If you imagine that once you have accomplished your ambitions
you will have time to turn to the Way, you will discover
that your ambitions never come to an end.

Yoshida Kenko

Will you be satisfied with the fruit of your life's work? Will the efforts you are making now
bring you satisfaction when the things of time are receding, and eternity looms ahead?

Raymond L. Cox

I used to believe that achievement meant winning, being the best, coming in before everyone else.  Achievement was gaining recognition, being praised, being noticed by other people.  Gradually, though, I've realized that that way of looking at achievement was more harmful to me than helpful--if I expected recognition for everything I achieved, I was bound to spend most of my life being disappointed, for people aren't going to give me recognition just because I think they should or hope they will.  I needed to start basing my actions on what I wanted to accomplish and what would help others--some of my greatest achievements have been some of the smallest, for they've been the most helpful to others.

I'll never win an Olympic medal or be the governor of a state or the president of a country, but it's important for me to realize that those areas aren't where my gifts lie.  If I'm to achieve what's most important--whatever it is that will make me a better, kinder, more compassionate human being--then I need to be true to my gifts.  I need to search out areas of achievement that will help me to grow, and most of all help me to help others to grow. Once I do anything solely for potential recognition, I've achieved something for a poor motive, and that achievement is worse than worthless.

The gifted athletes or actors or politicians who focus on self may have an extensive list of achievements to show for their efforts, but of what value are they if they're not helping others with their gifts?  My goal is to make my achievements helpful, useful.

Of course, we can't do everything that we do just for others--sometimes we do something that can make us proud.  We run the 10k race a little bit faster than before, or we get a short article published, or we win an award at work or at school. Those are all great achievements, and most of us are able to avoid letting such achievements go to our heads and make us forget others.  But we must focus on how such achievements add to our confidence or self-esteem so that the next time we're in a situation that demands a certain level of confidence, that prize that we won becomes much more valuable because its effects make us much more effective in the current situation.

My greatest accomplishments shall never be known, perhaps even to me.  Having made someone smile and see the world a bit brighter, having given someone hope for the future, having helped someone see potential inside him or her self that he or she never might have seen otherwise, having helped someone to see just how beautiful he or she really is--these to me are the achievements that most can help this world to be a brighter, more loving place.

I long to accomplish a great and noble task,
but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.

Helen Keller

I do not want to die. . . until I have faithfully made the most of my talent and cultivated the seed that was placed in me until the last small twig has grown.

Kaethe Kollwitz

Even the woodpeckers owe their success to the fact that they use their heads
and keep pecking away until they finish the job they start.

Coleman Cox

The Art of Achievement

You hold in your hand the camel's-hair brush of a painter of Life.
You stand before the vast white canvas of Time.  The paints
are your thoughts, emotions and acts.

You select the colors of your thoughts; drab or bright, weak or strong, good or bad.
You select the colors of your emotions; discordant or harmonious, harsh or quiet,
weak or strong.  You select the colors of your acts;
cold or warm, fearful or daring, small or big.

You visualize yourself as the person you want to be.
You strive to make the ideal in your mind become
a reality on the canvas of Time.

Each moment of your life is a brush stroke in the painting of your growing career.
There are the bold, sweeping strokes of one increasing, dynamic purpose.
There are the lights and shadows that make your life deep and strong.
There are the little touches that add the stamp of character and worth.
The art of achievement is the art of making life--your life--a masterpiece.

Wilferd A. Peterson

William Jennings Bryan