Acccomplishment

What do you consider an accomplishment in your life?  Listening to stories of friends has made me question my own evaluation of accomplishment in my own life. I wonder what kind of accomplishment is the point of life.

I have listened to many personal travelogues. These, second only to the minute details of attending a rock concert, are among my least favorite conversations. Yet, for some, these are obviously life accomplishments worthy of recounting in great detail.

I myself am prone to identify the product of mundane activity as accomplishment. The craft of improving a home or the establishment of a perennial garden. These are labors which yield a concrete end result. The result is often seen as the accomplishment. Actually, I believe the accomplishment is the development of the skills which devise the finished product.

More and more I see accomplishment as a dynamic process. I consider those dynamic processes which deepen my appreciation and understanding of the human condition to be major accomplishments. Accomplishment as process versus product. Becoming a virtuoso of mindful and compassionate living is an accomplishment which yields no award at a black-tie ceremony, but is perhaps the most difficult human accomplishment.