Ever set a goal to achieve something that you came inches or even millimeters from meeting?
Many would just give up and pack it in from trying again. Some would just feel deflated. Some will be exhausted.
It’s like training 4 years for that one event in the Olympics and coming milliseconds from First Place. It sucks to put in all that work. Worse, it sucks that you have to beat yourself up for not achieving.
What is hidden is that majority of what I consider to be Real achievement is something that can’t be measured or quantified.
The problem is that many of us put ourselves into a world of measurement, where a number defines what your success is.
Worldly achievements are things that many of us brag about – our big house, fast car, expensive watch, or “cool” friends. Real achievements are things that happen to us in between what we claim as achievements – the learning, wisdom gained, journey, experiments, and tests.
This is the whole fallacy of our standard definition of achievement.
We look at a report card and see that we achieved an “A”, but did you really learn anything? Perhaps you were just good at memorizing facts but now you have forgotten everything. We achieve sales target, but burn bridges in the process by running over our colleagues. We win customers but trample over others to achieve our goals breaking relationships.
We bring a daughter or son into this world, only to scold them when they don’t perform as we expect. Is that achievement? We then beat ourselves up saying “where did we go wrong,” not realizing we are putting them in a world of shame for not performing up to our standards.
Realize that what you are seeking as achievement is just another form of temporary happiness. Focusing on results is only going to lead you to failure if you don’t have the ability to sustain the feeling of joy.
You are focusing so much on outcomes that you are forgetting about the process. It’s in this process where achievement is realized, not as an output – and it is in this process where Real Joy is found.
Realize you are not what anyone says you are when they look at what you have achieved. You are more than this.
Realize you are not what anyone thinks you are when they look at what you have achieved. You are more than this.
Realize you are not what anyone sees in you when they look at what you have achieved. You are more than this.
All failures in life are temporary – just pick yourself up and work towards improving yourself. Coming up short to a goal should only be reflected upon as to what you could do better – and do it next time. Being cheated by others on a product or service should be seen as lessons-learned in never to doing business with that individual or corporation again.
Don’t let any lack of what you call achievement pull you down as you are being blind to the lessons-learned through the process.
Go out into the world and make an impact to others. Don’t think of the result. Just be good and do good. Don’t worry about what others say, act, or think about you. Just relax and enjoy. Act and think non-violently to others. Be caring to all. It is in the act of losing yourself in the service and goodness towards others – whether they are your friends, co-workers, students, family members, boss, etc. – that you will find this Joy. Hold on to it and you will see your Joy turn into Bliss.
This is what I call achievement.