Thank you all so much for the email communications and the ongoing dialogue regarding this column and some of the concepts that I have had an opportunity to share with the community. Your insights and questions contribute to future columns, just like this one.

In some of my correspondence with our readers I find myself engaged in meaningful discussions around philosophy or belief systems, strategic thinking or planning, and tactical action items and execution of plans and strategies.

When we are pursuing our goals and objectives our ultimate desire is to see results and meet or even exceed expectations. In order to do so, however, we have to make sure that we are in alignment in all three areas; our belief systems must support the reason behind our goal; once we have defined our goal and its relation to our core beliefs we should develop a strategy or plan; and finally we must act, take action, execute, and get after it.

Many people I speak with really do a great job of talking about their goals, and why they want to achieve them. They get so focused on their philosophical approach to life, and maybe, just maybe, even like talking about their beliefs and philosophies a little too much. They mask their willingness to actually do something or take the next steps with pontification about their point of view.

Our belief system should drive our plans and tactical approach, they should be seen as our foundation and launching pad, not a barrier or the end point in the pursuit of our objectives.

I keep a copy of my core values and beliefs in a very visible place in my office, in my notebook, and even in my car. By now they have been ingrained in my head and my heart, and yet I still find it helpful to have them in plain sight so that when I am making plans and discussing strategies I am reminded of what is truly important in my life. The other added bonus of keeping them visual is that others see them too. And when they know where I stand on certain issues in life, they know that anything we co-create and any strategic plans we co-develop must be tied to my values and my beliefs.

And as I have shared in prior columns we must be willing to execute and take action. So many people I have coached have come to me with their vision, their mission, their values, their business plan or life plan and they are stuck, frozen in time, and suffer from a lack of just taking that first step. And as my great friend and mentor Zig Ziglar used to say, “People who never take step one, can never take step two.” Taking action is important, but it must be congruent with our strategy and values, or we will wind up doing the wrong kind of work or even worse, doing work that is counterproductive to our goal.

So you see, when it comes to delivering results and exceeding expectations it is not just about being philosophically aligned to our belief systems; coming up with the best strategy or plan; or taking action. If we are truly going to achieve our desired results and outperform expected outcomes, we must be complete, we must have all three elements.

Please keep the emails coming and let me know if your beliefs, strategies, and tactical approach are all in alignment. You can email me at gotonorton@gmail.com and together let's make this a better than good week.

Michael Norton, a resident of Highlands Ranch, is the former president of the Zig Ziglar organization and CEO and founder of www.candogo.com.