Recruiting is hard. It takes a certain type of person to be successful in our industry, and often, we’d consider our big billers to be overachievers. Let’s pause for a moment and ask ourselves a very important question…

Is overachievement a badge of honor?

I might argue that overachievers create an imbalance in their lives. They focus so much energy on achievement in one area that they lose balance. I’m guilty of this. Too much of my identity has been wrapped up in my professional success, and it warrants introspection.

Where does this drive originate? 

Not being a trained psychologist, I looked to Claude for some general insight. My prompt was basic: What are the underlying drivers for overachievement?

To summarize, Claude identified seven core drivers for overachievement, and NEWSFLASH, none of them are great. The primary drivers seem to stem from childhood experiences, personality aspects, social comparison, and fear.

 Here are some examples of how overachievement originated or might show up in your life. Go through this list and decide if any of it is you.

•     Your parents displayed your trophies prominently but rarely mentioned when you were kind to others.
•     You were introduced as “our little genius” or “our little bookworm” or “our little…” and you can fill in the blank: doctor, chess champion, walking encyclopedia, valedictorian-to-be. This often replaced your name. (Hi, Jason here)
•     You feel physically uncomfortable leaving a task as “just good enough” even when no one would notice the difference (this is me, Tricia, all day long!)
•     You spend unnecessary time rewriting things that don’t yet “feel right.” (I just submitted 3 150 word stories which took me 8 days to write- Jason)
•     You overprepare for meetings and conversations “just to be safe.” (Tricia again)
•     You can recite your accomplishments but stumble if someone asks you what makes you happy
•     The thought of not being the most knowledgeable person in the room makes your stomach turn. (Knowledge is free and at your fingertips! -J)
•     You find yourself upset at other members’ celebrations on Monday mornings, and it even causes you to skip Celebrations & Spotlights (or show up late after Celebrations)
•     You create unnecessary lists to experience the satisfaction of checking items off (Tricia, consistently.)
•     You catch yourself bragging about how little sleep you got while finishing work
•     You feel genuine anxiety about taking a vacation
•     You apologize when responding to work emails if it’s been more than an hour

 If you fall into this category, what can you do about it? First and foremost, I’m of the opinion that everyone should have a therapist. A trained professional can help you unpack and internalize this, which is the first step to finding more balance.

 Ask yourself, Who am I when I’m not producing or achieving? And then answer it, and start cultivating those aspects of yourself.

 When you notice your inner critic being an asshole, ask yourself, Would I speak this way to someone I loved or cared about? You wouldn’t. I promise. So, let’s stop talking to ourselves this way.

Lastly, can we experiment with “good enough”? What if you completed your tasks at 80% effort and then see what the results are? Would anyone notice? If they noticed, would they be upset? The answer is often no to both.

The first step to making this change is identifying the change which needs to be made. Do you need to start working on this?