The Common Achievement Effect

From a Freakonomics article:

Brazil, a longtime leader in developing alternative energy, has recently discovered a truly gigantic supply of oil. Critics fear that the nation’s forward-looking energy policies have just taken a big step backward and that the country will become just another oil oligarchy.

This is what I call the Common Achievement Effect.

What this does is blind you. You get pumped up because you’re achieving what others consider valuable, and so you lose direction.

Let’s take Twitter for example. More followers and replies can make you forget that numbers don’t matter, that real connections do. When I see people getting more “attention” than me, I can’t help to question my current strategy, if I’m doing things right. Maybe I should do what others are doing.

That’s when we have to step back and remind ourselves to not get trapped into the Common Achievement effect.

It can make you lose sight of your goal, change it, or stop doing altogether.

When you go after achievements that you don’t truly consider valuable, you end up selling out. It’s ok for your goals to evolve, but it’s important to know why.

Bottom Line: Be loyal to your beliefs, they are there for a reason.