When we are young, we are taught that achievement is its own great reward. We are placed on the conveyor belt of schooling generally starting with kindergarten and moving along through the various grade levels of education. After we graduate from high school, we normally jump on the next conveyor belt of college, starting out as a naïve high school graduate uncertain as to which major to select. Once a major is chosen, we go through the motions of taking all the college requirements that are necessary to graduate with a degree in that field.
Upon graduating with our bachelor’s degree, we leap onto the conveyor belt of our career. We strive to prove ourselves in our work in order to reach the next level. Always striving for the promotion, which is supposed to elevate our title, salary, and/or skillset.
In our personal life, we strive to break free from living with our parents to living on our own. Then we try to progress from renting to buying our own first home. Becoming a homeowner has a magical achievement linked to that milestone. Many go on to upgrade their home, from a smaller house to a larger one. This continues on through life, until our elder years.
When we look at finances, we strive to launch our own financial independence separate from our parents. Once we have a job, and earn a salary, then we start what I call “chasing the dollar.” Money becomes a major driving force for many of our decisions in life. We get caught in the constant race for more money. It’s more of a trap. When we achieve a certain financial level, we set the bar higher so as to earn even more money. And on and on it goes on this non-stop circular racetrack for money.
Even our investments may start out small, like contributing a portion of your salary to a 401K plan. Then we may start to invest in other things like real estate, stocks, mutual funds, and commodities. When our investments are successful and make us money, we reinvest that money in a variety of ways in hopes of growing our money even more.
Many of us become entrepreneurs and launch a business. If the business is successful, we constantly strive to grow it even more. We produce more. We offer various services. We add to our existing offers for our customers. We may upgrade the building in which our business began to a larger space. We might start to branch off, opening locations in different geographies. We can even take our private business public, opening it up to investors. More and more businesses are now going global in order to grow.
What do all of the examples above have in common? They illustrate the insatiability of achievement. We want more and more. We want bigger and better. We want to get to that next level. The question is when do we reach the top? When are we finally at the summit? Does the summit even exist? It seems like we set ourselves, and our children, up for an endless pursuit of more. Some would argue that there is nothing wrong with wanting to progress to the next best thing. That drive and motivation is what fuels us and keeps us looking forward to our next reward in life. Others may argue that the constant chase of achievement is exhausting and does more harm than good in the long-term. The stress and anxiety that often come along with chasing the next level up can start to impact our mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing. Forfeiting good health for insatiable achievement is not in any of our best interest.
So how do we retrain ourselves to stop chasing achievement in an insatiable fashion? Is there a healthy plateau that we can reach, and say to ourselves “this is good enough” without striving for more? Or looking at it from the other lens, are we better off continuing to relentlessly seek more until the day that we die?
I would venture to suggest that each of us listen to what lies deep within ourselves. We know when we’ve reached a breaking point. When we are super stressed, anxious, nervous, fearful, skeptical, tired, etc. our mind, body, and soul let us know. We choose whether to listen and adjust or to simply push through and keep going. When we ignore the warning signs of our internal self, that’s when the insatiability of achievement can harm us. As long as we take the time to connect to our inner guidance, then we will know when enough is enough. We will know when we’ve achieved all that we wish to achieve in any area of our life. We may say that we’ve achieved enough in terms of our career, but continue to achieve more in our investments. We may be happy where we are in terms of our home, but continue to pursue growing our business. The trick is to get to a place of contentment on all levels, so as to feel peace. If any part of us is still driven to achieve more in a facet of our life, then we take heed to that desire and push for more. The main point is that we need to take the time to acknowledge and recognize when we are done striving for more in the various aspects of our life.
For me, I’m done having all of the kids that I wish to have. I’ve achieved enough in terms of my educational degrees and career levels. I don’t feel that I need to prove myself anymore, like I once did. I am still working on my long-term investments, but other than that I feel safe to say that I’m in a good content place overall.
What areas of your life have you completed climbing and which ones are you still advancing in? Do you have an end target in mind or is it so elusive that it seems like you’ll never reach the finish line? Listen intently to what your gut tells you to do. And whatever you do, don’t let others coerce you into a life of insatiable achievement. There must be a finish line to work towards and cross once reached.