A Critical Distinction with Significant Results

I was on a coaching call with a client a few months ago. He was recounting to me the roadmap for him to achieve his goals.

“If I get this many clients and have an additional this many employees then I will be making $500,000 per year,” he told me. He had said this to me several times in the past, continuing to fantasize about earning that much money.

“I know. You’ve shared that math with me before,” I responded. “We’re not there yet though. Why don’t you share your current numbers with me?”

He went on to unpack his current performance which was about 25% of his goal. The performance had been there for several years. I took the opportunity to help him see that while his intention was to create the $500,000 performance, he was currently creating a $125,000 one. Those were his results.

Herein lies a critical distinction that is so often overlooked: the one between intention and results. Let’s face it, if thinking about winning was enough, we would all be wealthy, living in our dream homes, and have no significant challenges. The fact is that the intention to create that life is different than actually creating it. Having a clear picture of the future is obviously important, and the hope for what that can look like is a necessary component to achievement. It’s insufficient, though. Oftentimes I observe that people fixate on their intention and ignore their results. Being able to hold in tension that we can have lofty goals and acknowledge that we aren’t achieving them is a critical motivator to make the necessary changes and take the necessary action to realize them. This is one of the five key traits that Stanford professor and researcher, Jim Collins, highlights in his influential book Good to Great.

Late last year, I was meeting with a new client. He had shared his company’s performance with me and then went on to articulate his goals for the upcoming year. His company came up significantly short in achieving their 2025 goals, and yet their 2026 goals were 25% higher than the ones he and his team had missed. This is something that I see time and again. Organizational leaders think that if they only create greater goals that it will help them to achieve them. It’s just not true. As James Clear rightly observes in his book Atomic Habits, we don’t rise to the level of our goals, we fall to the level of our systems. So, if our operating system could not help us achieve our goals last year, higher ones won’t fix the problem.

This is where having a strategic operating system like the one we use with our clients is critical. It aligns long-term strategy with short term action so that every step we take helps us to get closer to those Big Hairy Audacious Goals. It’s harder to stay committed to long term goals in the day-to-day than it is to create bigger goals. It’s why we often default to the latter. I once had a boss who said that he wanted to hire people who had one thirty-year career rather than hire someone who had 30 one-year careers. By that, he was explaining that he was looking for someone who had a proven track record of results in a direction, not someone who just showed up every day and acted like it was groundhog day. “The long obedience in the same direction,” as Eugene Peterson calls it, is why fables like Aesop’s Tortoise and the Hare remain famous. It would seem that the hare would demolish the tortoise in the race, and yet it’s the tortoise who wins because he just kept putting one foot in front of the other towards the finish line.

So what happened after the conversation with the client at the beginning of the story? Well, we reviewed what the best return on their time was and created a strategy with achievable goals and clear action items that resulted in his best earning year yet. And this year, he’s on pace to shatter that by another 67%. Same guy. Same intention. Different results. Why? Because he owned the fact that desire wasn’t enough. It took alignment, clear action steps, and discipline to get where he wanted. Now, it’s only a matter of time before he reaches his $500,000 income.

Quote:

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.” - Unknown

Question:

What are your results? How do they align with your intentions?

Call to Action/Next Event:

Bethesda Business Mastermind - starting June 2.

The Bethesda Business Mastermind is designed for business owners who offer exceptional products and services, yet feel like their business is running them instead of the other way around. It’s for leaders who want more than growth alone - they want clarity, control, and a business that supports the life they’re trying to build. This year-long experience functions like a practical MBA, focusing on the fundamentals every business owner needs - strategy, execution, financial clarity, leadership, and systems - with a strong emphasis on real-world application. Through a combination of in-person gatherings and virtual meetings, participants don’t just learn concepts; they put them to work in ways that drive measurable progress. At the heart of the Mastermind is a community of like-minded entrepreneurs committed to leading with intentionality. Through shared insight, honest dialogue, and ongoing thought partnership, participants sharpen their thinking and gain perspective from others walking a similar path. The tools and frameworks provided through this program have helped organizations increase sales and profits by 20% or more, while creating healthier, more sustainable businesses.