the first step towards using these successes as a resource for the future.
Discovering and recognizing personal success strategies
The ascent to the Drachenkogel followed a wide hiking trail, which slowly ascended for many kilometers through forests, over alpine pastures and along gorges. Most hikers started early in the morning to reach the summit around noon. From there you had a breathtaking panoramic view.
When Patrick set out around noon, after a good night's sleep and a big breakfast at the hotel's lavish buffet, he had the trail almost to himself. The sun was shining brightly from a cloudless sky.
After 45 minutes on the wide, lonely path Patrick started to get bored. He thought about turning around and taking advantage of the hotel's sports facilities in the valley. Then he remembered that he was supposed to think about his greatest successes so far.
All right, he told himself and took a deep breath: I graduated from high school even though my teachers had already given up on me. I was dating my first girlfriend for over five years, while most others had broken up with their first love after a few weeks. I am still in close contact with my best friend from school.
I was the first in our family to attend university. I financed my studies with jobs and did not accept money from my parents or the state. I never missed a party as a student and still passed every exam. I had signed an employment contract even before I graduated. I was the youngest team leader, the youngest area manager and the youngest country manager ever in our sales organization.
Patrick stopped walking, glanced over to a waterfall on the other side of a deep gorge and continued thinking. He smiled because he remembered: "I saved a teenager from getting beat up in front of the Rage Club at night and ended up in hospital myself. I proposed to the woman of my dreams Laura and she said yes, even though she could have married this Australian billionaire. I came up with the idea of getting married in Las Vegas and it was a good idea.
Not bad so far, thought Patrick when he came to a mountain pasture behind a bend and could hardly believe his eyes: Wow! Two years ago, Patrick and Laura had been here. A deteriorating cabin had been standing there. Now the cabin had been renovated and transformed into a little jewel. A carved wooden sign said, "Snack Shack". On a wooden bench, next to the entrance door sat a man with a stylish hat and a full hipster beard almost down to his bellybutton. Patrick approached him.
"Hey!", Patrick greeted the host of the snack shack in a not very alpine manner.
"Hi!", he replied. "All alone on the way to the summit this late in the afternoon? You look like you've escaped from a management seminar down at the hotel."
"Almost, but not quite," laughed Patrick. "I'm coaching myself right now. Voluntarily."
"Stressed at work?"
"On the contrary. I could be Head of Global Sales in Japan, but I'm not sure if I'd really enjoy it."
"I was Head of Global Brand Management," the innkeeper said. "Until a year and a half ago. I've been doing this ever since." He pointed to the decked-out cabin. "Why don't you sit with me for a moment? Coffee?"
"I'd prefer a beer."
The host was called Eduard, but everyone called him Eddy. He was enjoying his new life on the mountain pasture to the fullest. From time to time his old company was sending managers to him to be coached. Eddy donated his fee to charity.
By the third bottle of craft beer, the sun had long since set behind the mountain. Patrick was about to tell Eddy about his background and the successes he had achieved on the way here. Then he said: "In terms of your successes so far, I keep recognizing certain strategies. Would you like to hear more about them?"
"Absolutely!" Patrick replied. "Let's go inside, though. It's getting chilly."
Patrick was absolutely amazed how accurately Eddy was able to analyze him after that short time. Patrick listened intently and kept asking questions. Eventually, the two men arrived at the meaning of life. And soon after, it was pitch black outside. Eddy offered Patrick to get some sleep in one of the tiny guest rooms. "I'll wake you at 3: 00," Eddy said. "Then you can start hiking to the summit. If you don't have a headlamp with you, I'll give you one. That way you'll see the sunrise at the summit. This is the moment of greatest clarity. It will blow your mind!"
"I guess there' s no use arguing," Patrick replied with a smile. He was tired but felt comfortable in a strange way. More comfortable than he had felt in a long time. "That's fine. See ya, good night!"
Which successes are more important to you than others?
In my previous book, Impact: How to increase your company's success through significant employee development, I quoted the famous first sentence from Leo Tolstoy's novel Anna Karenina, published in 1878: "All happy families are alike, every unhappy family is unhappy in their way." In Impact, I have demonstrated patterns of how families make themselves unhappy and therefore leave a lifelong mark on their loved ones. But is Tolstoy's observation also true in terms of happiness and success? Yes and no. At first glance, definitely. But if we look more closely, people are not only unhappy in very different ways, but also happy in different ways. We all have our own path to success and our success strategies, which depend on our personality structure. But we are usually not aware of this. You remember: Most people aren't even aware of their greatest achievements. Let alone reflect on their path to success – and ultimately their path to a happy and satisfying life. However, the differences actually start with how we evaluate the successes of our lives so far.
If Patrick's Rebel component of the Process Communication Model® looks back on his successes, he may be more interested in the Las Vegas wedding than his graduation. The wedding was pure romance, fun and joie de vivre! School probably was not. On the other hand, if the Persister part of Patrick takes a look at his biography, he may be more impressed by the fact that Patrick lived certain values. Patrick was willing to protect people from violence and literally took a beating himself. But maybe Patrick doesn't see himself through the values-glasses as much as another person with a higher percentage of persistence in their personality would. Rather, the situation had just as much to do with alcohol and overconfidence for him.
Now, if you look at your own successes: What is particularly important to you? And what is maybe less important? Again, it all comes down to your own perception. It does not matter which successes have brought you particular attention and recognition. Or what is generally considered particularly desirable in society or the business world. The question is: What matters to you?
Exercise: "Temperature curve" of your greatest successes
Grab the paper on which you have arranged your greatest professional and private successes along a time axis using sticky notes. If you have done the exercise digitally, then please pull the picture back up on your device. Now weight your successes according to the intensity that the event in question has for you personally. Move the sticky notes with the achievements that are most important to you higher. What is less important to you is moved down. You can keep the separation between professional and personal life or you can eliminate it.
You will eventually end up with a type of "temperature curve" of your successes. Look at their spikes. Do you immediately recognize a pattern, of what is especially
