If you think your great achievements don’t amount to much, you might be selling yourself short. For starters, we often minimize or even devalue what we accomplish–especially when we compare ourselves to others. Other people’s lives and career accomplishments might appear to far exceed yours. Realistically, not everyone can reach the success of an Edison, an Einstein, or any other prominent figure. However, although you don’t have to aim for that level, exploring high goals can open your thought to exciting options.
Great Achievements Take Time
The old saying, “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” applies to any proposed achievement with large scope or difficulty. What’s more, a great achievement requires commitment on your part. How much can you put into it and how much are you willing to commit to it? For instance, if you hope to gain a promotion for career advancement, what will you do about that?
When an idea reaches the launch point because you’ve decided to put time and energy into it, you’re poised for success. It matters to you internally, whether or not it makes a difference to the world at large.
Here’s a small, personal example. My “to do” list usually has at least a couple of items on it I know I might never do. However, I keep them there anyway (which runs contrary to conventional advice).
Why?
Because once in a rare while, I take the leap and tackle a longstanding item—and I get it done! In other words, that idea’s time finally came. Does that rank as one of my great achievements? Maybe not, but it feels great, even if no one but me ever knows about it.
Make Each Day the “Best Ever”
You might not think that having your best day ever, every day, ranks in the category of great achievements, but in my book, it holds a lot of promise in that regard. It strikes me as an ambitious but worthwhile goal, one I freely admit I don’t always achieve.
On the other hand, if you strive toward that goal, you could end up having a “best-ever” day most days. That’s a wonderful outcome in itself, something to celebrate.
Recently I came across an article that talks about this concept. It’s titled “Pursue Those Scary Dreams and Crazy Ideas to Make Every Day Your Best Day Ever.” The author lists 7 tips for putting this approach into practice.
- Place emphasis on your needs and wants.
- Practice mindfulness.
- Identify one thing that excites you each morning.
- Take care of your body.
- Cultivate a growth mindset.
- Challenge yourself.
- Celebrate others and their best-ever days.
Create and Celebrate Your Great Achievements
You start by taking the steps to create what is, to you, a potentially great achievement. Then you move toward that goal–whether it’s hugely ambitious or more modest. That might mean you stand to gain desired career success by landing a promotion or snagging a great job at a new company.
Finally, if you’ve done all you can and you don’t hit a roadblock you can’t get past, you celebrate the outcome. You might even want to share your achievement with people you care about, respect, etc., and invite them to celebrate with you. After all, you’ve earned that reward–you aimed for your goal and hit it!
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