The Difference Between Progress and Movement

You’ve been in your role for three years. You’re busy every day, completing projects, hitting targets, staying on top of everything. You’re moving constantly—responding, executing, delivering.

And yet, when you look at your career trajectory, you’re basically in the same place you were two years ago. Same responsibilities. Same level. Same type of work. Lots of movement, but no actual progress.

The problem isn’t that you’re not working hard enough—it’s that you’re confusing movement (doing things) with progress (moving forward), and they’re completely different.

The Problem

Your task list is always full. You check things off every day. You respond to every request. You complete every assignment. You’re in constant motion, which feels productive.

But when you step back and ask “what’s different than a year ago?” the answer is: nothing significant. You’ve done hundreds of tasks, but they were all variations of the same work you were already doing. You moved a lot without moving forward.

Meanwhile, colleagues who seem to do less are getting promoted. They’re not completing more tasks than you. They’re not working longer hours. But somehow they’re advancing while you’re running in place.

What you don’t realize is that they’re making progress—changing what they’re capable of, expanding their scope, demonstrating new capabilities—while you’re making movement—executing tasks within your existing scope over and over.

Movement is doing your job. Progress is outgrowing your job. Movement is comfortable. Progress is uncomfortable. Movement gets rewarded with “keep doing what you’re doing.” Progress gets rewarded with advancement.

Why this happens to reliable performers

Research suggests that high performers often fall into a competency trap where being excellent at their current level prevents growth to the next level. You’re so good at executing that people keep giving you more execution work.

Many people find that the better they get at their job, the more their job stays the same. You’re rewarded for reliability with more responsibility at the same level, not with opportunities to work at a different level.

What you don’t realize is that progress requires deliberately working beyond your current scope, even when it feels inefficient. The person getting promoted isn’t executing better than you—they’re attempting things they’re not yet good at, which looks less impressive day-to-day but signals growth potential.

The cruel irony is that movement feels like progress because you’re working hard and completing things. But you’re on a treadmill—constant effort, zero forward motion. You end the year exhausted from all that movement but no closer to your goals than when you started.

What Most People Try

The most common response is to increase movement: work more hours, take on more projects, complete more tasks. If doing 100 things didn’t create progress, maybe doing 150 things will.

This just creates more motion on the same treadmill. You’re busier, but you’re still doing the same type of work. The volume increased, but the nature of the work—and therefore the signal you’re sending—hasn’t changed.

Then there’s the efficiency approach: get better at your current work, optimize processes, improve your systems. This makes you more valuable in your current role, which often means you stay in that role longer because you’re too valuable to promote.

Some try to add “stretch goals” on top of their existing work: volunteer for high-visibility projects, seek out strategic work. But many people find they don’t have capacity for these on top of their full workload, or they do them poorly because they’re already stretched thin.

Others wait to be tapped for advancement: “I’m doing great work, leadership will notice and promote me.” But many people find that great execution of current-level work doesn’t signal readiness for next-level work. You need to be already doing next-level work to be considered for the next level.

The fundamental issue with all these approaches is they’re trying to create progress through more movement when progress requires different movement—work that’s qualitatively different from what you’re currently doing, not just more of it.

What Actually Helps

1. Distinguish between depth work and growth work

Right now, you probably categorize your work as “important” versus “not important” or “urgent” versus “not urgent.” But the more useful distinction is “depth work” (getting better at what you already do) versus “growth work” (expanding what you’re capable of).

Depth work is executing your current role excellently. This maintains your position. Growth work is attempting things you’re not yet good at. This advances your position.

Many people find that they’re spending 90-95% of their time on depth work and wondering why they’re not growing. The answer is simple: you’re optimizing the wrong variable.

Here’s how to start: Audit your last month of work. For each significant task or project, ask: “Am I doing this because I’m already good at it, or because it will make me capable of something new?”

Most people discover that nearly everything falls into the first category. You’re being given—and choosing—work that plays to your existing strengths. This feels good. It produces quality outcomes. But it’s depth, not growth.

Identify work that would be growth: tasks that require capabilities you don’t have yet, projects outside your current scope, problems you’re not sure how to solve. This work feels uncomfortable and risky. That discomfort is the signal you’re actually growing.

You need both types, but if growth is 0-5% of your work, you’re making movement without progress. Target should be at least 15-20% of your time on work that you’re not yet good at.

2. Create evidence of expanded capability, not just consistent execution

When decision-makers consider who to promote, they’re not asking “who executes their current role well?” They’re asking “who has demonstrated they can handle the next role?”

The shift is deliberately creating evidence of next-level capability, even if it’s less polished than your current-level work.

Research suggests that people get promoted based on demonstrated potential for the next level, not excellence at the current level. But most people optimize for looking good at their current level rather than demonstrating capability for the next level.

Many people find that this requires accepting lower quality in some areas to create capacity for attempting higher-level work. You can’t execute everything at 100% AND attempt new things. Something has to give.

Here’s what this looks like in practice: Identify what the next level does differently than your current level. Not bigger projects—different types of work. More strategic? More cross-functional? More leadership? More ambiguity?

Create opportunities to demonstrate those capabilities at small scale. If the next level requires strategic thinking, write a strategy document even if no one asked for it. If it requires leadership, lead something even if it’s informal. If it requires managing ambiguity, volunteer for the project no one knows how to approach.

These attempts won’t be as polished as your execution work. That’s fine. You’re not trying to show you’re perfect at the next level—you’re showing you’re attempting next-level work, which is the evidence of growth.

The person who executes flawlessly at their current level looks ready for more current-level work. The person who attempts next-level work, even imperfectly, looks ready for the next level.

3. Measure yourself by capabilities gained, not tasks completed

As long as you measure success by task completion—projects delivered, targets hit, work finished—you’ll optimize for movement. These metrics measure activity, not growth.

The shift is tracking what you’ve become capable of that you weren’t capable of before. This measures progress.

Many people find that when they start tracking capability development instead of task completion, their entire approach to work changes. A project that teaches nothing becomes less valuable than a project that expands what you can do, even if the second project is smaller.

Here’s how to start: At the end of each quarter, ask not “what did I complete?” but “what can I now do that I couldn’t do three months ago?”

Maybe you learned to manage a difficult stakeholder. Maybe you figured out how to navigate ambiguous requirements. Maybe you developed expertise in a new domain. Maybe you successfully influenced a decision outside your direct authority.

These capabilities are what create career progress. Someone who completed 50 projects but learned nothing new is in the same place they were. Someone who completed 30 projects but developed three new capabilities has advanced.

This also means choosing projects differently. When deciding what to work on, don’t just ask “can I do this well?” Ask “will doing this make me capable of something I’m not currently capable of?”

Sometimes the answer is no—the work is necessary but not developmental. That’s fine, but recognize it as maintenance, not growth. Other times, the answer is yes. Prioritize those opportunities even if they’re less comfortable than executing what you already know how to do.

The Takeaway

Movement—staying busy, completing tasks, executing your role—maintains your position. Progress—expanding capabilities, attempting new work, demonstrating next-level skills—advances your position. Stop measuring success by how much you do and start measuring by what you become capable of. Distinguish depth work from growth work, create evidence of next-level capability even if imperfect, and track capabilities gained rather than tasks completed. You’re not advancing by doing your current job excellently. You’re advancing by already doing parts of the next job, however imperfectly. Constant motion without growth is just exhausting. Progress requires discomfort—attempting work you’re not yet good at is the signal you’re actually moving forward.