On Acheivement and happiness
One such state that surely seems to be driving happiness is the feeling of achievement. In most of the cases whenever people achieve something in their lives or atleast they feel they have acheived something they feel happy.There is a sense of victory mixed with a deeper sense of self worth proving the need of existential self over others.
Although a very motivational and powerful thing...sense of achievement like many other human feelings is a relative sense. If we were to ask ourselves when does one achieve something? and then...when does someone feel happy about the achievement?
Most common achievement realizations can be around social acceptance the process of positive acceptance by the society of the completion of the task at ones hand. Such a task may or may not be impactful to the society. It may be a task that none of the society could achieve and hence it becomes a greater wow for the society to applaud about.
But ofcourse achievements are not limited to bigger social impacts and at times are merely day to day tasks that a person may complete. The second case surely shows that a deeper sense of completion drives the feeling of achievement. It may not be restricted to completion of unique actions or feats, but what then determines the achievement is the "self", identifying the uniqueness of that task to the self. Something u achieve also may not be a regular task, and if that is something that one does on a regular basis it surely is not something that triggers happiness unless that task is seperated by a long duration of not doing the task.
Although many things makes one happy in life, a sense of achievement is surely a more matured happiness that one gets when one reaches it. And yes by matured i dont mean that kids dont get it. Infact kids have so many tasks that they do for the first time, and when they complete such a thing they surely feel elated. But when i say matured happiness i mean that the happiness is in itself much higher than basic sensory happiness that one may get. Say by eating something sweet or smelling something good. The happiness derived out of achievement is of a different level. At times what also drives such happiness is not just mere completion of the task, but completion of the task as per ones definition of perfect or the ideal. Such an ideal may be self carved out of existing exposures in life or may even be out of references within the society. So at times when the world feels the sense of achievement for you, you may just be sulking that you have barely touched your ideal level of completion.
One more element that becomes evident in case of happiness from achievement is the satisfaction of the inherent ego that survives within all living beings.
Such an ego need not be seen as a negative element, but it surely is what keeps us alive and kicking in various phases of life. Any kind of achievement surely gives a deeper satisfaction to ones ego. And even at times makes one feel that his existence is worth, maybe in the society or even for the inner self.
It surely is a thing of intriguing nature when we see how such sense of achievement can also bring happiness as well as extreeme sadness to an individual. Such a sadness may most of the times termed as emptiness by a lot of people. And most renowned artists have sulked at not being able to do justice to their own talents due to their own self. Such a situation is surely a viscious cycle for our existential selves. Its a dark looming spiral that is very difficult to get out of. Such constant greed for happiness through achievement also drives a lot of health impairments if one is not satisfied with ones achievements. Which many times is merely an inability of valueing ones achievement in ones own eyes.
The roller coaster of happiness and sadness is surely a big part of life, but the role of "sense of achievement"cannot be denied. Keep achieving and be happy.
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