The Accomplishment Addiction

I have times, as I practice living on purpose (LOP), when I get suspicious of myself.  Sometimes I catch myself justifying, being right about something, or feeling the pressure to get something done, and then the red flag goes up.  I become suspicious of my to-do list when it is in the driver seat of my life and I am feeling the need to accomplish things in order to be O.K.  I realize that for most of us it is an outlandish idea that the need to accomplish would not be a good thing.  For most of us we have been reared to believe that the whole point of being alive is to be productive, so how could I possibly think it could be an addiction?

The definition of LOP is not not accomplishing things.  Actually, I believe someone who is LOP will probably be more productive in their lives than most, but, just because we are accomplishing things does not mean we are LOP and perhaps that has become our tripping point.  A person who is busy or accomplishing may believe they are living a great life because they can point to all of their accomplishments.  However, as I have glimpses behind my own veil I realize that accomplishment without LOP is nothing more than mediocrity.  It may give us a short burst of satisfaction and relief to be able to pronounce something as complete, but how often is it also a true expression of who we really are?

I realize I may be attacking a sacred cow by calling accomplishment an addiction and mediocre, because most of our world is teetering on the importance of everyone continuing to accomplish.  Our schooling, our world of employment, our sports, our basic services of life are often propped up with many who show up everyday to be productive and to do their share of accomplishing.  But again, I am not saying that LOP is void of accomplishment, it actually has the potential for increased productivity.  What takes accomplishment out of the realm of just mediocrity is that LOP accomplishments come from us sharing our personal knowing/our genius self, which is where all great art, athleticism, heroism, inventions, have  been derived.

I recognize that the addiction of being busy, just to feel like we have achieved something in a day, has become so important for many of us we are usually willing to forgo our greatness just to get the short term fix of accomplishing something.  We are willing to be mediocre because the relief of being able to cross something off our to-do list has become more important than a belief that we might be something more.  But, I am suggesting that we are more than the sum of our accomplishments.  Just as the sun burns hot and bright and because of that a whole lot is 'accomplished', we too are meant to shine and see what shining brightly in our lives naturally accomplishes.

LOP is the gushing of inspiration that looks like immense accomplishment.