Achieving VS Maintaining

People (or at least people in the United States) seem to consider it a good thing to be an achiever, which, well, yes it is a good thing. Achievers do great things and what not. However, you never hear about any maintaining something in a heroic or passionate manner.

Take for example, someone trying to lose weight. They'll get all of the applause when they finally drop ten pounds and go down a size. However, they will not get the same level of reinforcement to maintain that weight, which often results in those same people going back to being overweight. If that person was continually given focus on maintaining his or her figure, that person may have put more value on continuing to exercise or eat healthily, but instead reverted back to old habits after achieving the goal.

Consider someone else who would just as quickly go to being overweight if s/he had the same bad habits. However, that person maintains a healthy figure with good habits, but no one cares, because that's maintenance, not achievement, even if that maintenance is far more difficult than the initial achievement ever was.

This can extent to leaders (everyone remember Washington? Now, what was the name of the second or third President?), balancing the economy, the hero saves the kingdom but there's no new king in sight, or even making the grade. People seem to like reaching an end point and not caring anymore after that.

Where did this mentality come from? Why is it so rampant if it's so detrimental? Can maintenance ever be as important as achievement in the eyes of others? How many more questions can I ask even if I already know the answers to them?

We're all just human. It's hard to admire something that isn't noticeable. You're right, but that doesn't mean anything. This is the way things are, and it's the way they will continue to be unless there is a dramatic cultural change.

Well, sometimes you do congratulate people on maintaining something. For example, if someone is up at 6 every morning to go for a jog you might say "I admire your dedication" or something. But if you can't see them doing any work, then you might just assume that they just are that way without putting any effort into it.

This probably goes back to some weird evolutionary glitch from our hunter gatherer days.

Possibly once somebody starts doing something regularly it becomes expected of them. You never see people getting congratulated for consistently showing up to school or their job. It's just something they are expected to do.