Is Overachieving In Your Blood?
Because good is never good enough
I consider myself an overachiever — being efficient and completing 287 tasks a day — that gets my blood pumping and feeling good. The feeling of constantly being pushed to my limit is stressful yet addictive.
Many articles have discussed whether being an overachiever is a good or bad thing, and I personally feel that there are definitely two sides of the coin.
How do you tell if you are an overachiever?
The truth is, overachievers often do not realize they are overachievers.
Here’s how you can tell.
1. You have been called a Perfectionist
Every task on hand has to be executed seamlessly and according to plan. You are the last one to vet through the project report, making final edits and making sure every spacing and grammar is correct. You are the one doing most of the work in a project because you know you can do it better.
You are constantly trying to improve on whatever you have done before. You justify to yourself that all the effort and time will be worth it from the compliments you will get for doing the job well.
Reality: Sometimes, good is good enough. Not every task has to be done perfectly. This can waste a lot of unnecessary time and effort that has minimal impact. Remember, perfect is the enemy of good.
2. You always have something to do on hand
Being an overachiever, there is never time to relax and enjoy the moment. You always have tasks on hand because you anticipate when your current tasks on hand will finish and proceed to take on more before those on hand are completed.
You simply cannot tolerate doing nothing.
Personally, I believe any time not spent learning or improving myself is time wasted. This quote sums it up well:
“Today I will do what others won’t so tomorrow I can do what others can’t. “ — Jerry Rice
The notion that doing more and working hard will get me ahead of others drives me to push myself. Its all about the push, push and push.
Reality: Take a break and live for a moment. Striving to improve is great, but taking the time to enjoy the moment is important as well. Focus on one task at a time. Doing too many things can lead to a severe burnout.
3. You think every task on hand is equally important
You have 20 tasks on hand and you have trouble prioritizing them. Every task has to be completed and completed well. You try to prioritize them into different categories of importance without ever thinking about whether or not the less important ones can be dropped.
As a result, you routinely ignore personal needs and relationships in order to get things done. More often than not, this involves non-existent lunch breaks, going to the toilet on a full bladder and sometimes even ruined marriages.
Alternatively, you find yourself planning how you can do everything without compromising on any aspects of your life.
Reality: You are not in a ‘busy’ race. In fact, doing too many things can lead to people around you feeling exhausted. Learn to prioritize and do what is necessary. Delegate or consider dropping less important tasks. Life is not a race and there is always more work to be done.
4. You inadvertently become a people-pleasing pushover
You are the epitome of what people call a “Yes-man”. As a result, people around you including your co-workers, family and friends see you as being reliable, while others may seek to take advantage of you.
Saying ‘no’ seems almost impossible because you either think: “if I don’t do it, no one’s going to do it” or “if I can do it, why not?”. Over time, you become everyone’s go-to person for any task big or small. This can be either good or bad because you do not want to be seen as the ‘worker bee’, but rather someone who knows how to get things in the appropriate manner.
This is when understanding the scope of your duties is important. Take some time to evaluate the tasks you are doing as your boss might not even be expecting you to take on certain tasks. Sure, they might appreciate you getting the job done, but they might not appreciate the fact that you are the one doing it (especially if they are not aware).
Reality: Learn to say ‘no’. If you are unsure if certain tasks are within the scope of your portfolio, ask your boss if you should take it up. There is a fine-line between overworking oneself and value-adding to oneself.
5. You suck at dealing with failure
Let’s be real — failure sucks for anyone. But even more so for overachievers.
You have spent hours on a task to make sure things are perfect, only to receive negative feedback. You have spent days and weeks preparing for an interview, only to walk out of the interview room feeling like you weren’t good enough.
You question your self-worth. You question what you are working so hard for. Acceptance of these failures is always tough because you always try to give your best in everything you do yet somehow, your best was not good enough.
Reality: Failure is likely to happen more often because your expectations were so high to begin with. Being good or adequate is sometimes good enough, and there’s nothing wrong in achieving things in a regular way in a regular time frame. Success is subjective — I’m not asking you to lower your expectations, but rather define the level of success you wish to strive for and reward yourself with those small wins.
Final words from one overachiever to another
To all my overachieving friends out there, let’s strive to be our better selves — a high-performer instead of an overachiever (will write about this in the future!).
While there are many merits to being an overachiever, I do believe that the above problems associated with being an overachiever can lead to more hindrance than benefits if not handled well. Dealing with those problems is important as it may keep us from achieving our goals, and that defeats the purpose of overachieving in the first place.
