At the risk of sounding immodest, I've won a lot of awards. I have drawers filled with them. They are nice to receive and sometimes the dinners are fun. However, the next morning when I wake up and look at them - the glass paperweight, the certificates - they don't really mean anything.
So it is with many of the hallmarks of "achievement" as people usually use the word. Getting on the honor roll, getting a high paying job, being salesman of the month, getting the corner office, getting a company car, getting interviewed by the media, winning awards: this is what most people think of when they think of achievement. To me all this mises the mark.
Each of those things can be genuine achievement - something that means something to you for more than a day - or each could just a badge of importance that you use to show people that you are somebody. Do those things make you happy in and of themselves?
I know mega -millionaires who are miserable. They spend their money getting the fat sucked out of their love handles and hiring bodyguards because they're paranoid (maybe rightfully so) that people are out to get them. They're always concerned with outdoing themselves and making the next million and the next - and for what? Conversely, I know artists who barely scrape by yet are happy and fulfilled. Neither is a sure path to happiness or enlightenment; you can surely be rich and happy, but one doesn't necessarily follow the other.
Achievement for achievement's sake, then, is pretty hollow. It's the endless pursuit of a carrot on a stick as you race around the track. For me, real achievement is traveling to a foreign country, learning some of the language, and finding my way around my own. Real achievement is learning to be self-sufficient. Real achievement is making lifelong friends. In my mind, I define achievement as having a good life; getting the job of living done in a satisfying way that nurtures the life force within us and within those we associate with. It entails developing some self-mastery to handle the difficult aspects of our lives and relationships. It involves finding something to do with our lives that engages us and gives us positive feedback. If we're doing it right, life shouldn't be a debilitating struggle, even if a times it takes considerable effort.
Sometimes we should learn from the small kids. I want to share a incident from where I learnt something. Actually I was watching a kabaddi match. After one half, the two teams started fighting because of referee's mistake. Everyone was asking for more run for their team. At the same time I looked up on the small kids. They were just marking the lines. So what was the curious thing I saw?
There were so many kids asking other kids to mark the line. You know what, I didn't see even a single kid trying to ditch another for taking his chance also. And there was no fight between them. On the contrary, those young people were fighting continuously and did not stop! So what is the learning?
Well you don't always have to think of your profit. Sometimes you can just try to live that moment happily. As those teams were fighting, they should have played for fun, not for the profit.
So it is with many of the hallmarks of "achievement" as people usually use the word. Getting on the honor roll, getting a high paying job, being salesman of the month, getting the corner office, getting a company car, getting interviewed by the media, winning awards: this is what most people think of when they think of achievement. To me all this mises the mark.
Each of those things can be genuine achievement - something that means something to you for more than a day - or each could just a badge of importance that you use to show people that you are somebody. Do those things make you happy in and of themselves?
I know mega -millionaires who are miserable. They spend their money getting the fat sucked out of their love handles and hiring bodyguards because they're paranoid (maybe rightfully so) that people are out to get them. They're always concerned with outdoing themselves and making the next million and the next - and for what? Conversely, I know artists who barely scrape by yet are happy and fulfilled. Neither is a sure path to happiness or enlightenment; you can surely be rich and happy, but one doesn't necessarily follow the other.
Achievement for achievement's sake, then, is pretty hollow. It's the endless pursuit of a carrot on a stick as you race around the track. For me, real achievement is traveling to a foreign country, learning some of the language, and finding my way around my own. Real achievement is learning to be self-sufficient. Real achievement is making lifelong friends. In my mind, I define achievement as having a good life; getting the job of living done in a satisfying way that nurtures the life force within us and within those we associate with. It entails developing some self-mastery to handle the difficult aspects of our lives and relationships. It involves finding something to do with our lives that engages us and gives us positive feedback. If we're doing it right, life shouldn't be a debilitating struggle, even if a times it takes considerable effort.
Sometimes we should learn from the small kids. I want to share a incident from where I learnt something. Actually I was watching a kabaddi match. After one half, the two teams started fighting because of referee's mistake. Everyone was asking for more run for their team. At the same time I looked up on the small kids. They were just marking the lines. So what was the curious thing I saw?
There were so many kids asking other kids to mark the line. You know what, I didn't see even a single kid trying to ditch another for taking his chance also. And there was no fight between them. On the contrary, those young people were fighting continuously and did not stop! So what is the learning?
Well you don't always have to think of your profit. Sometimes you can just try to live that moment happily. As those teams were fighting, they should have played for fun, not for the profit.
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