The path to getting what you most want in life may be littered with the items and activities that you like the least.

Say what???

Think about it: You know you want to be fit – to look better, to feel better. But you won’t reach that goal without proper nutrition and putting in hours at the gym or miles on the trail.

Same goes for your finances. You want to have money in the bank to buy that great car or take a fabulous trip. But to do so may require a little less dining-out and a tad more diligence.

As I sat down with a client organization last week in a strategic planning retreat, we discussed how the same is true for organizations. It’s easy to envision the business outcomes or organizational culture that we aspire to attain, but without the consistent behaviors to place our entire team at that outcome, our dreams will stay outside the realm of reality.

In leadership, we may sit down to establish a long-term goal. But to get to that destination we must also establish and embed the day-to-day actions, values and behaviors that support our objective. This journey may be uncomfortable or downright ugly, but aligning these sometimes difficult or tedious tasks enables us to accomplish our desired, satisfying objective.

Organizations and individuals must be intentional and focused, boasting the foresight to break down that Big Hairy Audacious Goal into manageable steps, and the discipline to surmount both the scary obstacles and the sweet spots encountered along the way to achieve their success!