Your greatest achievement

Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win, By fearing to attempt.
William Shakespeare
1564 – 1616

What will be your greatest achievement in life? Take a moment and think about all the potential and possible answers, all the things you could do. Reflect on what you will be known and remembered for accomplishing.

Will your greatest achievement be a world record in some competitive activity? Will your accomplishment come through your job, your children or your efforts to improve the world?

When I ask this question of most people, the answers typically fall in a category of activities best described as objective and externally focused; that is, the achievements are things that everyone can recognize and acknowledge, like setting a world record, raising exemplary children, or attaining financial success.

Most of us focus on achieving external things. We want to accomplish goals that others can recognize and acknowledge. But I want to share a secret with you: your highest possible achievement is not external. If you actually attain it, no one will know. They’ll see the results, but they won’t truly understand why you were able to get those results.

Here is the most difficult, and therefore the greatest, objective you can possibly achieve: self-mastery. Once you attain self-mastery, everything else is easy. Once you can do the things you promise yourself you’ll do, the world holds no challenges.

Now this might sound a little pie in the sky, but I promise you that if you can achieve self-mastery, there is no reasonable goal you can’t accomplish. You must understand, there is no such thing as complete and total self-mastery. But you can and should work to improve your control in this area.

How do you achieve self-mastery? The first thing you must do is start to believe in yourself. Get rid of the self-doubt that sabotages the majority of your efforts. Start believing in your ability to accomplish what you set out to do. Bring your fears out into the open. Face them. Don’t let them get the upper hand.

And when you make a commitment to yourself, keep it. Be honest with yourself. Don’t fall into self-deception.

Believe in yourself and act on that belief. Practice self-mastery and you will have realized your greatest achievement.

The greatest griefs are those we cause ourselves.
Sophocles
c. 495 – 429 B.C.