achievement.
I might be addicted to achievement. (🧡Orange Needs - Part 5/8)
success | self-improvement | productivity | esteem
Orange colors the modern world more than any other color. It is the voice of progress, productivity, and efficiency!
While it’s good enough in 💙Blue to find security and not break the law, 🧡Orange wants you to improve, to make progress, and build something great! It can be a lot of pressure, and Orange societies get the results: scientific discovery, mass production, and high GDP.
Orange ACHIEVEMENT needs are about Success and Improvement. “Success” looks different for different people. It could be about:
winning (a competitive mindset)
likability (popularity, acclaim, or fame)
financial security or wealth
fulfilling a dream
expertise or mastery at a craft
making a positive impact for others
Some of our need to achieve is externally motivated — to perform in order to gain a good reputation or to avoid disappointing others.
Some of our need to achieve is internally motivated — to grow as a person, learn new things, developed skills, and cultivated character.
🧡Orange needs, like all the others, are basic human needs, they just tend to ramp-up in cultures which focus on a particular color. In much of the modern world, we have become addicted to achievement. This insidious addiction can take several forms, including:
Business: While productivity is a good thing, we can idolize it, fail to rest, and become overly busy. Even in pursuing good things, we can become trapped in the societal narrative that “more is better” or that a busy person is important, and needed, and living a full life.1
Money and Stuff: While money and material stuff are essential parts of living in the modern world, they easily become salience-traps. How many people today buy the latest brands, cars, shoes, accessories, and tech? Money can do so much good, yet it’s often virtually thrown away. Getting more can be thrilling, but is a classic addiction with diminishing dopamine returns.
Image: The cultivation of social media image has become a pervasive addiction, and a portal to depression for many (teens especially).2 We all have a reasonable desire to be liked, which is built into being pro-social creatures. It’s not bad to try to develop one’s charisma or style… but over-obsession with body-image and validation from the far-off gaze of others and comparison certainly contributes to modern society’s eating disorders and mental health problems.3
But enough about the toxic, shadow-side of 🧡Orange needs! The positive flip-side is that we can channel our need for achievement into:
bettering oneself in character and virtue (shades into 💛Yellow)
finding creative outlets to produce something meaningful or valuable
and studying to learn about the world, develop competencies, and gain certifications, which all open doors to new opportunities.
Healthy achievement is less about what is achieved and more about the disposition of the achiever.
Orange Check-Up Questions
You may want to give a 1-10 score for each of these.
Are you growing in skills and learning new things?
Are you making progress in life?
Are you “stretching yourself” or taking on challenge?
Are you respected and appreciated by others?
Do you feel like your able to produce things of value?
Have you accomplished things in life that really matter?
If you died tomorrow, would you feel your life was “successful”?
Next article in series (6/8): 💚harmony.
I wrote an essay about this in the context of pastoral work: “Un-Business, Listening, and Prayer.”
I recently learned that Sweden is pulling away from phone usage for kids and teens, issuing their first “screen time guidelines” in 2024.
Interestingly, in these 3 examples, which are all quite 🧡Orange, we can see that the first has shades of 💙Blue (social duty) and the last has shades of 💚Green (social harmony).