What is your greatest achievement !  

What has been your greatest achievement so far?

Raising your children, your latest job promotion, or perhaps paying off the mortgage on your house? Whatever your achievement may be, it usually involves a deep sense of personal satisfaction brought about by a lot of personal effort, hard work and sacrifice.

Achievement is also about pride. We are pleased about the outcomes we have gained and feel our own involvement has produced something of which can be justifiably proud.

A few years back I bought an old disused church in rural Australia. It had been sitting quietly for almost a century waiting for me. When I saw it, I immediately felt a profound sense of deep excitement as I envisaged its restoration and transformation.

Now that it has been turned into a beautiful home, with real charm and character, there is not a day goes by when I don't feel a real sense of achievement. I did all the work on it myself and now my feelings of achievement and that old building are inseparable.

I read recently how the achievement motive has a lot to do with the need to master difficult challenges, to out-perform others, and to meet high standards of excellence.

Unfortunately that definition of achievement seems to put competition and ambition as the driving forces behind success. It also called achievement "in search of excellence" suggesting that high performance is also instrumental.

This concept of achievement puts high expectations and outcomes at a premium which means the higher you jump the better you will feel. The real achievers according to this view are the exceptional, the elite, the tenacious and the strong.

That turns most of the world into spectators as they watch the "real achievers" perform exceptional feats with extraordinary skills under exacting conditions.

Many of our current attitudes seem to be 'achievement-oriented', which in itself may be OK providing the high performance demanded doesn't replace enjoyable participation and the 'search for excellence' doesn't simply honour the gifted or the elite.

However, none of us want to be guilty of being content with mediocrity and not giving life everything we've got.

But isn't life meant to be a journey rather than a race, and aren't our neighbours meant to be our friends rather than our competitors. When achievement involves the way we treat others and the contributions we make towards happiness and peace, then all of us will benefit.

None of us want to promote the type of achievement which demeans others and divides people into the haves and the have-nots.

Personal satisfaction in what we do is what really counts, no matter how small, and to have that is perhaps the greatest achievement!