Relating self-worth with accomplishments is a good motivator most of the time. This belief makes for a good social system, which is why it's so prevalent in successful societies. However at the individual level it has festered in some negative ways, especially in light of the economy being so bad.

A need to justify self-worth through accomplishments creates a motivation, it tilts the table toward a certain type of behavior. What is considered an "accomplishment" is decided by the culture, which is often managed by the authority. Completing highschool is an accomplishment. Going to college is an accomplishment. Getting married is an accomplishment. The list of potential accomplishments is endless. Have you been skydiving? Traveled to Europe? Gotten an office job? Bought a new car? You can check off those particular 'accomplishment' boxes, which are provided by our culture.

Accomplishments matter, and they're how we distinguish the good from the bad. So says society and our authorities, and so says our culture. So we believe it ourselves. Our society is competitive, and ranked.

Again, this is a generally good system with generally good results. However in this time of economic turmoil, it creates individuals who are unable to find jobs, because there are simply less jobs than people. These unemployed people now are given this burden of needing to prove their self-worth through alternative means.

If deprived of real work that is regarded as a positive accomplishment, then a person loses their sense of self-worth and can fall in to a depression. This story is extremely common in many western nations today.

I look at the cats laying in the sun. Most animals don't do much all day, and their instincts largely drive their actions. Are they worse off or more unhappy than us because of it? Not usually.

The idea is you are never good enough. Not even to yourself. So in order to stop hating yourself, and to get everyone to stop hating you, you start doing things that society says you should do. You never reach contentment though, because you must always be accomplishing things without end, or else you are considered a failure by society (in your mind) and thus are considered a constant failure to yourself. This is where all the anxiety and depression comes from that is so frequent in our society.

We are unable to sit like the cat in the sun. We are unable to have long stretches of time where we do nothing, and be happy about it. This is our true nature that has been stolen from us. Our ability to enjoy doing nothing. We are constantly made to be in a state of upset, to accomplish the goals of the socio-economic system and the people who run it.

The carrot is self-worth, and the stick is self-hatred. We have internalized these values because they are echoed throughout our society over and over, and we believe them. Ego is a powerful motivator. Especially if this is all you are taught from a very young age.

So we go about, fervently "accomplishing" things, trying to regain a good opinion of ourselves, not ever fully understanding our place in the world. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, as it is said. Sometimes the best action to do, is to do nothing. We, and our society, are terrible at doing nothing. We always engage instead of letting go, because of our need to justify our self-worth to ourselves and others by "doing something."

“The Buddha said that suffering was caused by desire, we'd learned, and that the cessation of desire meant the cessation of suffering. When you stopped wishing things wouldn't fall apart, you'd stop suffering when they did.” ― John Green