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Posted on 18 August 2007
Wise Blogger Lizzie Green said:

Does happiness depend on 'achievements'?

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Watching news reports about A Level results always makes me feel a bit nostalgic - and old! It’s a whole decade now since the fateful day my mum drove me to school to collect mine. I remember feeling as though that one piece of paper was going to determine my entire career path and future happiness. And maybe that was partly true. Who knows how differently my life would have turned out if I hadn’t got a place at my first-choice uni? Or if I hadn’t gone to uni at all? And if I’d failed and ended up following a completely different career path, would it have made me happy? Am I happy now because of my achievements back then, or would I have been happy anyway, whether I made the grade or not?

I certainly don’t envy anyone preparing for exams or those making plans for the future in the aftermath of results. I’m so glad to be through that stage of my life now and I’d never want to return – my sixth-form years were possibly the most stressful years of my life. And that’s why I worry sometimes that society places too much emphasis on results – on league tables and exam grades and money earned. Surely we can think of better ways to measure success than letters on a piece of paper or numbers on a bank statement? How much of our happiness in life really depends on these ‘achievements’?