Society has a way of telling us that achieving something will make us feel accomplished, satisfied, and fulfilled; however, most people do not feel that way. For many individuals, it seems as though achievements pass quickly, barely registering before the next task or expectation takes its place. Once they achieve something, instead of pride, there is a strange sense of emptiness, as if their accomplishment was never enough to begin with.
One reason achievement can feel unrewarding is that success rarely comes with a pause. People often work toward a goal for weeks or even months, and once they finally complete it, they are immediately given something else to work on. Nothing seems to be accomplished anymore, and everything seems to just be a continuation of what one was doing before. There is little time to reflect or celebrate when you have such a busy schedule of what to do, and when this is the case, there is nothing that people can do to recognize their success.
Comparison also plays a major role in diminishing the feeling of success. No matter what someone achieves, there always seems to be another person doing more or moving faster. When people constantly compare themselves to others, their own accomplishments start to feel smaller, and what should have been a personal success is overshadowed.
Another element that gets misunderstood is what defines success. Often, when people see a number or letter that represents success, they do not consider how many hours were invested into studying, stressing out, and gaining support from others. When we fail to consider all the education and effort related to success, it can stop feeling attainable. For example, a student may receive a 7 on a difficult test, but that grade alone does not show the hours spent studying, the stress beforehand, or the support they needed. When success is reduced to a single result, the progress behind it becomes easy to overlook.
Pressure further complicates the experience of achievement. In some cases, goals can be shaped by expectations from family, school, or society, and reaching them feels more like an obligation than a choice. When someone works towards something they feel is expected of them, more often than not, when they reach those goals, they don’t feel the satisfaction and the pride they should have.
While there is certainly value in achievement, it does not always mean that you are fulfilled. Achievement is often perceived as something that must happen continuously over time. Still, if you do not take time to ponder the journey of getting to that achievement or wish to accomplish something simply because you could, then the achievement will seem insignificant. Without reflection, motivation, and time to appreciate the process, success can feel hollow. True reward comes not from the achievement itself, but from understanding why it mattered in the first place.
Image: Violet Trajtenberg
