Are you one of my many overachievers? Yes, you right now, listening to this podcast?
Hey – I’m an overachiever, too. And it can be a great thing – a useful thing. But only if we let it – *make* it – stay within some boundaries.
Because if we let ourselves go all out – just feed this work and to-dos and nothing else beast – pretty soon we’re going to have nothing left of our families, our health, and ourselves but monster mode.
And that’s not how you want to be living. So.
The trouble with overachievers is that we have trouble with boundaries. We think more is better, all the time. More work, more to do’s, more check marks – hey! Isn’t that great? Aren’t you proud of me?
And yet that totally misses the *point* of efforting for what’s meaningful, not turning out metaphorical widgets on a factory machine.
That’s not what you were put here to create. Which means you need to stop acting like your work output is what matters most, and start living like you have a life outside of chores (gasp – hobbies!).
Now. Another matter. If I know you, you’re resisting self-care as an overachiever. Why?
Because fundamentally, selfcare is taking time *away* from something else you could be doing. Another checkmark, chore completed, you could be getting.
And so we resist.
You weren’t put here to cross off to-do lists.
Stop! That isn’t healthy!
If you care about nothing *but* your work, at least hear this: your body will *function* better if it’s non-stressed! If you’re feeding it regularly and letting it shut down after work and focusing on good sleep sessions every night. (Thinking in machine or animal terms, that is.)
That’s just basic care to get the most out of your living, functioning human being!
And if you *aren’t* doing at least that bare minimum, then we have a problem. *You* have a problem, actually.
It’s time to prime yourself for years of work *by* making yourself take off *hours* of work. Just so you can focus better and produce top output. Okay?
So, bearing all this in mind, what’s a realistic goal to set as an overachiever? What *should* you be asking of yourself?
(Since we’re both overachievers here, and you *know* we’re not going to stop setting goals.)
- It’s simple – keep the 6 figures biz goals, but alter them just slightly to “take in 6 figures revenue without working weekends (or evenings).”
- “Crush my launch goal without ever feeling burnout.”
- “Hit my 6-person-team hiring dream without adding a single extra billable hour per week (to my schedule) – because I’m truly *outsourcing* to them, not taking on more week learning to manage.”
That sort of thing.
You see, you *can* still be an overachiever and have *healthy* ways of doing goals. It’s totally possible.
You just have to subtly tweak each goal to *include* rest, and *exclude* hustle.
It’s totally possible.
Where are you going to embrace your overachiever ways today? And next, what alterations are you going to make to your current goals (that you still really want to hit!) so that they’re pushing you towards rest, not burnout?
You’ve got this. You just have to let yourself soften into them a little. You’re absolutely going to get there.
Now go out there, and conquer every #goal in sight – but give yourself breaks in between.
Deal? Deal.
You’ve got this.
