Achievement is commonly associated with one simple formula. Work hard, stay disciplined and you will make it. Life doesn’t work that cleanly sometimes. Two people can possess the same skill set, have access to the same opportunities and similar levels of ambition but their paths may diverge because of their thought patterns, values and definitions of what success actually looks like.
Your environment, upbringing, previous experiences, relationships and even the places you frequent can all play a role in what you believe you can achieve and what you set out to achieve. While one person’s idea of achievement might be getting to the top of their career field, another person’s might be gaining more freedom or building a more meaningful career or perhaps something as simple as improving work-life balance. Taking these human elements into account can allow us to understand achievement outside of what society typically deems as successful.
Let’s dive into how our goals are formed by examining how our thoughts, actions, and perceptions can affect our behaviour.
What Psychology Can Teach Us About Achievement
Hard work can take you a long way, but success is not always as simple as clocking in and putting the hours in. An online graduate certificate in business psychology will teach you how psychology impacts everything from our motivations and decision-making skills to our performance in the workplace and at home. Whether you realise it or not, the way you think, feel and perceive the world can affect your goals and your ability to achieve them almost as much as your talent and drive.
Business psychology is centrally concerned with how people perform. It uses theories of psychology to analyse what inspires individuals, how they decide what to do, how they handle difficulties and what allows them to truly thrive. When it comes to achievement, there’s no one-size-fits-all formula. What business psychology teaches us is that each person is a product of their individual personality, life’s journey, personal values, and surrounding circumstances.
Why Similar People Can Achieve Different Outcomes
You might have two colleagues with similar degrees and skills who experience very different levels of success in their careers. One might thrive on uncertainty and welcome challenges as a chance to learn something new. The other might be scared to take risks or step outside of their comfort zone because of insecurity or the fear of failure. If two people are presented with the same opportunity, their individual mindset, self-esteem and tolerance for risk might affect whether they take it and where they go from there.
The way we define and understand motivation is another important factor. We might be driven to succeed by external rewards like bonuses, promotions or recognition from our peers. On the other hand, we might simply want to work on something we care about or prove to ourselves that we can finish what we start. While extrinsic rewards can be a great motivator, countless studies have shown that intrinsic motivation can lead to better outcomes and help us stick to our goals in the long run.
The most important lesson from psychology is that our subjective view of reality is what constructs our actual world. How you define success, failure and your own abilities will affect your decision-making process every day. By learning about these psychological factors, you can set goals that align with your values, overcome obstacles more effectively and achieve your own version of success.
Why We Define Success Differently
Success shouldn’t be thought of as one specific thing. There are lots of people who dream about senior management positions or starting their own business. However, some people want to be creative at work or have a more flexible lifestyle so they can spend more time with their families.
When you think of what success means to you, try to remember that your definition of it is unique to you. What you consider success has been moulded by your surroundings and experiences as you’ve grown. Your family, environment, and how you were raised contribute to your personal idea of success.
Society conditions you from a young age about what “successful” jobs look like, what accomplishments you should have reached by certain ages and how you measure success. Some people value job stability and a large paycheck. Others want to dive into work they are passionate about or help others and don’t mind instability.
The Comparison Trap: How Social Media Influences Our Goals
Social media can often influence your definition of success. You are able to see highlight reels of your friends’ careers, families, and vacations. Everyone likes to post when they receive a promotion or buy a new house. We don’t tend to hear about when someone gets passed up for a promotion or spends three months saving up for that vacation. With social media it can feel like everyone is moving ahead in their lives and careers while you’re standing still.
Just because someone has one of those “dream jobs” doesn’t mean that they enjoy what they do. They might be working long hours or feel burned out at the end of their workday. That’s why your definition of success is different than someone else’s.
Your dream job could allow you to have flexible hours and more time with friends and family. Someone else’s dream job may cause them stress just thinking about it. Your values will play a big role in your definition of success. There are people out there who value recognition and being “the best” at what they do. Other people value creating a difference, artistry, freedom, and time.
Once you start setting goals that align with your values, you’ll find more fulfilment in your life. Recognise that your personal vision of success won’t match everyone else’s, and that’s perfectly fine.
The Stories We Tell Ourselves Matter
Self-image refers to how you see yourself, and believing that you can achieve your goals can be a strong motivating factor. If you believe that you lack the skills necessary to reach your goals because of past failures or what others have told you, you may inadvertently be setting yourself up for failure.
Here, the contrast between having a growth mindset and a fixed one becomes significant. If you have a fixed mindset, you may believe that you only have the skills that you were born with. However, with a growth mindset, you understand that through education and experience you can acquire new skills and therefore failure can teach you how to improve yourself.
Another psychological concept that comes into play is that of a self-fulfilling prophecy. What this means is that if you believe you can do something, you are more likely to take the actions necessary to make it happen. The same goes for lack of confidence. Once you become aware of the narrative you give yourself, you can start to break down stories that limit you and begin setting goals that you believe you can accomplish.
How Our Environment Influences Performance
Hard work isn’t the only thing that determines achievement. The environments that we’re surrounded by play a role as well. An encouraging work culture, positive leadership and strong relationships can empower people to feel confident and motivated.
If you work in an environment where you feel you can speak up and ask questions without hesitation or judgment from your peers, you will thrive. Psychological safety allows people to take risks and be vulnerable in order to grow and learn. The better supported someone feels, the more likely they are to share their ideas and opinions.
Humans tend to rise to the level of trust that we’re given. When you feel comfortable in your work environment and know that your job is secure, you will perform better. Our surroundings can either create a limit for us or allow us to reach heights we didn’t think we were capable of.
Achievement Isn’t Always About Working Harder
When people think about achievement, they often associate it with being busy —
working more hours, taking on more tasks and always reaching for one goal after another. But psychology tells us that sustainable high performance looks different. Constantly pushing without allowing for rest and recuperation can cause us to feel exhausted, lose our creative edge, and see our performance suffer, even if we’re generally highly motivated individuals.
Related to work-life balance is the idea of work-life harmony. Rather than squeezing our passions and care for others out of our lives to make room for our careers, we can find a balance that allows for both. We need breaks, relationships, and downtime outside of work to have increased focus, creative problem-solving skills, and sustainable motivation.
Productivity culture can lead us to believe that if we’re not busy, we aren’t doing something productive. One way we can flip our mindset around goals is to stop trying to take on more and more and instead figure out what is important to us. We can prioritise what matters and make a plan to reach the goals that will allow us to improve consistently without sacrificing other areas of our life.
Building Goals That Reflect Who You Are
Meaningful goals are typically those that we feel passionate about or are important to us. They may or may not come with external rewards like praise from others, money or job titles. When setting goals for ourselves, it can be easy to get caught up in the idea that they need to be achieved by a certain age or look a certain way. But your definition of success doesn’t have to be something that’s decided by anyone other than you. Goal setting is meant to be flexible. Think about what the idea of accomplishment means to you and create a goal around that.
Instead of making goals based on someone else’s expectations, think about what matters to you. Maybe you want to become an engineer because you enjoy problem-solving and working with your hands. Or, maybe you want to be a teacher because you value stability and helping others. Your goals should align with your interests and values.
Achievement Starts With Understanding Yourself
Most people consider achievement to be a product of their intelligence, talent or effort. However, many factors from psychology play into whether or not you’ll be successful. How you see yourself react to adversity and even how you perceive the world can affect what you aim for and how you go about achieving it.
By learning more about the psychology of people you can start to identify the thoughts, beliefs, and environments that affect your life. Once you know what you aren’t living by someone else’s expectations you can start setting goals that align with your own values, strengths and what you want to accomplish.
Achievement means something different to everyone. When you take the time to learn more about yourself you can create your own definition of success that you can actually obtain by building good habits.
