Accomplishment

I’ve been asked to delve into the idea that finding a sense of accomplishment brightens any day, and am happy to do so.  It does tend to hold true that if we feel like we accomplished something, the day seems better.  But is it really accomplishment that makes us feel good?  Let's say I set you the task of moving an empty box from one room to another, back and forth 100 times, then breaking down the box and putting it in the recycling bin.  If you complete this task, you have accomplished something.  You completed the task that was in front of you.  Does that brighten your day?  Most likely, not.

It really isn’t accomplishment that brightens our day.  It if were there would never be a day that wasn’t bright because every day we accomplish many things.  So far, I’ve accomplished turning off the alarm, getting out of bed, showering, eating breakfast, showing up to work on time, etc.  So what?!

The real juice comes not from accomplishment but from contribution.  Remember that silly box moving example.  Now imagine that if you accomplish that task, $10,000,000 will be donated to support a children’s hospital.  Now how do you feel about moving an empty box around?  Great, right?  But you didn’t do anything different than before.  You accomplished the same task.  The difference is that now, a contribution was made as a result of the task.  Others were benefited.  You could complete 10,000 meaningless tasks in a day (an accomplishment for sure) and feel nothing.  But, seeing somebody who is sad and cheering them up will make you feel good long after the “accomplishment” is complete.

Society is very focused on accomplishment as a measure of success and value.  This is, in my opinion, very misguided.  Individually, we can translate society’s focus on accomplishment to a personal focus on contribution.  What do the things I’m doing contribute to myself, my family, my team, my friends, my society, my planet, etc.?  No matter the task, you can find a way to make it meaningful and uplifting by looking for the contribution.  And, if you can’t find any way that what you are doing will contribute, do something else.