is getting to 1200 even considered an accomplishment?

ANY improvement of ANY kind is an accomplishment. Can you imagine where you'll be a year from now if you keep pushing forward??

compare yourself with yourself, not other people

Congratulations! or Commiserations...

Yes, that's an improvement. But you can't now expect to acheive the same 300+ jump at the same speed - the elo-rate isn't linear. y = 3x + 5. it's more like a log(x) funtction, so from now on, even if you improve in "only just" a 100 points, it may be even greater than the 300-points jump.

Godspeed.

Yes, it is an accomplishment. No one gets there for free. Anyone there and beyond have played and studied the game quite a bit. Anyone that is new to the game will get smashed by you even if they study for some weeks. 

Don't compare yourself to others. Just enjoy the ride.

every step on the ladder is progression

When I got to 1200 for the first time, yes, it was a huge accomplishment. Every time you go beyond your peak rating, it's something to be proud of especially when you go up to a new 100 level

but keep in mind that chess is a cruel game ,no matter how good you get theres always someone lurking to knock you back down , but if you can bounce back smiling you are on to a winner

Thought you died

welcome back

Mwah. I was just playing some other games for awhile ^_^

I wouldn't worry too much about other people. Everyone starts and learns and has a different aptitude for chess. So if you started at 900 and got to 1200, I would say that is a pretty good accomplishment for you.that's a 25% increase in rating as you move up it will be more difficult to improve. If your goal is to improve then setting yourself some milestone accomplishments is key

A general rule, people find their own rating fairly attainable. People rated 1200 consider climbing from 800 to 1200 to be much easier than people rated 800 that still have to climb to 1200. Maybe a form of hindsight bias, based on their own experience. 

Sure, if your are taught chess at a young age, you can progress quite easily. A 12 year old at a 1200-1600 rating is nothing special. But when you learn chess later in life, it's much more difficult. It's not an easy game to master. Don't underestimate how much effort is required. How many 1000s of games people play on this site.  Many people can achieve a 1200 rating, but most people will never reach that level. 

And of course this is also very much true.

"Many people can achieve a 1200 rating, but most people will never reach that level."

I don't think that's true. No matter how late in life you start, I think it is always possible for you to get to 1200 within a few months given that your learning methods are efficient, that you are motivated, and that you practice with relative regularity. Even xQc, who pretty obviously lacks the sort of natural chess intuition (i.e. what most people call "talent") that most beginners do, was able to hit 1200 after a year of practice.

I'm not saying it's necessarily going to be easy for everyone  ─ I'm just saying it's possible, irrespective of your natural ability.

Is getting to 1200 even considered an accomplishment?

It depends on where you was.

If you was 400 ELO, to arrive to 1200 ELO indeed is. If you were 1800 fall to it's a loss.

All is relative (Albert Einstain)

Talk about a useless comment

Breaking plateaus and reaching your goals always are accomplishments. Is it necessary to compare yourself to other people?

"Is it necessary to compare yourself to other people?"

Yes. Some people, like me, are competitive, you know. And if I know that other people do a lot better than me in something, I'll just find something else that I'm as good as, or better than, most people in. All of that, of course, given achieving goals is even something I care about in said activity; if I don't, then I just enjoy the activity and don't compare myself to anybody ─ not me, not others.

In other words, yes, for many people (like myself), you do have to compare yourself to others in order for your goals to feel like accomplishments.

I was in a somewhat similar situation. When I made my account here I was around ~1000 strength but I wanted to beat all the people that had bested me in the past. So I would constantly compare myself to them. 

If you come back to chess after actually gaining like 500 points without you knowing, no. If you took two months to grind, yes. Depending on how you got it, the answer will differ

That would be less accurate. While some people decline after not playing, sometimes people play less because they are studying more. And therefore you cannot guess whether or not when they come back if they will be better than before or worse. 

The website HAS a way of dealing with it.

It's called RD (Rating Deviation).