More than 30 years after its inception, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards continues to attract and certify educators who demonstrate accomplished teaching (Cowan & Goldhaber, 2016). The voluntary and rigorous process of National Board Certification is an accomplishment over 130,000 teachers have attained (NBPTS, 2022b). Board certification is often referred to as the most effective professional development for teachers (Darling-Hammond, 2008); however, under 4% of teachers in the nation have achieved board certified teacher status (Cowan & Goldhaber, 2016). The purpose of this study was to describe how lived experiences of board certified teachers influence their decisions to aspire and sustain board certification. Convenience sampling followed by purposeful sampling were utilized to select the 14 participants located throughout the nation. A diverse representation of participants was sought to include location, initial board certification year, certificate area, age, gender, ethnicity, years of teaching experience, and highest level of education. For my qualitative study, data was collected through an initial questionnaire, in-depth semi-structured interviews, and a follow-up questionnaire developed through a preliminary analysis of data collected. First cycle coding included Attribute and In Vivo Coding while second cycle coding consisted of Pattern Coding (Saldana, 2016).The theoretical framework used to analyze findings was constructivism as was the lens of a phenomenological, descriptive case study. During coding, four central themes emerged with lived experiences heavily inspired by: lifelong learning, challenge, support, and merit. The findings of this study indicate that board certified teachers are lifelong learners, persevere through challenges, value as well as provide board certification support, and believe board certification is a worthwhile endeavor. Furthermore, additional insight was added to the literature on the benefits of board certification. The majority of participants indicated that intrinsic motivators were their main reasons for pursuing board certification, with extrinsic motivators acting as a bonus. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]