Start With a Win

CHAPTER 10Celebrate the Wins

“Listen to the birds—your team—singing.”

—Adam Contos

Take the time to appreciate your wins, no matter how big or small. A win is a personal creation, a piece of art that's the result of hard work and dedication to a goal. Like an artist, we should take the time to enjoy our masterpieces.

This isn't gloating over a victory. A leader of one or 100,000 doesn't flash their ego as leverage. Celebrating a win is taking a moment to appreciate the final product—the win—and to thank those who took the journey with you.

POWER OF HOPE

Celebrating achievements also is about reinforcing hope—the hope to win again and again and again. Hope, after all, is the energy that fuels wins.

BRAIN RECALL

Imagine that you just completed your first marathon, something you thought unattainable. After you catch your breath, hydrate, and rest, you take the time to pause and let your feat sink in. You revel in the accomplishment and the feeling of satisfaction that goes with it.

The moment isn't so much about celebration as it is allowing your brain to recall your success and make the mission—the race—a permanent part of your playbook of life. After all, there's another marathon in a few months that you just may want to enter, too.

A business win is the same thing; it's a challenge that takes smarts, planning, practice, stamina, and action to overcome—a different kind of strategy, planning, stamina, and practice, but a plan and execution nonetheless, and no less of a ...