Leaders sell tomorrow to people who are tired today. Be honest about both.

Asking people to keep going on the basis of a future payoff only works if they believe you are being straight about the present. Pretending the current stretch is fine when it obviously is not makes the promise worthless, since you have just demonstrated that you will describe things inaccurately. Acknowledging the difficulty is what makes the optimism credible. The two have to travel together.

Say both halves out loud this week: this part is hard, and here is specifically what it is for. Do not skip to the second. If you cannot name what the difficulty buys, work that out before you ask anyone for more.