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 be