Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Achievement

I am taking a little break from my regular posts to write something a little different, something that has been on my mind lately. What is “achievement” or more specifically, what does it mean to “achieve”?

If you look that up in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, achieve is a verb derived from Middle English dating from the 14th century. “Achieve” can be used as a transitive verb meaning “to carry out successfully” (accomplish); “to get or attain as the result of exertion” (reach). It can also be used as an intransitive verb meaning “to attain a desired end or aim: become successful”. A synonym for achieve is “perform”.

In the past few years because of my job as vice president of finance in the family-run electronics distribution business, my perception of achievement was “doing whatever it takes to get the job done”. The “job” I’m referring is not just finance, but verifying everything before shipping orders to the customer, and vice versa when receiving orders from vendors. That’s just the business part.

Personally, there have been different achievements in my life, but I view them more as “accomplishments” instead of achievements. They mean the same thing.

In my life, what HAVE I achieved? What can I say that I have done?

- I have a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts with a concentration in theatre.
- I worked in various aspects of theatre for seventeen years because of my love of doing it.
- I sang in a barbershop chorus for almost four years, and a barbershop quartet for two strictly because of the performance and conveying the meaning to the song.
- I managed and ran a singles group in my church for two and a half years because no one wanted to be in charge of it, so I took the reins and did it the best that I could.
- I taught 3rd grade CCD for a year.
- I sang in the church choir for eight years singing either bass or tenor.
- I have lived and maintained a seizure-free life since 1996.
- I learned to ballroom dance, and fell in love with the old-fashioned romanticism of it.
- I have used and completed most of the workout programs offered by Beachbody because I wanted to have personal knowledge of using the programs, and be able to help people who use them.
- I chose to become an Independent TeamBeachbody coach, an independent distributor of Beachbody products, to help others make a difference in their lives through exercise.
- I volunteered to help Beachbody trainer, ShaunT, with his workout challenge consisting of his workout programs: Hip Hop Abs, ShaunT’s Dance Party Series, Hip Hop Abs Level 2, Rockin’ Body.
- I filmed my own workouts to watch my form. This turned into creating youtube videos which track my fitness progress.
- I filmed group workouts in New York City, not only to say "we did it", but to promote what we have done, and what we will be doing next.
- I am helping other TeamBeachbody coaches by creating videos of their progress to share THEIR story.
- In two and a half years, I reduced my cholesterol from 319 to 184 through exercise, nutrition, supplementation, and hydration.

What do all of these have in common?
I did them because I WANTED to. That is the difference.

I have lived my life by several Goethe quotes which have helped changed and shape my life:
1. “If I treat you as you are, I will make you worse. But I treat you as what you are ought to be, I help you become that.”
2. “Trust yourself, then you will know how to live.”

Most of all, I have learned one true lesson about myself – not to quit. That is why I keep doing exactly what I do. I have thought of the alternative – giving up. If I do that, I destroy everything that I have worked hard at achieving. I refuse to let that happen, because I refuse to quit taking care of myself and my life. I have SEEN what I want my future to be, and I am striving towards it – another reason not to quit (because I want my envisioned future to become MY REALITY).

In closing, I have two questions for you:
1. What do you want to achieve?
2. How can I help you, not just achieve it, but surpass it?

Thank you for reading this. Have a fantastic day!

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