Mastering the Moment You're In

Some of us live day to day or week to week. Others think in terms of months or years. And then there are the rare ones — the decade thinkers.

There’s no moral hierarchy here. No right or wrong time horizon. We all have an inclination toward one span of time that fits how we think, make decisions, and do our best work, and that changes depending on what stage of life we're in.

It all comes down to where you are in your journey. So ask yourself this:

What's the time span I'm genuinely concerned about?

This might seem like a philosophical exercise, just one more step toward self-awareness. But it’s more than that. It’s a compass for how you lead, how you build, and how you show up. If you’re trying to create a productive, humane, and resilient company, your time horizon isn’t just a preference. It’s a driving force.

As founders and company builders, our orientation toward time sets the tone for everything else. Strategy, culture, pace, priorities — they’re all shaped by the distance we’re drawn to worry about or concern ourselves with.

So let’s explore why understanding our orientation toward time and how it aligns with our company’s Stage of Development might be one of the most important realizations we can have as founders.

Your Relationship with Time

I’ve found one of the clearest ways to understand someone (especially a founder) is to observe their relationship with time. Not just how far out they tend to plan, but how far into the future they feel naturally pulled. We each have a natural time horizon that fits the way we think, feel, and create. And yes, it will expand and contract over, pardon the pun, time. 

Some people simply can’t stop thinking about next week’s projects. Others feel most alive when they’re solving for next quarter’s milestones. And a few, the true long-game thinkers, wake up thinking about the decade ahead.

It’s a window into how we see the world: what we notice, what keeps us up at night, where we pour our energy. (And the further out it is, the more maddening it can be.)

Time isn’t just a tool for planning. It’s an expression of our identity, a reflection of the kind of work that draws us in. You can learn a lot about a person by the horizon they naturally fixate on — whether they're drawn to solving today's challenges, planning the next few months, or shaping what lasts for years, or even decades (think Elon), to come.

Mastery begins not by stretching ourselves into a time frame we think we should live in, but by being self-aware and building from there. And just as importantly, by learning how to work with where our company is, even if that might not fully match our default rhythm.

Matching Your Mindset to the Moment

As we grow both personally and professionally, our relationship with time needs to evolve alongside the developmental needs of our company. We can think about it through the lens of the Stages of Development:

• Stage 1: Life is lived day to day. It’s about survival — reacting to what’s in front of you, solving urgent problems, and proving there’s something worth building.
• Stage 2: The rhythm shifts to week-to-week thinking. You’re testing assumptions, learning from feedback, and seeking product-market fit.
• Stage 3: Here, the lens broadens to months and quarters. You’re no longer just reacting. You’re designing processes, building repeatable patterns, forging your culture, and hopefully shaping a business that can run without constant reinvention.
• Stage 4: The time horizon stretches from quarters to years. It’s about building a culture that can sustain growth, developing a strong Senior Leadership Team, and ensuring the systems you’ve created continue to reinforce your Compelling Why.
• Stage 5: Attention shifts to a ten-year horizon (and beyond). You’re thinking about legacy, not as an endpoint, but as a living system. You begin shaping a company that can outlast you.

The best founders adapt as their company scales. They evolve with their company, not only shifting how they think and lead as the demands around them change, but expanding their relationship with time.

But what happens when your natural time horizon doesn’t match your organization’s stage?

If you're a decade thinker leading a Stage 1 business, you might feel constantly out of sync — dreaming in systems and legacies while the business needs fire-fighting, speed, and survival instincts. That kind of mismatch isn’t a flaw. Your long-range thinking is still valuable because it's what helps you avoid short-sighted moves and ground early chaos in purpose. But you still have to meet the moment. How? Surround yourself with those who can. 

Stage 1 doesn’t ask you to give up your future orientation. It asks you to translate it into today’s language. Solve what’s urgent. Make things work. Live in the now while staying rooted in what could be. And sometimes, the smartest move is to surround yourself with leaders whose natural orientation fills the gap between "fill the order" and "this is what's possible." Surround yourself with people who collectively thrive across time frames your company needs right now.

The key is staying in sync with the company’s journey. Each stage demands you collectively have a different relationship with time, and as the business evolves, so should you. 

Alignment Over Aspiration

In a productivity-obsessed world, it’s easy to assume further out is better, that thinking in years or decades is inherently more valuable than staying grounded in the day or week. But that kind of thinking isn't just wrong, it's incomplete.

When our time horizon doesn’t match what the company needs, we risk two extremes: staying too focused on the present or thinking too far ahead. Either way, it can lead to overlooked priorities, unclear direction, and a team that feels disconnected from what matters most right now.

That’s where some of our employee archetype research comes in. Each archetype tends to operate from a different natural span of time. When those spans align with people’s Seats, the organization gains momentum.

• Operators live day to day. The present moment is their domain.
• Improvers live week to week. They fix, refine, and make things better.
• Builders live month to month. They create and construct.
• Integrators live quarter to quarter. They coordinate motion across time.
• Stewards live year to year and beyond. They guard the vision, the people, and the purpose.

Every company eventually needs all five of these archetypes for the business to operate with both focus and foresight — anchored in today’s work while steadily building toward the future. 

Expanding Your Time Horizon

Now here’s the good news: The time horizon you think in isn’t permanent. It evolves, not by forcing yourself to think further ahead, but by going deeper into the time span you’re currently in.

When you master the day, you gain the clarity and habits that unlock the week. When you master the week, you start to think in terms of the month. Over time, the decade becomes not an abstraction but something that comes naturally.

So what does this look like in practice?

1. Name your span: Be honest with yourself. We all have a natural time horizon. Understanding yours helps you lead more intentionally and avoid working against your instincts.
2. Align with your stage: Does your time horizon match what your company needs based on the stage your in? If not, adjust your focus and/or bring others around you who can.
3. Seek balance: Different time horizons serve different functions, and every company needs people living in different spans of time. Don’t confuse short-term with shallow or long-term with wise.
4. Earn expansion: You don’t jump to a longer time horizon with willpower. You earn it by mastering the one you’re in. Focus, show up, and lead well from where you are.

The more fully you engage with the span you're in, the more capacity you build to hold what’s next. That’s how real growth works. It’s not about pushing yourself to think further out. It’s about proving, through action and attention, that you’re ready. When you master the moment you’re in, the future stops feeling like a stretch and starts feeling like a natural extension of who you’ve become.

Staying Anchored in the Moment

Mastery isn’t about foresight. It’s about alignment between who you are, where your company is, and the span of time you’re best equipped to lead from right now.

Our relationship with time isn’t just personal. It sets the tone for how our company operates. When our natural horizon matches the work our company needs, we lead with clarity. We create the conditions for others to thrive. And we build resilience into the culture.

Some of us are wired for immediacy and some for legacy. The goal isn’t to stretch yourself into a longer span. It’s to show up fully to the one you’re in.

The best founders don’t try to escape time. They partner with it by matching their pace to the moment. And with each step, they earn the right to look further ahead.