# Do you have a clear image of what you want to do and achieve in your life today?
No is the simple (maybe flippant?) answer.
A concept I’ve probably implicitly understood but never examined is the idea of achievement. What is it anyway?
One definition of achievement is “a result gained by effort”. Everything requires effort. There’s an expectation also that all effort has results. Some are tangible (seen, felt, experienced, acknowledged), some are not. Some will happen immediately upon the expending of the effort, some won’t be seen for long after, maybe even for decades. Brushing & flossing require effort (got kids?). So does exercise. And so does the job that pays us to fund our lifestyles. Some want the symbols of achievement (an MBA, a BMW) while others want explicit recognition from someone else.
I prefer the term success over achievement, and my idea of success is stolen from inspired by legendary basketball coach John Wooden:
“Success is peace of mind attained only through self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to the best of which you are capable.”
What I want to do today (or in the near term) is more clear. I want to be around & work with people who are doing their best, and are willing to share their knowledge. I want to learn from them. I want to help them in ways I can sense they want. I want to express and sharpen my own, often vague, ideas in a variety of mediums – words, pictures, music. I want to connect people with other people I know to see what magic they can come up with. I want to play to my strengths, and work with people whose strengths complement my weaknesses.
So the answer is not No, but Yes.
I want to be doing as many of the things that I want to do, with the people I want to do them with, being the person I am and can become, helping people along the way, and to be doing this every day that I wake up.