From the Deputy Principal

Achievement addiction

Are you an achievement addict? It's hard not to be one given our collective obsession with success.  Students fear that the ATAR will sum up not just their schooling career, but also their individual worth. Australians aren't just mad for sporting victory - skyrocketing house prices show we're equally hooked on owning property.  Why do we constantly strive for our significance? 

During the week I listened to an interview with Justine Toh who has recently written a book entitled Achievement Addiction and she has been reflecting on how the quest for perfection can shape our lives — but undermine us spiritually.  This struck a chord for me, particularly at this time of year, as I watch so many of our students working really hard to do their best; and, for some of them, pinning their entire identity on achievement.  There is this constant temptation to compare ourselves to others and work to be ‘more’ and ‘better’, sometimes at the expense of our relationships with each other and our own spirituality.  Toh challenges the market-driven idea of meritocracy, saying it has created a culture of smugness for the successful and a politics of humiliation for those left behind. In the interview it became clear Toh is not arguing against success or achievement; she is suggesting that there is space for moving away from the obsession with being significant, which invites the temptation to be self centred and ignore the needs of others. 

When I was listening to the interview I was reminded of a speech I read by George Saunders, offering advice to graduates.  It's good advice for all of us.  He reminds us accomplishment is unreliable. “Succeeding,” whatever that might mean to you, is hard, and the need to do so constantly renews itself (success is like a mountain that keeps growing ahead of you as you hike it), and there’s the very real danger that “succeeding” will take up your whole life, while the big questions go untended.   

Do all the other things, the ambitious things--travel, get rich, get famous, innovate, lead, fall in love, make and lose fortunes, but as you do, to the extent that you can, err in the direction of kindness. Do those things that incline you toward the big questions, and avoid the things that would reduce you and make you trivial. That luminous part of you that exists beyond personality, is as bright and shining as any that has ever been. Bright as Shakespeare’s, bright as Gandhi’s, bright as Mother Theresa’s. Clear away everything that keeps you separate from this secret luminous place. Believe it exists, come to know it better, nurture it, share its fruits tirelessly.

As we all strive to achieve our best, I think it pays to remind ourselves of maintaining a focus on our humanity as we do so.

Mrs Emma Franklin | Deputy Principal