The Push and the Pull

Think about two car rides a child takes in the same week.

On Tuesday, it's the dentist. They drag their feet to the car. They ask how long it'll take. Every red light feels like a small win, because it's one more minute before they get there. In the end, you're gently pushing them through the door.

On Saturday, it's a friend's birthday party. Same car. Same roads. They're ready twenty minutes early, shoes on, present in hand, standing by the door. Nobody has to push anyone. The party does the pulling.

The distance is the same. Only one of those rides wears everybody out.

I see both of those rides in entrepreneurs every week.

Push feels like friction. Every step costs you something, and by the evening you're tired in a way sleep doesn't fix.

Pull feels like aligned motion. Everything is moving the same way you are. You still work hard. But the work gives some energy back, and you don't have to talk yourself into the next step.

From the outside, they look the same. Same calendar. Same hours. The difference is what it costs you on the inside.

An entrepreneur I work with showed me this better than I could explain it.

Training used to be his happy place. Then he signed up for a big race and put every session into an app. Targets. Red squares on the days he missed. A sense of guilt and self-judgment because he did. Within months he'd stopped completely, and for a year and a half he barely trained.

Joy used to pull him out of the door. Now the numbers were pushing him, rather unsuccessfully.

When we talked about his next race, he caught it himself. "I used to be so pulled to do this," he said, "but the moment I got too pushy I could not keep up."

So here's what we did. We reframed the way he was approaching the same goal. Instead of trying to complete the race, which felt like a push, we reframed it to showing up to train, every day. Purely for the joy of it. Just to fall in love with the process once again. It was a small shift that made a giant difference. As we speak, this same entrepreneur has successfully trained 5x a week for the last 90 days, purely because he wanted to.

Your Blind Spot.

This part feels counterintuitive. Most of us believe a goal only counts if we have to force ourselves toward it. But the two kinds of goals draw out different things in you.

A push goal runs on willpower. Willpower is strong in January and gone by March. When it runs out, you call yourself lazy and push harder.

A pull goal runs on desire. Desire gets re-fuelled every time you get a little closer to something you care about.

The two kinds of goals even sound different in your head.

Sometimes the words you use set your energy. Sometimes your energy sets the words. The words are the part you can change today.

Now look back at 2026. My sense is most of what moved you this year was a push. The next client call. The next number due. The next thing that broke and needed you. When you haven't chosen where you're going, whatever's next does the pushing.

The easy move is to plan 2027 the way you ran 2026, with bigger targets and more discipline. But more push won't make your next year lighter. Even if you infuse more discipline into the mix.

2027 can only pull you if you choose where you're going first, clearly.

This is why I don't start the year with a map. I coach entrepreneurs to start with a compass instead. A map gives you a route, and when the road changes, you're stuck. A compass gives you a direction. When the road changes, you still know which way you're heading.

I call it the Founder's Compass. It creates space for your dreams and desires, the values you want guiding your choices, and why you're doing any of this at all. Hold any goal up against it, and you can feel which way it moves you. If it points where you want to go, it pulls you forward. If it doesn't, you'll be pushing it all year.

Do This To Fix Your Blind Spot

All of this doesn't mean you have to drop your goals. You have to align your compass first.

As we enter another season of reflection and goal setting, here's one simple question to ask yourself to fine-tune your compass - am I pushing myself to do this or am I getting pulled to do this? Very simple question, but it changes everything.

If you don't want to do this on your own, I invite you to join me at The Founder's Clarity & Freedom Intensive, where I'll coach you to create your Founder's Compass for 2027.

Your compass is what tells you which goals will pull you forward. On the day, we build it in three parts with 15 other entrepreneurs in the room.

• You, the founder. Step back to reflect on your 2026 and clarify what you want 2027 to make possible, in your business and in your life. Then name the values you want guiding your choices.

• Your business. See where progress is getting held up, and what's causing it.

• Your plan. Hold your goals up against your compass, choose a 90-day focus that pulls you, and set the rhythm to get started.

You'll leave with your direction crystal clear, and a compass you can keep coming back to whenever priorities compete. There are only 15 spots available.

Date: Saturday 12th December
Time: 10 AM - 4 PM
Location: in5 Tech, Dubai Media City, Dubai

Save your spot here.

All it takes is one day to choose the pull, before next year starts doing the pushing.

Coach Sid