What have you done lately?

“What have you done lately?” was Mrs. Anderson’s favorite question. As my high school Western Civilization teacher, she’d pose that question to the class after expounding on the achievements of some child king or teenage military hero.

“What have you done lately” (drawn out emphasis on the ‘you’) she’d ask us with a toothy Cheshire grin, a playfully accusatory look peering over her bifocals. I suppose we were meant to feel already underaccomplished at age 16 or merely that much more impressed with the exploits of these historical figures. The way she said it made it a fun and highly imitate-able catchphrase, and we’d mock mimic her in the hallways between classes.

But that question, “what have you done lately?” with its implied response of “not as much as that guy” has continued, for better or worse, to ring in my ears since then; and as I get older, the list of people more accomplished than me “at my age” has exploded. Some day it will include presidents and Nobel laureates.

I should feel pretty self satisfied. I’m well liked and respected where I work; I have a loving family and good health. But there are just too many highly accomplished people around there messing this up, making me feel underachieving in comparison. Facebook is no help. Last week, I was reminded through this oh so helpful platform that two old friends had just published books and another was interviewed as an expert on NPR.

Why do their accomplishments accomplish making me feel so underaccomplished? Does everyone feel this way?

Probably not highly evolved and self actualized people. Probably not people who never expected much in the first place. I suppose my occasional self-disappointment malaise is the downside of growing up with loving and encouraging parents who told me I could (should?) achieve the world.

I’ve read that, despite the gloomy weather, Denmark has the happiest people of any country. Why? Not the generous social programs and high standard of living. The happy-ologists report that the Danes are happier because they don’t expect a whole lot and then are quite satisfied with outcome.

But I did not grow up in Denmark. I grew up in a corner of Horatio Alger’s Keeping-Up-with-the Joneses America filled with doctors and lawyers. And with a teacher who kept asking, “What have you done lately”?