Why We Sabotage Progress

Raise your hand if you’ve ever lit the match to your own momentum.

I see you if you didn’t. And I also know… yes, yes you have. It seems to be the thing all of us do at one point or another. Especially if you’re one of those high-functioning, high-introspection types.

Errrr….

Um, anyway.

Big Sabotage (the lobbying committee) looks like failure is what we usually think. Or even burnout. Or a complete breakdown, like, flip the table at the wedding reception because they’re doing a Dollar Dance and it’s 2026.

More realistically? Sabotage looks more often like that extra hour spent tweaking a slide instead of sending it, or picking a fight with a stakeholder right when alignment was finally in reach. It’s skipping the gym again because you “need” to plan instead of act.

Most sabotage is subtle, logical, and looks exactly like work. Because sabotage often isn’t about laziness or incompetence… it’s about protection.

We sabotage progress because progress threatens the identity we’ve been safe inside.

So we freeze or we fidget. Or we start entire new ventures instead of finishing the one that was finally starting to work.

And the hard part is, man… we’re smart enough to tell ourselves some really great stories about how it isn’t sabotage at all but just… being:

• “I’m just refining the deck so it’s client-ready.”

• “We’re not ready to launch that campaign… we need one more layer of alignment.”

• “Q2 will be when I really turn it on.”

• “No one’s asking for this yet, so maybe I shouldn’t push it.”

If you zoom out, you can see it: You're moving, but you're not progressing. Planning, but not publishing. Anything that feels busy but never moves the needle.

I wish I’d tried this litmus test in a previous role… Asking myself “Is what I’m doing now protecting something, or advancing something?” Why did I wait to see if folks would make up their minds on what was needed, instead of just doing the work I knew would help? (To be fair… nothing would have helped, that time. So it goes.)

Not ALL protection is bad. Sometimes, it’s wisdom. More often though it’s a delay tactic. An act of sabotage! GASP! Here’s what I’d recommend instead…

Name it, folks. Call out your sabotage patterns before they set up shop. Awareness strips them of power. Did you get too busy again this week? Okay, but did you really?

Zoom into your micro-moment.Catch the moment where you opt for polish over progress. The little micro-choice where you delay the send, avoid the meeting, or mute your own momentum.

Create the anti-sabotage trigger.When in doubt, do the thing that scares you most on purpose. Schedule the launch. Publish the deck. Send the message. Post the sat-upon whitepaper content as your own material since the fear to make a statement is too strong elsewhere. The confidence comes after the action, not before.

Don’t confuse discomfort with danger.Sabotage is fueled by the belief that discomfort = bad. Nah. Discomfort is just a signal that you’re on the edge of becoming something bigger. Even if the bigger is after a stumble or two. It’s out there.

It’s out there.

So… If you’ve got all the pieces but haven’t made the move… If your calendar is full but your heart isn’t in it…

You’re not necessarily broken or behind or even lazy. You might just be sitting on the edge of what’s next. Unconsciously trying to protect who you’ve been, instead of stepping into who you’re becoming.

Reminder… You’re allowed to stop sabotaging. You’re also allowed to win.