Names and Accomplishments Part II

Yesterday, I talked about the holographic toy and the message revealed under our name. In part II I wanted to talk about accomplishments and how they relate to our names and who we are. Here is the premise I spent time discussing in my head as I jogged; We do not let accomplishments dictate who we are, rather we let who we are define our accomplishments. As I was thinking of this, I came up with a few examples to better explain the premise.
Let’s take Charlie Ward. Coach Ward is a former Heisman trophy winner. He also won a national championship at Florida State as a quarterback. Coach Ward is a godly man, and a winner. Coach Ward was all of these things before the Heisman trophy and before the national championship. He did not become a winner or a leader after he won those awards; he was that person before the awards. I don’ think he said, “Because I am a an award winner, I will now be a good person.” The award did not define who he was. I do believe he changed the definition of the award because of who he was before he was awarded the Heisman. The Heisman at that time did not only mean the best college football player, but good character became a criteria. I would think that those behind the decision might say it was always part of the selection process, but I think whoever the winner is each year helps change the selection process. Some might even argue that it has no bearing on the award at all. I find that hard to believe. Coach Ward helped define the award because of who he was before the award.
We even see the negative effect of the same thing. We have also seen awards lose value because of the character of the previous winner. A good example could be the defensive award that was won by the Texan football player this past year. After he won the award he was caught using performance enhancing supplement banned by the NFL. I do not know what the substances were or whether he used them or not. I do not know his character at all. I am only speaking about what I read and hear in the news. I do believe that because he was allowed to keep the award that it lessen the value of the award for the next winner. I also believe value can be regained. Whoever the next winner is, who he was before the award, can help recapture the value or hurt it further.
I was listening to talk radio and they were talking about the best homerun hitters in baseball. You know they never mentioned Barry Bonds. Barry Bonds hold several homerun records including the most homeruns in a career. How can he not be mentioned? He is not mentioned because of the accusations of cheating to get results. He has tarnished the accomplishment and most want to forget about it because they want the accomplishment to mean something. I do not believe you can do that. What he allegedly chose to do to get results change what the accomplishment meant. That can only be erased when someone else reaches the same milestones.
In conclusion of parts I and part II, the message revealed by your name can help define the accomplishments you receive. We cannot allow accomplishments to rewrite the meaning encoded in our names, we rewrite the accomplishment because the encoded message was there first.