It's Not Just What We Achieve, But How We Get There

October 16, 2026

As another week comes to a close, I imagine many of us are thinking about what we managed to accomplish, what is still sitting on our to-do lists, and what will inevitably carry over into next week. Some of us are celebrating a major accomplishment, while others are simply happy to have made it to Friday, and depending on the kind of week you've had, that alone might be worth celebrating.

But something I've been thinking about lately is whether we spend enough time considering not just what we've achieved, but how we went about achieving it.

We tend to recognize success through promotions, financial achievements, professional recognition, and personal milestones, often without giving much thought to everything that happened along the way. There's absolutely nothing wrong with being proud of those achievements, especially when we know how much sacrifice, determination, and hard work went into them. But perhaps we should also consider the choices we made in pursuit of those accomplishments.

Were we kind to people when things became stressful?

Did we give others the credit they deserved, or were we so focused on our own success that we forgot who helped us get there? Were we honest when telling the truth was uncomfortable, and did we treat people with the same respect when we needed nothing from them? And when we look back at those moments, are we comfortable with the choices we made, or do we recognize opportunities to do better?

The choices we make in pursuit of success don't stop affecting us when the workday ends. Sometimes the people closest to us experience the consequences of our ambition more than anyone else.

Maybe you accomplished everything you set out to do at work this week, but by the time you got home, you had very little patience or energy left for your family. Maybe you achieved something personally but forgot to acknowledge the people who supported you. Or perhaps something didn't work out the way you hoped, but you handled the disappointment in a way that made you proud of yourself.

I've always believed that ambition and integrity can coexist. We can work hard, compete, pursue big dreams, and expect excellence without losing sight of how we treat people or compromising the values that matter to us. Of course, none of us gets it right every time, myself included, but recognizing where we could have done better is part of growing.

So, as you head into the weekend, I hope you take a moment to appreciate everything you've accomplished, including the things nobody else noticed. But also consider whether the way you pursued your goals reflects the person you want to be.

And years from now, when the titles have changed, the applause has faded, and this week's accomplishments are long forgotten, I hope we can look back with pride not only at what we achieved, but at the choices we made, the values we upheld, and the people we became along the way.