Let’s Keep Moving

We moved house this week, and it genuinely felt like more than just geography. It was a message to ourselves.  The boxes are still half-packed, and there are echoes in rooms we’re still waiting to fill. As I prepared for the move, it enabled me to see how much of life is held in the familiar; in routines, systems, fears that once served us, but can often keep us still.

And life itself recently reminded me what standing still really costs.  Over the past month I lost two friends. One lost a long painful fight against cancer; the other was gone in an instant; no warning, no preparation. I’ve watched friends and family members carry the grief and the aftermath of love lost, of plans unfulfilled.

You see, the thing about life is that the runway we count on is shorter than we like to believe. When you’re standing still, you’re still moving, but often in the wrong direction.

In business we talk about resilience and planning. We even quote Mike Tyson: “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” 

 We know it. We’ve seen it. Yet too often we hope we’ll dodge the punch instead of training for it.

Well, we recently took our punch.  At the eleventh hour, when we should have been getting ready to celebrate settling into our new place, something went horribly wrong, a screw-up, and at very late notice, bringing the kind of stress and chaos that forces you to either act or recoil. At that moment,  I first saw the old version of me: hesitating, waiting for the calm, waiting for others to sort the issue. Instead, this time, I saw the impact of the news on my wife, the stress and worry that our move could collapse, and I decided to punch back and choose action and to move forward.  Within a few hours, a new plan was in place and we had regrouped and stabilised; the move was still on.

It’s not just about absorbing the punch. It’s about what you do next. It’s about being the business, being the person, who doesn’t just survive disruption, but who uses it.

Forecasting for the living means this:

• It means writing budgets and targets that make your heart race a little, not because they’re unachievable, but because they match your desire and potential.
• It means designing systems that protect you from the unpredictable: cash buffers, decision-triggers, operational redundancies. 
• It means asking the hard questions: What am I still holding onto because it feels safe, rather than because it’s helping me grow? What would I do differently if I knew time was not guaranteed?
• It means focusing on doing, not just planning; building motion, not just maintenance.

As we start to plan for the year 2026, don’t aim for timid growth. 2026 will be for living growth.  The kind of growth where you leave no words unsaid, no dreams untested, no “maybe later” hanging over you like a regret. The kind of growth that honours those we lost, and respects the time we still have. The kind of growth that says yes!, this is the year it happens.

So here’s to showing up, moving our houses inside and out, shifting frames, shifting mindsets, shifting plans. To doing the work while we still can. To forecasting for the living.

Because the safest thing we can do isn’t avoid risk, it’s avoid movement. And the risk worth taking is the one you won’t regret.

PS: 2026 isn’t waiting, and neither are we! At Nuvem9, we’re building a movement of bold, brilliant companies who’ve decided this is the year it happens. The year they stop forecasting for safety and start forecasting for growth, courage, and legacy. If you’re ready to move, build, and lead like time actually matters, this is your moment to join us.  2026 is the year it happens. Not the year we just talk about it. Not the year we wait for certainty. The year we actually do it.