Personal Achievement
Introduction
Personal achievement is a personal characteristic that provides an individual with a sense of gratification and contentment. It could be as a result of personal success or teamwork. Personal achievement is something that an individual does and feel that they accomplished it and left a great impact on their life. Personal achievements reflect determination, courage, dedication, and hard work.
Acquiring a professional qualification is respected and appreciated by both academics and non-academics (Bostock 2014). Having traveled from the middle-east to go to college in the U.S. it was a great achievement for me to graduate from the University. For me, the challenges I experienced were with language, culture, and environmental changes. Professional qualification is more valued when it has been achieved through some pressure and difficulties. Being able to secure an education despite the many challenges and obstacles along the way is an ultimate achievement. The fact that I endured a lot of hardships in life and still keep pushing forward to my objectives is something I am proud of.
According to Bostock (2014), an achievement is not only about enjoying the happy great things but is also about enduring the hard times and the challenges that come with it. Having the ability to withstand challenges and pressure to reach your goal is a very important part of the success. Being able to pick myself when I faced challenges and keep fighting until I achieved my goals is in itself an achievement. There is pride in looking back at all the setbacks and knowing that I never gave up but withstood the challenges. This even gives me more motivation to move forward and work towards making more achievements.
The greatest achievements are the ones that are directly related to the greatest challenges and failures (Bostock 2014). It is very rewarding when you face your greatest challenges, fears, and failures and conquer them all. Having the spirit and the urge to achieve something made me face all the challenges along the way with positivity. They changed my mentality and the challenges gave me more energy to move forward. Moving to another country to further my studies and facing the language and culture challenges made me learn how to depend on and push myself more and be open to learning new things.
Experiencing the disoriented feeling of being in a different country where communication and the way of doing things had changed was the biggest challenge for me. Experiencing different climate, food, language, values, dressing, and behavior according to Santayana (2015) was a shock for me. Making friends or interacting with people was difficult due to language barriers. This had a big impact on my life because it taught me how to adjust and adapt to the situation and the new country because I was there for a reason and I had to accomplish it. The culture change made me understand and value my own culture. It made me get more confident because I had to find a way to interact with other people. This experience helped to influence interactions with the other cultures and learn more about them. I became more open-minded and developed a new way of thinking and solving problems. The culture change made me more mature and started believing in myself more meaning that it had a positive impact on me after accepting the situation and moving forward to reach my goals.
According to Ryan (2019), moving to a new country is stressing, challenging, scary, and confusing but having the courage to make such a decision in itself is an achievement. It allowed me to learn many great and different things to what I was used to. It gave me the chance to change my attitude towards a lot of things and build the life I always wanted and dreamed of. For me then that was joining and graduating from the university. It allowed me to depend on myself, be able to stand for myself, and also changed my personality. I learned that so long as you know what you want, that mindset keeps you moving even when things get tough. I also learned that in this life you have to learn how to interact with people to be able to survive and reach your goals. I had to learn the art of communication since I was too shy because I could not be able to make progress without speaking and interacting with people.
Having the courage to speak to people and ask for assistance and guidance when I needed it was a great achievement for me. It made me get closer to achieving my dreams because it taught me how important it is to allow people in your life. People have different knowledge and skill Ryan (2019) and this allowed me to learn other skills and get more knowledge. This made me get involved in teamwork and give my opinions and views with courage while others were doing so. This gave me more courage to face my fears and new strength to accomplish my goals and even aim higher.
The challenges I experienced made me get even more focused and appreciate the opportunity l had. It taught me how to appreciate the social and cultural differences and enjoy the new lifestyles (Ryan 2019). I became independent, responsible, and confident. I learned how to fight and stand for what I believe in and never to give up. The challenges pushed me to work harder and get more skills and a deeper understanding of how the world revolves to be able to find a solution for the problems that come along my way. These challenges increased my self-esteem, made me emotionally and mentally stronger, and every success I achieved increased my self-confidence. I grew so much as a person and saw my life from a very different perspective.
I was able to find myself, face my fears and challenges, and know what was holding me back from accomplishing my goals. Because of the determination I had, I was able to fight and defeat what was holding me back and came out as an achiever. Challenges made me learn how to be more flexible and tolerant (Ryan 2019). This is because of the different cultures and values of the people I interacted with. They made me open to new ideas, interests and I learned to adapt to the new ways of living. This has made me want to get more knowledge by taking the next step of joining grad school.
Conclusion
Personal achievement is defined by hard work, dedication, enduring challenges, believing in yourself, and going for what you want. It is defined by not giving up, accepting your situation, and moving forward. Challenges are part of the journey to achieving your goals. They come with a lot of lessons that keep one going and make you get solutions to problems. The challenges make you work harder towards success. Enduring challenges gives one more strength and confidence to fight their way towards reaching their goals.
References
Bostock J (2014) The Meaning of Success insights from women in Cambridge: Cambridge University PressRyan J. (2019) Moving to a New City Alone: Challenges and Solutions: Retrieved from
https://www.mymovingreviews.com/move/moving-to-a-new-city-alone/
Santayana G. (2015) Why culture shock is good for you. Retrieved from https://www.worktheworld.com/blog/why-culture-shock-is-good-for-you
