Rudder and Anchor: Leading Through the Waves of January

Imagine for a minute that you're standing at the ocean's edge and you watch a massive wave building as it moves water toward the shore. You probably have experienced the mixed emotions watching waves - and sense of excitement, awe, and some fear when you see it build...

For leaders, January feels like that.

There's a surge of possibility rolling toward you: fresh goals, untapped energy, a calendar not yet cluttered with compromise. It's exhilarating. But if you've led long enough, you also hear the roar underneath—the overwhelm of expectations, the crash of limited resources meeting unlimited demands, the undertow of everything you didn't finish last year pulling at your ankles. By the second week, many leaders aren't riding the wave; they're tumbling in it, disoriented, gasping for air, wondering which way is up. What if the answer isn't to swim harder?

Two Lessons Leaders Can Learn From Sailors

Sailors know something most of us forget in January: you don't control the waves. You can't make the water calmer or the wind more cooperative. But you can set your rudder. And you can drop anchor. These aren't flashy moves—they won't make the storm stop—but they're the difference between drifting aimlessly and sailing with purpose.

The Rudder: Your Identity Anchors Your Direction

There's a moment in Mark 4 that gives us a powerful reminder of this, by the leader we should all be learning from. Jesus is asleep in the stern of a boat while His disciples panic in a storm. Same boat. Same waves. Completely different responses.

The difference wasn't that Jesus didn't notice the storm. It's that He knew who He was and what He was doing there. His identity and mission were the rudder keeping the boat on course, regardless of how high the waves rose.

When we lose sight of our "why"—our identity, our calling, what we're really here for—every wave becomes a crisis - and often takes power over our emotions and focus. Every emerging problem or urgent task feels like it could capsize us. Every unexpected challenge, every criticism, every opportunity that doesn't fit the plan suddenly has the power to spin us around. We start reacting instead of responding. We start drifting.

A rudder doesn't react to waves. It holds direction through them.

The question January asks isn't, "What are you going to accomplish?" It's deeper than that: Who are you, and what is your greater purpose? 

Because when the waves of this year pick up—and they will—t

hat's the only thing that will keep you on course.

The Anchor: Your Beliefs bring Recalibration

Here's what most people misunderstand about anchors: they're not about staying stuck. They're about deliberate pause.

A skilled sailor drops anchor to wait for better conditions without drifting off course. To make repairs that can't happen while everything's in motion. To rest the crew before the next leg of the journey.

The anchor doesn't stop the journey—it protects it.

Your beliefs work the same way. When everything's moving fast and you're being pulled in ten directions, dropping anchor means returning to what you know to be true—about yourself, about what matters, about how the world actually works. That moment of stillness lets you ask the question that saves you from drifting: Am I still heading where I am meant to go?

This is what leaders need most in January, and it's the thing we're least likely to give ourselves. We think stopping to recalibrate is a luxury. But without it, we end up six months down the road wondering how we got so far from where we intended to be.

A Different Kind of January

So here's my invitation as we start this year—not another thing to add to your list, but a different posture entirely:

What's your rudder? 

Not your goals for 2026, but the deeper truth about who you are and why you're here. What's the direction worth holding, even when the waves try to push you off course?

What belief could you drop anchor on this month? 

What truth about yourself, about your calling, about what actually matters could you return to when the pace gets chaotic and the demands get loud?

January doesn't have to be a sprint. It can be the month you remember who you are. The month you recalibrate to what's true. The month you set your rudder so that the rest of the year—wherever it takes you—you're sailing somewhere instead of just surviving the waves.

And if you need a place to drop anchor, that's exactly what our LeaderPrint communities are for. Not another meeting. Not another obligation. Just space—once a month—to pause, to recalibrate, to remember who you are and what you're here for. To check your bearings with others who understand the journey.

Because leaders who know how to anchor don't drift. And leaders who trust their rudder can sleep through storms.

Here's to sailing with purpose in 2026.