40+FAB Blog

What drives achievement?

Different people have different personality types. On one end of the spectrum you have people who are very driven to accomplish things, while on the other end are those who are quite laid back and almost seem happy with any status quo.

You would think that it is only the driven personality type that has all the great accomplishments, but I have come to realise that all personality types have achieved outstanding things.

So what really drives achievement? I believe that one of the essential ingredients of any achievement is a strong sense of purpose, or the ‘why’ that an individual has.

People find a why in various forms like the need to solve a problem causing pain, or the need to help another, or to satisfy curiosity, or to compete with another, or to keep up with peer pressure, or to spite others, or to feel significant, and many other reasons. Whether the reasons be noble or malevolent, it does bring on the desire and the mettle required to accomplish things.

The genuine feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction therefore can only come from the one who knows the reason why they pursued that achievement.