If you consider yourself a high achiever, you probably care a lot about doing a good job… at everything. 

You like to set standards for yourself, and you try to do things “well” or “right”. 

It’s an honorable goal, to do things as best as you can. 

But this desire to do everything right could also be your downfall. 

It was mine. 

In some situations, this desire helps high achievers accomplish impressive feats. (In my case, this helped me 4.0 my way through all of an honors college while also working multiple jobs, volunteering, and being in a high-commitment collegiate marching band). 

But behind the scenes, we’re sacrificing some of our other needs to make it all happen. 

For me, this looked like sleeping 3-4 hours a night, consuming A LOT of coffee, and being super hard on myself anytime I thought I might not be able to meet my own expectations. (this later created an excess of stress and sickness for me)

High achievement has a secret danger to it: it can lead you to put your own needs last, and wind up in a state of burnout and discouragement. 

This was 5 years ago now, but I saw this in DOZENS of my fellow honors college students. Many of whom, like me, had super high expectations of themselves and were willing to go to extreme lengths to meet those expectations. 

Choosing to strive for productivity in the short term is an honorable goal. But when it becomes a way of life, high achievers eventually find themselves feeling drained and unable to do things they used to. 

This looks like having thoughts like “Why can’t I focus?” “What’s wrong with me?” “Why am I so tired? I haven’t even done much today” the list goes on. 

It looks like increased caffeine consumption to try to continue functioning. 

It looks like surviving, not thriving. 

The more and more you push yourself when you’re on this path, the less and less energy you’ll have to participate in your life. 

For me, I took it to such an extreme that I lost a lot of weight and strength, and would need to catch my breath for 10 minutes after carrying in 2 grocery bags.

I felt pathetic, and frustrated that I couldn’t figure out what was “wrong with me.”

But it turned out there was never anything wrong with me, I just thought I was supposed to be able to do it all, and I didn’t realize that caring for my own needs was a prerequisite for being able to sustain myself. 

In conclusion

Putting your needs on the back burner in order to do things the “right way” is an unsustainable way of living that eventually leads to burnout and decreased productivity.

If you don’t set limits on how hard you work to “do things right” then your body will eventually set those limits for you.

If you start to feel drained and less capable of “producing” what you could in the past. This could be a sign that some of your needs have been put on the back burner, and you could be on the path to burnout.

To protect against this, assess what your body needs, trust how tired you feel, and instead of constantly pushing through and doing “more,” give yourself permission to care for yourself in whatever ways it feels your body is calling for.

Much Love,

Morgan Rita Barbret

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Hi, I’m Morgan, if we haven’t met yet, I’m a certified life coach who helps perfectionists and high achievers take their needs off the back burner so they can have more energy for life and do more of what THEY want with their lives.

If you want help with this, I send a newsletter every other week about topics that can help with caring for yourself, building confidence, self-kindness, & sustainable self-worth/esteem. I’d love it if you’d subscribe and follow along!