IN THIS ISSUE
Welcome
Feature Article - Celebrate Your Wins
Words to Inspire
Guest Column - The Drama of "The Gap"
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WELCOME

Greetings and welcome to all of you. We are delighted to send you another issue of KEYS TO SUCCESS. Thank you for joining us.

The feature article this month helps you to embrace your accomplishments. You will find three simple ideas you can use to celebrate your wins. Please enjoy!

Our commitment is to give you practical information and inspirational ideas to benefit your business and personal life. We are committed to "bringing out your best"! We welcome feedback so we can improve and offer real value to you.

Keys to Success is written and published by Carol Gegner. Are you ready to excel? Check out http://www.coachexecs.com. We are ready to help you.

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CELEBRATE YOUR WINS

We all want to be recognized for what we do. We also want to feel we have value. These are two of our basic human needs. As an executive, manager, or business owner how do you get those needs met? It seems the hustle and bustle of business makes it easy to forget to recognize the actions you've taken towards your desired outcomes.

Taking the time to recognize your own efforts builds a stronger "I can do it" attitude. Remember the story about The Little Engine That Could? He knew he was built to pull little trains. One day he was asked to pull a big train over the mountain. He huffed and puffed and kept saying, "I think I can, I think I can." When he finally reached the top of the mountain he said, "I thought I could, I thought I could." His past successes pulling little trains helped him believe he could do the big job!

Do you believe in your capability to succeed? Taking the time to recognize your successes will help you stretch your abilities when the going gets tough. Your sense of mastery determines how much energy you'll expend when you face obstacles in your business and personal life. Self-mastery comes from recognizing past successes.

Have you taken an inventory of your past accomplishments lately? Try it now using these three easy steps.

1. Visualize. Think of past accomplishments that made you feel good. There are no limits to the number of your accomplishments! Use "all" of your senses as you visualize and relive the experiences.

2. Write. Make those experiences more concrete by recording them in a notebook or journal. You can keep adding to your inventory!

3. Talk. It's time to toot your horn! Each accomplishment has a story. Tell you success stories to a trusted friend, spouse, colleague, or coach. You'll find common threads weaving your success stories together. Those are your strengths!

Recognizing your accomplishments is a celebration. What a great way to honor your efforts. Each small success you've had is a spring board for something greater. Celebrate your wins and soar with your strengths!
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WORDS TO INSPIRE

"Optimists are right. So are pessimists. It's up to you to choose which you will be."
Harvey MacKay, Businessman

"The ultimate goal should be doing your best and enjoying
it."
Peggy Fleming, Olympic champion

"Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that
they hurry past it."
Soren Kierkegaard, Philosopher
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GUEST ARTICLE

The Drama of "The Gap" by Michael Angier

The space between where you are now and where you want to be is
what I call "The Gap."

To me, it's the real reason for a goal--to create the growth and
learning that happens between your current circumstances and
what you're capable of achieving.

It's the playing field--the space between the goal posts. It's
where the real game is played.

The actual achievement of your goal has a very fleeting sense of
gratification. Crossing the finish line and the celebration that
follows is seldom all that dramatic.

When you're asked to tell your story of how you achieved your
success, you'll spend little if any time talking about the
actual completion of the goal. You'll mostly talk about your
struggles, the challenges, the days when you had doubts or even
despair. It's the learning and growing that people want to hear
about. The excitement, the drama is what happens in the crucible.

It's important to know this for several reasons.

First, we should learn to enjoy the process. We need to
recognize that achieving the goal will not make us happy. But
what we become in the process, and our attitude about the
journey, can indeed bring us happiness.

I also think it helps to view our goals and dreams as games. We
can be serious about our goals without being grim. We can lose
some games and win others. The important thing is to keep
playing.

Play games that inspire you--and hopefully others. Play with
passion. Play with consistency. Always look for improvement. Do
it with integrity.