Now Posted: Getting Out of the Box

Every other Tuesday Athena writes a column for IdeasMag, an online publication geared towards emerging talent in both the arts and entrepreneurship.

Previous Articles -

19 March 2013 – Is it Ever Game Over

5 March 2013 - Can Anyone Do What You Do?

19 February 2013 – Can Creative Wastelands Inspire?

05 February 2013 – Is Facebook Built for Bragging?

22 January 2013 – Do Artists get Too Much Credit?

08 January 2013 – Are Casting Quotas a Cure All?

We live in a society which is obsessed with achievement. The fastest runner, the best selling author, the owner of the company with the highest market value, these are the individuals we look to in hope of gleaning wisdom and tools to help boost us up to the next rung of our own success ladder. But why does the marathon winner receive more accolades than the person with a spinal cord injury who has worked for three years to learn how to take a single step? How does achievement by the world’s standards cause us to possibly negate our own accomplishments? Is achievement relative or can it not be measured at all?

Putting the best in their field next to people who are unseen by us but have overcome seemingly insurmountable odds, we examine our own attitudes of success and mediocrity and discover that everybody can reach beyond their own limitations and disadvantages to achieve something. Duchess Sarah Ferguson talks about her own surprising emotional endeavors and a young woman tries to cope with depression after losing her husband unexpectedly to cancer.  Ben Okri reflects on the fleeting nature of success while a teacher in Peckham struggles to give her students the ability to read for a lifetime. Boston Marathon winner and multiple time Paralympic athlete Christina Schwab assesses how being born with spina bifida increases her drive for personal achievement rather than hinders it. Still others, such as Michel Roux, AC Grayling, Crispin Odey, and Daniel Radcliffe speak about the undertaking that they are most proud of is not what we would expect.

Perhaps most surprising of all is to learn that nobody, even those who have seemed to have a straight shot to the top, has ever had an achievement in their life that has come without struggle. Indeed, in everyone’s case it has been the level of setback which has pushed individuals to excel. Equally, we explore how we all must recognize the small successes day by day which, added together culminate to make great achievements.

To hear about other’s achievements both seeming large and small, will force you to question and encourage your own. Everyone has setbacks, victories, and  dreams.