There is a debate on whether effort or achievement should be valued more in many different areas of life such as school, athletics, jobs, family, etc. Each side of the arguement has support. Many will say that all that matters is performance, no matter how the individual goes about performing. Others believe that personal effort is what counts and the performance is beyond a person's control. Does it not seem that society puts an unhealthy emphasis on achievement?
I believe individuals should be held accountable to putting forth their best effort rather than focusing on achievement. If a best effort is put forth, performance usually follows assuming the individual is a capable human being. If a student in school can prove an understanding of the material in a way other than performing well on a one hour test, I believe the effort and understanding should be rewarded. The player with the most skill in the world still needs to be held acountable to show up to practice or else risk losing his spot on the team just as anyone else would. In the work place, a mistake could be more costly than in an academic setting, but a complete effort from the person that was hired should be enough to avoid a mistake. If otherwise, the person most likely would have not been hired. Lastly, with family life, as long as a parent puts forth the effort to live by certain morals and uphold them, the parenting performance will shine through.
Effort is much more pure than plain achievement. There is no back door when it comes to effort. On the other hand, some people will do anything just to achieve, which leads to immorality. American society needs to change its over-emphasis on achievement alone. With effort, comes achievement.
3 comments:
I fully agree with what you wrote. Effort should be our personal goal, but on the other hand achievement needs to be what drives us.
I happy medium needs to be found and effort on a personal level needs to put out achievement on a higher level. An example is back in the 60's and early 70's NASA put a man on the Moon. It was said to be impossible. If mere effort was put in it's my opinion we would have never reached the moon, on the other hand if only achievement was sought after American would have been in the same boat as the USSR, who achieved small goals towards getting to the moon, but never was able to put that together and get there.
As I read your blog I felt you were leaning more towards a individual than a group. And effort from individuals is the most important goal. But as a group the goal needs to be achievement.
Then again there are exceptions to every rule. This one included. But when kept in context to our examples I believe they apply.
I do think effort is more important than achievement and kids in school would be much less stressed if they knew it was their effort that counted. But, how do you measure a person's effort? You can't base getting in to college on effort. This person tried really hard but got a "C", while this person is naturally very smart, did no work, and got an "A". It is unfair, but life is unfair. Our society does put way too much emphasis on achievement but it will always be that way, and really it has to be that way.
I agree with Stu on the distinction between effort and achievements in groups. I do believe effort could be rewarded in some way other than grades, because grades only measure achievement. It's an imperfect system!
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