Measuring Achievement and Success: By what Standards?

Measuring Achievement and Success: By what standards?

While watching the Gabby Giffords interview alongside her husband, Mark Kelly, televised on ABC, Monday, November 14, 2011, I was absolutely amazed at the progress she has made in the 11 months since her injuries.  Surviving and recovering from a gunshot wound to the brain is one of the most unexplained miracles a person can achieve.  When military sharpshooters take aim, the head is the preferred target, given the right circumstances.  Point being, a head wound by a gunshot at close range is considered deadly.

I was witnessing the therapy process, and the extreme struggle she was in just to achieve basic functions such as talking, standing, hand grip, and other basic movements and functions that all of us take for granted.  It occurred to me, by what standards do Gabby and Mark measure her achievements?  It can be extremely trying on a person’s focus and dedication when seeing such a long road ahead, thinking that no noticeable improvements will ever come.  But, that’s what is special about certain people who have that fighters’ spirit.  They don’t know defeat, only that there is no choice but to overcome obstacles, no matter what the odds of success.  With that said, I would like to delve into what I propose should be the real standards that we should use for measuring achievement and success.   

During the interview, there was special emphasis placed on terms like courage, brave, effort, strong, and miracles to describe the level of achievement.  In a general sense, achievement is usually measured by the amount or level which one reaches set goals.  During a recent conversation with a health care professional who regularly treats rehab patients, she pointed out that you set goals without necessarily having expectations.  That’s from the healthcare professional viewpoint, but I can tell you that it’s not necessarily the view of the patient.  I bet that Mark and Gabby had expectations to reach those goals. 

Achievement is a common term used across society to characterize upward mobility in careers, rehabilitation of a criminal as well as a patient in poor health struggling to survive.  But it always is measured by comparison to the goal set.  So, what’s important to one person might not be as impressive to another person.  Think for a minute if you had all of a sudden lost your ability to see.  You would no longer be able to drive, walk deliberately from one place to another, or lead someone down an unknown path.  What if you could no longer speak?  Imagine the frustration you would feel.  Losing the main form of communicating your feelings and desires would be a daunting obstacle to continue living a normal life.  Now, take away an arm or a leg or both, where would your thoughts be?  I suspect that in the hours and days immediately after the shooting, Gabby was facing these and many more questions about her survival and furthermore her recovery to a somewhat normal way of life. 

In the interview, Mark mentioned that he just wished for her to be able to do some basic things.  Hum, just the basics.  No talk of all the things that they were to try to achieve before that fateful day.  From now on Gabby would achieve her goals on a much more basic level, a level that the vast majority of the public takes for granted.  Her goals were now changed to talk, walk, speak, shake a hand, grip a door knob, and other simple things.  After watching the interview last night, who has made the bigger achievement, Gabby or some Wall Street Executive?  By being objective, both of them could say that they have achieved something big, but in different ways.

I love writing about perspective and what will be our views in the long-term.   Being grateful for the small things is a big thing to me.  When you don’t have some of the basic means to do day to day tasks, the achievement is measured in whether or not you can see, talk, or have self-reliance and not needing help of others.  In my eyes, achievement is measured by where you’ve come from and where you are now.  Last January, I never expected to see her doing so well and achieving so much in just eleven months, and she can’t do a lot of the things that we never even think about, but they’re huge to her. 

I experienced a similar wound, being shot in the head, the biggest difference being that I was an infant, just six months old.  But, I didn’t have perspective at that time, or when I was young.  I had a chance to learn to overcome sight difficulty, headaches, and other related side-effects of a bullet passing through my brain, without learning and then losing the ability to function.  I was used to hearing phrases like, ‘you’re a miracle, kid’, ‘God had his hand on you, kid’, which is true.  There wasn’t then, and there isn’t now, a set playbook for surgeons to repair the brain damage done by such injuries.  I worked hard unconsciously to grow out of my wounds.  Gabby is working consciously to recover from her wounds.

If Gabby makes a full recovery, (and after watching the interview, who could doubt that?), I don’t think there is a word that could describe or measure her achievement.  And that’s a goal that any Wall Street Executive should be proud to achieve.