Your relationship with achievement

[ZenRaiden]

First of all I can achieve things in life, but I get no reward that I can think of that would make me keep going and achieving.
For instance in school Id get an A and not keep going. I felt nothing, apart form little dopaminum rush.
I would literally sabotage my success.
I always had fantasy of being successful, but I think I am not goal oriented rather process oriented, no matter how much I try to be goal oriented.

I don't think I care about success or achievements in traditional sense.
What really makes me sort of happy is putting pieces of puzzle together that is life.

I am however tired of this mind.
Of these things in my head.

 

[Puffy]

I think it depends on how achievement is defined. To me it's a personal thing and someone can't compare themselves against the achievement of others.

When I was a teenager I was very socially awkward, anxious, couldn't look people in the eyes, was emotionally numb and dissociated from my body.

So to me being able to cry when I watch a sad film now or being able to go on a date without feeling anxious are achievements. And realistically, in terms of life satisfaction, they're more meaningful achievements to me than getting a promotion or starting a business or publishing a novel or the other types of things that are traditionally seen as achievements.

I would say that I see achievement as the overcoming of challenges. As long as life presents me with challenges that I am working towards overcoming I feel satisfied with my level of achievement. As typically a person becomes more competent at overcoming more complex challenges as they develop, so if I'm feeling challenge it would suggest that I'm continuing to grow and that where I am with my development is satisfactory.

If everything feels easy and I'm complacent it would be a sign that there's a need to step the game up in some area of my life.

 

[birdsnestfern]

That it’s not about big things really so much, it’s about realizing that everything even little things are important. And it’s about soul searching individually, ie, discovering what things make you passionate and using your inner compass to guide you to what’s important to you. And just learning as you go. Stay open to learning and have a can do mind set. For me it was to finish a degree so I could earn a living And pay my way in life. I was mostly a C student except got A’s in Statistics, computers, English, woodshop, I wasn’t a high achiever academically. Just wanted a degree more than anything. And my pattern is it takes a long time to master something because I need a lot of details to feel proficient, but when I finally feel it, I’m really competitive with the best. At work I got awards and best reviews and took on big projects even if I’d never done them, I was resourceful. People from all over the campus called me to help resolve computer and spreadsheet issues and issues with anything from budget to procurement to finance, I understood how it all worked. I was not good at social things and kept to myself and felt left out that way but I worked hard and gave what I could. I wish I was more successful with people skills. I was a technical problem solver though and could communicate On phone and e-mail well. I know-being a boring nerd is not rewarding Socially, but that’s just me.

Can Tell yourself
’every day in every way I’m getting better and better’.
ore.

I didn’t care about hierarchy and wasn’t afraid of anyone.

 

[EndogenousRebel]

We are all motivated by a vision of a hypothetical future where we are more liberated.

It is the people who have initiative who actually invest time to activate themselves to develop this vision

Once they realize that most valuable things come at at cost, a sacrifice of things they don't have or aren't willing to trade, they may change their vision to something else.

It is those people who are less willing to compromise that I would call the MOST ambitious.

Ambition is directly related to challenge of achievement. This obviously comes with many risks.

It's not that people who change their vision for what they want have less virtue or anything, they're more sensible and perhaps, they have set themselves up to run a marathon rather than a sprint for example.

For me, I find like 95% of what is said about achievement online as useless. People in person usually say the right thing.

"As long as you're happy".

Maybe excesses of achievement; recognition and a rich bank account are something I need to experience before I'm happy, who's to say if you've never had it.

For me personally the focus on the goals I set are to set them in accordance of my own joy. That is to say that the process of acting on my goals and executing tasks are joyful.

We have so many conceptions about discipline that are garbage. The mind thrives on thinking you just have to let it marinate in it and feed it information in ways it enjoys.

Frustration with a task doesn't happen because the task is frustrating, it is because you're mind makes it frustrating.

This is because otherwise your response to the material would be flat. Frustration is a cue that something needs to change, the information has to mean something to you.

If you ask yourself that "what does this mean to me?" And your response is not one of positivity or negativity, then it is neutral and it's never going to stick as something your brain wants to do.

I guess if I had to answer the question of the relationship I have with achievement in a conventional sense, I would say that anytime I accomplish something it was kind of just the feeling of: that's done, now what do I do?

It's like watching a series or beating a video game and looking at the end credits expecting something more and feeling empty. Focusing on the joy doing the task is gonna give you I think is better.

 

[birdsnestfern]

Adding that its only when you have momentum every day which gives you that edge, and allows you to sit atop the wave from its crest, that you feel like you are ONE with that. If you aren't in that flow, it takes a lot of effort to get back on top of the wave again. But keep trying, until you feel the flow working.

I bet if you are a surfer you will experience that a lot, its like being perfectly aligned with spirit already.
Look up 'Mana' its in that feeling.

Supernatural power, divine power, miraculous power, spiritual power, but for our purposes, we will think of it as spiritual energy and the universal life force. Its more about allowing yourself to intuit alongside nature.

So, its not achievement materially, but its achieving a relationship with your surroundings through spirit - you can sometimes make your own cathedral with the world.

 

[dr froyd]

there's something to be said for both process and achievements

the process is what you do 99.9% of the time. If you don't enjoy the process and only think about goals and rewards,
1) you will always be miserable
2) you will try to take shortcuts, try to minimize effort/reward ratio, lose creativity and craftsmanship

achievements naturally provide very short-lived gratification. You enjoy it for about 20 seconds and start to make new goals. On the other hand we don't really get around the reality that good results tend to motivate you, while bad results do the opposite. Also, achievements teach you what works and what doesn't. You look back at stuff and think: i did x, that produced a good outcome. That way you build confidence in your own methods. That in turn can provide you with motivation to slog through long, difficult tasks. For example you might have an experience where you work on some stuff for a year and it seems completely hopeless, but if you've done that before and ended up succeeding eventually, you will have the will to persevere.

 

[birdsnestfern]

Ok and it’s that Power is your ability to either change things or affect the outcome of something.

Loss is what everyone experiences.
Fun is what everyone experiences too.

How you use the power or work with others to use it to overcome losses
is how you employ thoughtful powers or gifts you have to make life memorable.