By Leland Pulley
People are busy doing many things. They are engaged in lots of endeavors. Goals have been set and there are schedules to meet these. It would appear that everyone is in the business of accomplishing things. The question becomes are they seeking to accomplish worthwhile things, and are they doing this in the best way?
First let us recognize that accomplishment can come in many ways. You can strive to do something and succeed. Getting what you want in this manner is a form of accomplishment.
You can do something else and, in the process, fail to meet your goal. You did learn something or developed a skill so this endeavor has some accomplishment associated with it, and thus is not a complete failure. It is important to note that we do not always achieve everything that we want in all our activities, projects, and endeavors. This does not mean that learning did not take place and personal growth in some form did not occur. Thus, there was accomplishment.
Sometimes you can assist or help others in what they seek to do. Your encouragement and time can help someone else achieve or win or meet a goal. In this way you are accomplishing indirectly through the efforts of others.
Accomplishments can occur through group efforts. If you are part of a group and contribute in any way towards group goals and these goals are achieved, then you can share in this success. You are part of the teamwork that brought about the result.
Independent of whether you do something alone, or assist another person, or work together with others in the group efforts, accomplishment means that you get something done that is worthwhile for the people involved or affected.
The nature of accomplishment is that it comes in degrees. There is very little instant accomplishment or success overnight. You set a goal and it may take weeks, months, or years to accomplish it. There can be learning along the way, as well as skill development. There can be some changes in your plans and strategy. But ultimately some success is achieved and you can look back and say I have accomplished part or all of the things that I set out to do.
Nothing is ever accomplished without some positive thinking. For example, you say to yourself I want to do better in a specific area. I want to learn a new skill or get a promotion at work or lose weight. You then have to make some type of definite decision as to what you are going to do and how you are going to go about it. The necessary resources must be committed such as time, talents, and money. Maybe the help of others will be needed too. It is important to be as specific as you can in determining what you are trying to accomplish and set goals for doing this. To illustrate this, you can have one goal and in achieving this, move onto the next goal, until all goals supporting your major objective have been accomplished. It is good to have a schedule for specific goals and when your efforts for the major objective come to an end, hopefully you will be finished or satisfied with what has been done.
One of the most important secrets and characteristics of accomplishment is exercising faith in yourself and others who may influence your efforts and ultimate success. Without faith nothing gets started and nothing is pursued on any consistent basis. This consistency is very important. With it you avoid the extremes of high and lows in your efforts and how you feel along your path way toward success.
It is important to be persistent and not give up easily what you have set out to do. Do not be easily discouraged because you pre-maturely want results faster than they come about. Do not let the comments of others or their lack of help slow you down. If you have thought through carefully what you have decided to do and definitely feel that it is the right thing, than be aggressive. You need this type of assertive mental attitude to pull you through the tough times until the accomplishment you desire is obtained.
Be realistic in what you seek to accomplish or achieve. It is very easy to be a little idealistic and, in the process, set goals that are not in harmony with your abilities and circumstances. You begin to experience some failure or have insufficient progress and become discouraged. Soon your efforts stop and the goal is forgotten. In contrast, a more realistic goal or objective has just the opposite effect. You can see small signs of success earlier and these encourage you to continue. As you receive more positive feedback, you are willing to pursue your goal even more earnestly. Success is achieved more often and more fully in this latter case. This should be enough of an incentive for you to be realistic at all times in what you seek to accomplish.
We all live in a world of relationships between people, organizations, businesses, and governments. There are things beyond our control, some things we can partially control, and other things we can fully control. The circumstances in our life are influenced by all these things. We can seek to improve our circumstances, but not fully change them in most cases. We can avoid certain situations, but not fully get out of all of them. For these reasons and more we must realize that each of us will not get all the things that we want out of life. This is especially true when you seek to do as much as you can. The active individual will experience more disappointments and failure, but have more success stories and accomplishment then the less active and more complacent individual. This is why being positive and assertive and confident is so important. Without these types of personal characteristics, your life will have less accomplishment.
Periodically it is important to review what you have accomplished in your life, as well as what you wanted to do and did not succeed in doing. What can you learn about yourself from past efforts? What should you be trying to accomplish now and in the future? I challenge you to evaluate your life and decide now to accomplish more with it. All of us can make improvements and do better in various ways, even with the same 24 hours a day. Without drastically changing your lifestyle, set a few new goals that will lead to self-improvement and greater happiness. As you do this, do not forget other people and what you can do to help them improve their lives also.
Key Words – accomplishment, help others, group efforts, goal, learning, skill development, positive thinking, definite decision, schedule, faith, be persistent, be aggressive, be realistic, relationships, review, evaluate, self-improvement
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