How do you define achievement?

[blazeofglory]

In fact one of the most difficult things I think is to make judgment in life. I am really confused when it comes to understanding achievement. I cannot say exactly what achievement is in point of fact. Of course if we are totally dedicated to or focused on a particular objective we will succeed in that line. If you are an employee and want to climb the rungs of success faster and faster all you need to do is focus your mind and concentrate your entire energies on your assignments. And of course highfliers have exactly done that. As I am a professional myself, a banker has real life experiences in this line. Those who are at the pinnacle of success have lost all their personal or familial interests to their corporations. And many have deserted their families just to succeed in their careers.
The paradox is they are working hard and in fact work dedicatedly just to rebuild their familial objectives, that is, to make family members happy, but the truth of the matter is they forget their families when they become workaholic.

I am oftentimes confused whether a high ambition is a right path. I feel we must balance life and strike the Middle Path as the Buddha had taught us. Or else we get lost in a maze of the world.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Yes, I would agree balance is always the way forward, it seems a wise and sensible path to follow.

Defining achievement has to come down to the individual's wants and needs, which is going to naturally vary from person to person, and from time to time.

[Dirtbag]

We can't help but achieve. Everything we do brings us to a new experience built off of the last. It seems to me that achievement is merely a pleasurable state of mind one has when they think about the past or future but I believe there are no achievements. Life is achieving. Passing exams isn't the point. Learning and applying that knowledge is what life is about. It's not the goal that counts but how the goal carves our paths. Our paths create themselves and we create meaning in our growth. Meaning and achieving are interrelated. For meaning is found in the balance of achieving broadly and achieving deeply. If we live too broadly, our minds only develop the superficial layers of reality. But if we live too deeply, we miss out on all of the other tangent paths of our existence. True achievement is in connecting with all of the universe. But that's impossible and would spoil the fun of living, of making decisions, and of concentrating... we can only achieve to connect with the world around us. It's a task we can never fail because everything we do connects us to the world either intrinsically or extrinsically.