Does Greatness Matter?

Everyone wants to be great in their lifetime. They want to achieve something and be someone.

There’s nothing wrong with this per se. After all, what is life if you don’t have anything to prove right?

But why does this matter though? What would happen to yourself if you lived in a parallel universe where you achieved nothing?

How would that make you feel?

Perhaps you feel bad about it since you base your self-esteem around your achievements, not your character.

But it’s also a good question to ask ourselves what are achievements exactly.

Since we are going to answer this question, I think it’s also important to realize and admit that different people have different achievements.

It makes sense. After all, it’s not like the world decided to give a feeling of achievement if you cleared a milestone set by life. It’s all in your perception whether you achieved it or not.

It may be defined by external awards or accolades but ultimately, it’s because you gave permission for it to be defined as such.

Of course, it’s also important to consider that someone’s achievements are not yours either.

A runner may consider running 100 meters in nine seconds as an achievement but for you, that just may be impressive but never on your goal list.

Whether that’s because you have no incentives or you know you can never do that is a question to ask yourself.

Original question

Coming back to the original question. Why does it indeed matter?

Let’s say Alex was a sportsman and he worked for it.

He worked tirelessly hard for it and did that for several years.

After a series of hurdles and challenges, he finally won the state-level tournament in volleyball. He showcased the award with the cash prize in front of friends, family and mostly strangers.

Alex did feel great at the moment since that was a goal he set up for himself several years ago.

All the blood, sweat and tears finally paid off and things just went how he imagined it to be. In a way, he achieved greatness and used up his potential in the right way.

After a while however, he soon adapted and started training for the next big: winning the national-level tournament.

Good for him. Things went as well as they can, he gave himself a break and is coming back for something bigger.

But ultimately though, he did so easily become numb to the sensation of his success so it’s really a good question to ask yourself. Does it really matter?

In Alex’s case, his achievement was something he imposed on himself.

Some people may instead consider money, fame or resources as achievements.

Regardless though, does it really matter?

After all this, Alex eventually ended up numb to his past achievements then why does it matter?

If there’s a parallel world where you didn’t achieve and you had a similar mental state as this one where you achieved then what’s the difference here?

You may say, “No, sometimes people don’t do things for happiness or emotions. It’s not for a mental state, it’s for myself.”

This is a compelling argument since the parallel self is worse off since he didn’t do it for ‘himself’.

But what does ‘doing for myself’ mean here really? Is it a badge of honour? Or a sense of satisfaction? Or your meaning of life?

But if we do go in this line of thinking, it doesn’t really make too much sense either.

After all, you may not feel strong emotions or for a ‘mental state’ that you described but is honor not anything but an addition to your self-confidence?

If so then, is self-confidence not also a part of a mental state?

Sure, it may not be strong but you will feel it for a long time in the background like noise. A place where you can feel positive emotions regularly in small quantities since you cannot erase achievements generally.

Then why would your parallel self be inferior?

You may say, “Fine. I agree that mental state does not seem that compelling of an argument. How about we say using potential? After all, my parallel self has not used up his life in ways he should have and as a result, is ungrateful.”

This seems like a good way of reasoning. I mean, everyone wants to use their potential and achieve great things. Would it not be a shame if they just passed away without using their potential?

I suppose everyone can agree. Passing away without using potential seems tragic. Why? Since in a possible reality, they could have been everything they wanted yet they missed it.

Humans feel things especially unfortunate when they almost got it but couldn’t compared to being miles away from it.

Sure, it’s tragic and understandable but again, why is our parallel self who achieved nothing inferior?

Well, I have hid it so far but this essay is about questioning your meaning.

The reason why it cannot be answered is because it’s your individual answer. Based on your definition of meaning, this essay may seem rational or crazy so far.

Regardless, I hope this made you feel thoughtful and it’s intentionally left off without an end since you're the one who needs to write it.

Food for thought.