We had a big win the other day.  We've been working with a group for the last 6 months, and finally got agreement to go ahead.  It's important to us, not just because of the scale of the relationship, but because it's a major milestone in a new strategic direction we're taking.  It's confirmation of a major market trend for us, and I believe it may well develop as a new foundation to our business.

The email came through from the client just after the Easter break.  Not all the t's are crossed yet (the i's are sorted), but there's no doubt it's all on.  I was, naturally, very pleased.  In fact I was delighted.  This is something I have been working towards, visualising success in and putting some real effort into.  And now we're there.

My sense of elation lasted all the way from punching the air with a loud "yes!", telling the team about it, recording it in my success journal, and generally having a warm glow inside all the way through lunch.  And then it slowly subsided as I resumed my focus on an even bigger opportunity we have in front of us, and how the opportunities might leverage off each other into a sustainable long term shift in strategic direction.  In other words, while I'm still really pleased, the pleasure of achievement has already faded.

The point is this: we don't set goals in order to experience the thrill of achievement.  We quickly find that, as BB King once sang, "the thrill is gone".  At one level, we set goals to create oportunities for even greater achievement.  Today's acheivements take us closer to our long term vision, and the real satisfaction comes from that sense of progress.  At another level, we set goals to create challenges that will stretch us, force us to develop new thinking and new capability.  And we don't do that just to create a better future.  We actually do that just as much for the pleasure we get from creating something that works. Simply, we enjoy the process of meeting challenges as much as we enjoy the outcomes of success.

The reality is that if you're not working on problems, or obstacles or challenges - call them what you will - then you're probably not working on getting yourself to the next level.  In fact, you're probably not working on anything at all related to a better future.  If that's the case you're cruising, and there's only one direction you can be going in if you're cruising; down hill.

Change the way you think about your problems and challenges.  Stop thinking about them as difficulties, and see them more as the essential ingredients of your success.

So here's the question: take your biggest challenge of the moment.  In what way could this possibly turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to you?  By the time you get to the fifth answer (after you've got past the cynical and then the fatalistic ones like "character building") you might just find the gift.