wished were better.
 
IMMEDIATE IMPACT?
My common expectation is that if I work on something hard enough, I’ll immediately see an impact; immediately see results.
 
That’s just not how big, impactful things happen.
 
It seems like the effort is more like pushing a giant boulder down a slight slope. I can push and push and push, but I hardly see any traction at all—hardly any momentum.

Taking on bigger-impact initiatives in our work or home-life can feel like pushing a massive boulder that hardly moves.

​​Yet, if I keep at it for long enough, eventually it starts to roll.
 
Applying the same effort to that boulder starts to get more and more movement.
 
Eventually, with time, it starts to roll.
 
With momentum, the pushing gets easier, and the movement starts to happen. Eventually, under its own momentum, the boulder starts to move faster and faster, where pushing isn’t needed at all.
 
That’s the 6-month mark.
 
The problem I have is that my expectation feels like the return should be short. Should be in days, maybe weeks.
​

 
But in reality, for big impactful things that truly affect our current situation, it’s that 6-month mark where results are notably different.
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That doesn’t happen without a whole lot of effort, but it still takes time before that impact hits.
 
YOUR VIEW
What do you need to have changed in your life come January?
 
What change in direction can you make that alters your course?
 
What do you wish could be better?
 
Are you pushing that boulder now?
 
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

​What result do you want to achieve that is different from what you have now?

​Are you willing to make the change?
 
 

p.s. This is the last in a two-part series where I’ve talked about development and the impact-related world I’ve lived in recently, and what I’ve learned from living there.
 
In the coming weeks, I’m very excited to share new articles from Jocelyn Sarrantonio (our new Technical Director and also a Fire Protection Engineer); I think you’ll find her writing to be similarly accessible, casual, and thoughtful, but with a new perspective and different areas of expertise. I’ll continue to contribute, of course, but between the two of us, my hope is that you’ll get to read new content more frequently.
 
Thanks for reading and have a great rest of your week!
 
- Joe