Your May issue of Take Charge Success Strategies

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Publisher: GoalMinds, Inc/Jo Condrill
Email: Mailto:goalmindsemail - news@yahoo.com
http://www.goalminds.com
Copyright 2008 GoalMinds, Inc. All rights reserved
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IN THIS ISSUE
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1. Great Strategic Thinking - Ten Essentials
by J. Glenn Ebersole

2. Master the Power of a Mastermind Group, by Jo Condrill

3. The 7 - Day Challenge, by Gary Ryan Blair
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The newsletter was delayed due to some unfortunate incidents.
I am happy to say "All's well now."

The top three things I learned from being
a victim of identity theft:

1. Anybody in the world can steal your Social Security
Number from who knows where, open a bank account in your
name, and get a credit card, without you knowing it.
Be vigilant, check bank and credit card statements.

2. Citizens should report internet crime to the local police -
they may not do anything about it, but you need to
report it. In the US, the Federal Trade Commission also
needs to know. Ftc.gov

3. The credit reporting companies talk to each other when
you report identity theft. You can put a 90 - day "Fraud
Alert" on your reports, but after that you must send a copy
of the police report to them to keep the Alert in place.
Paper still counts.

I hope you never have to deal with this issue.

If you receive an email from me or GoalMinds for products or
services we don't sell, such as Viagra or pharmaceuticals,
it is unauthorized use of our email address.
Please White List our new email addresses to prevent
blocking by your spam filters. Thanks.

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1. Great Strategic Thinking - Ten Essentials
by J. Glenn Ebersole

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Strategic thinking is essential to improving your business
performance. And in order to raise the bar of performance in
your business from where you are now to where you want to be
will require a level of strategic thinking that is in
perfect harmony with your vision for the business. Strategic
thinking will create a structured and progressive path
forward to your vision. There are ten essential requirements
to become a great strategic thinker. Those ten include:

Essential Element #1: You must have a vision. And you must
be great at thinking with a strategic purpose and creating a
visioning process. Great strategic thinkers are visionaries.

Essential Element #2: You must learn from experience and
commit to being a lifelong learner. You must use your
experiences to think better on strategic issues. Great
strategic thinkers strive for continuous improvement in all
they do.

Essential Element #3: You must learn to use your time
efficiently and effectively. Great strategic thinkers
place a high value on time and are masters of strategic time
management.

Essential Element #4: You must have an extremely high
level of awareness of what is happening around you and
be open to absorbing all that you can. In any business,
there are clues, often subtle, both internal and external to
help guide future direction and to identify opportunities.
Great strategic thinkers take all of this in and then they
set aside time to think about all the experience and
information to guide them in the planning and working on the
issues, challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

Essential Element #5: You must be patient. It is so
important to remember that strategic thinking is about the
longer - term future, rather than about today, tomorrow or
next week.

Essential Element #6: You must have clearly defined and
focused milestones and goals. And these must be
subject to frequent review to ensure your thinking is
validated. Great strategic thinkers have an innate ability
to identify the potential twists and turns and "potholes or
landmines" that could destroy the possibility of reaching
the desired milestones.

Essential Element #7: You must be open - minded.
Great strategic thinkers do not bind themselves
by constantly judging their thinking as they think up
ideas. They keep open minds and test the detail later.

Essential Element #8: You must be realistic in creating your
ideas and be honest about what is achievable in the longer
term. This will facilitate and ensure a higher probability
of delivering success. The great strategic thinker will
"under - promise" and "over - deliver."

Essential Element #9:
You must reserve and set aside time for yourself. In highly
competitive and intense business dealings, it is important
to take time out. This could be a retreat, or a day away to
a creative relaxing place to do some strategic thinking
without undue distractions. Great strategic thinkers set
aside time to "think!"

Essential Element #10: You must seek the advice and
perspective of others. This may take the form of
bouncing ideas off a team of people; participating in a
peer advisory group; or working with a strategic thinking
business coach to achieve that needed advice and other
perspectives. If you can acquire the above top ten essential
elements, then you will become a great strategic thinker.

© Copyright 2007 by Center for Simplified Strategic Planning,
Inc., Ann Arbor, MI - - Reprint permission granted with full
attribution. Go to strategytips.cssp.com/?cpc=55 for a
complimentary copy of Strategic Planning Tune - Up (a $14.97
value) plus a no - cost subscription to Center for Simplified
Strategic Planning's newsletter. Article Source:
EzineArticles.com/?expert=J._Glenn_Ebersole

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"I'd rather be pulled by a vision than pushed by
circumstances."

- - John Perry, Founder, Human Productivity Systems,
hpsonline.com

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2. Master the Power of a Master - Mind Group
by Jo Condrill

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In a constant effort to do more with less, our world seems
to become more frenzied every day. We have to know more, be
more, and do more than ever before. There seems to be no
time for planning future career moves or exotic vacations in
addition to taking care of business.

One avenue that's working for many people is a master - mind
group. Such a group gives us contacts and resources to make
planning and goal setting easier. Such a group helps us stay
on course when everything seems to be pulling us in
different directions. Master mind groups are growing all
over the country, offering support and specialized knowledge
to people in every industry.

A master - mind group consists of people who work together in
absolute harmony to achieve diverse goals. The group members
come together at regular intervals to brainstorm ideas,
share knowledge, and help each other discover the tools to
realize their dreams. While these people work well together,
they may be very different from each other. The common
element is that each draws something from the others, and
each contributes freely to the group. It is the focusing of
each mind on a common issue that triggers thoughts not
readily available to one mind. Those in the group draw upon
their unique experiences and specialized knowledge to help
each other. A good group might include a financial planner
or banker, someone from the airline industry, a hospitality
expert, a security expert, an association executive, as well
as a meeting planner. When many minds concentrate on a
single point, the activity generates a power over and above
the sum total of each of the individual minds. As a result,
the group members accomplish more than any one person could
have accomplished individually.

Forming a master - mind group is relatively simple, but you
need to plan carefully. Here are some tips to keep in mind
while forming your group.

1. Choose people who are not like you. People with different
perspectives will cause you to consider new ideas. They have
a different knowledge bank and varied experiences to
add to your own.

2. Ensure that group members can benefit from the
experience, skills, and specialized knowledge of each other.
Each person also must have ideas and information to contribute
to others in the group.

3. Agree on organizational matters, ground rules such as
objectives, when and where to meet, and a format for the
flow of the meeting.

Take the initiative to start your own master - mind group
today or join an existing group. You will soon see the
wonderful benefits of contributing and receiving ideas,
which can propel you and the entire group to new levels
of personal and professional success.

MastermineManual.com

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"The human brain is simply a mechanical component of an
entity of far greater beauty and power: the mind. I was awed
by what an inspired and disciplined mind could accomplish.
We can take charge of our own lives." Benjamin Carson, Sr.
M.D., Pediatric Neurosurgeon, Author, drbencarson.com

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3. The 7 - Day Challenge, by Gary Ryan Blair

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Reciprocity is defined as a mutual exchange. It simply
explains that when someone gives you something or does
something for you, that you feel an obligation to give back
and return the favor.

Serial reciprocity is exactly what one might expect - a
series of sequential exchanges between parties. This set of
exchanges is unique because they do not occur between two
people in a closed quid pro quo arrangement.

Instead, serial reciprocity is "when people repay the
benefits they have received - for example, from a parent,
friend, mentor, anonymous stranger, or a previous generation
- by providing benefits to a third party, someone other than
their original benefactor"

Serial reciprocity differs from other forms of reciprocity
because the original donor or volunteer does not receive
anything tangible, measurable or immediate in return for his
or her initial good deed.

I define serial reciprocity as, "the principle that says we
should repay the good works and contributions done for us by
the good works and contributions we, in turn, do for others"

Thus, in serial reciprocity, individuals "pay it forward"
instead of paying it back.

Are You Up for a Challenge?

I'd like you to join me and more than 150,000 people from
around the world in what I'm calling the 7 - Day Challenge.

Your task is to engage in seven days of random acts of
benevolence. Your objective is to positively and
significantly impact the lives of seven people.

Your reward will be the good feeling that comes from helping
another person and in nurturing benevolent acts in others.

The rules:

1. For each of the next seven days, identify a person or
group of people whom you would like to help.

* You can choose one person for each of the seven days, and
you can also recruit others to participate in the challenge
with you.

2. Be intentional and think of a special act of benevolence
that you would like to do for this person.

3. Be creative, use your melon, and think of ways to use
your time, talents or special gifts to blow someone's mind,
or simply put a beautiful smile on their face.

4. Remain anonymous.

5. Leave a note for the beneficiary of your benevolence. Ask
them to "Pay it Forward" and do a good deed for someone
else. Why Should You Participate?

Serial reciprocity is of critical importance on four
accounts.

The first, and most obvious, is that it widens the circle of
giving, allowing recipients to become givers by doing good
deeds for another.

Second, the deeds of these "new" givers perpetuate
benevolent action and ensure its place in society.

Third, serial reciprocity is essential to the transmission
of benevolent values from one generation to the next.

Finally, the ultimate test of the impact of YOUR LIFE is
twofold: whether the world YOU leave behind is qualitatively
different from that which YOU inherited, and what
contribution YOU made to that change.

Therefore by participating in the 7 - Day Challenge, you are
helping to make the world a better place and inspiring
others to do the same.
Goalsguy.com/mp3/7DayChallenge_GaryRyanBlair.mp3

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Are you still setting your goals on paper??
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clearly defined goals. Unfortunately, the method proposed is
to write your goals on paper! GoalPro is a software - based
goal - setting and achievement system, designed to provide you
with all necessary tools to define, maintain, track, and
achieve your goals.

Download your free trial version today!!! Tinyurl.com/8xl2p

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"By thinking and acting affirmatively in this minute, you will
influence the hour, the day, and the time, your entire life."
- - Denis Waitley, Author, Seeds of Greatness
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GoalMinds, Inc./Jo Condrill
P.O. Box 100903
San Antonio, TX 78201
Phone: 210 595 - 1340