Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsWhat Does It Mean to Be an Overachiever?Signs of an OverachieverHigh vs OverachievementHow to Overcome Overachieving
Table of ContentsView All
View All
Table of Contents
What Does It Mean to Be an Overachiever?
Signs of an Overachiever
High vs Overachievement
How to Overcome Overachieving
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An overachiever is someone who performs beyond expectations, usually at work or school. Individuals who overachieve tend to set extremely high standards for themselves, yet never feel satisfied with their accomplishments. Even if they do great things, they always strive to do more.
Overachieving is associated withgreater success in life, but it can also take a toll on our physical and mental health, even affecting our relationships.Learn how to recognize signs of being an overachiever, how this is different from being a high performer, and ways that we can achieve our goals in healthy ways.
At a GlanceOverachieving can lead to success, but often at the risk of one’s health. Signs of an overachiever include being a perfectionist, having a strong focus on work, and never feeling satisfied. This is different from being a high performer, or someone who tends to focus more on the journey than the outcome. Taking a step back, practicing self-care, and connecting with others can all help reduce the negative effects of being an overachiever.
At a Glance
Overachieving can lead to success, but often at the risk of one’s health. Signs of an overachiever include being a perfectionist, having a strong focus on work, and never feeling satisfied. This is different from being a high performer, or someone who tends to focus more on the journey than the outcome. Taking a step back, practicing self-care, and connecting with others can all help reduce the negative effects of being an overachiever.
There is no scientific agreement as to how to define ‘overachiever.’ That said, this term is generally used to refer to someone who focuses on success but, regardless of how much they achieve, they don’t experience that sense of satisfaction that typically comes withhitting one’s goals.
Although achievement is generally a good thing, overachievement can lead to an imbalanced life. This imbalance stems from the sacrifices a person must make to reach and maintain a high level of accomplishment. Overachievers often neglect their health, happiness, and relationships in order to chase a target that is constantly moving.
Overachieving is common at school and work, with some people also setting high-reaching goals in other areas, such as at home or in sports.
School
In academic settings, overachievers are identified as students who perform above the standards expected for their age level. They are often contrasted with underachievers or students who perform less well than educators expect.
Kids labeled as overachievers may face higher expectations from their teachers, while those viewed as underachievers may not receive the support and guidance that they need tosucceed in school.
Work
Overachievers tend to be very successful in their professional lives but are also often known as hard-driving “workaholics.” Theirleadership stylemay be seen as overly demanding and coercive rather than supportive.
Research suggests that overachievers in the workplace may be less happy than people who are not classified as such. Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), for example,have depressionat roughly twice the rate of the general population.Their tendency to take on too much work can also lead overachievers to burnout.
Trying to maintain a high level of output and performance can be exhausting if not impossible to keep up for a long period of time. When an overachiever does reach their breaking point, theadmission of defeat or failurecan be devastating.
Could You Be Addicted to Work?
Other Settings
School and work aren’t the only areas in which overachievement is common. People can engage in this type of behavior in a number of settings. Parenting, housework, and hobbies are a few additional areas in which overachievement can take place.
Sports is another. An overachiever who takes part in a community sports league might take their role much more seriously than other participants, for example, working endlessly to ensure that their performance is far better than anyone else’s on the team.
Being labeled an overachiever isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It may simply mean that others consider us to be smart, successful, and hard-working.
The Outcome Is More Important Than the Journey
Failure is not part of thelearning processfor an overachiever. Poor outcomes can be devastating, so they will often do whatever it takes to avoid such failings.
Rather than feeling pride or joy in their accomplishment when reaching a goal, an overachiever is simply relieved that they have not failed.
A Perfectionist Mindset
Overachievers may beconcerned with being perfect. To them, not being perfect is a sign of failure. So, they go to almost any length to maintain a perfect image.
Just as achievement is usually a good thing, being somewhat of a perfectionist isn’t always bad news. It means that good work is valued and there’s a commitment to doing one’s best. It’s when perfectionism becomes a source of stress and anxiety that it can start to take a toll on our physical and mental well-being.
How to Overcome Perfectionism
Are You a Perfectionist? Take the Quiz
Our fast and free perfectionist quiz can help you determine if your behavior suggests that you are a perfectionist:
Excessive Self-Criticism
It’s normal to be a bitcritical of our shortcomings. Overachievers, however, have a tendency to berate themselves for failing to live up to excessively high expectations. They often set goals that are impossible to achieve, and then blame themselves when they don’t live up to these unreachable standards.
Studies have found a connection between overachieving and higher levels of self-doubt and anxiety.Constantly striving to reach an almost impossible goal coupled with the ever-present fear of failure can be amajor source of stress.
Press Play for Advice On Accepting Yourself As You AreThis episode ofThe Verywell Mind Podcast, featuring Harvard Professor Ronald Siegel, shares how you can learn how to embrace yourself as you are. Click below to listen now.
Press Play for Advice On Accepting Yourself As You Are
This episode ofThe Verywell Mind Podcast, featuring Harvard Professor Ronald Siegel, shares how you can learn how to embrace yourself as you are. Click below to listen now.
Only Focused on the Future
Because they are so wrapped up in avoiding negative outcomes, overachievers are constantly worried about the future. This creates issues because they regularly neglect the here and now.
An overachiever doesn’tlive in the presentbecause they’re too busy worrying about things that may or may not happen down the road. They’re unable to enjoy things as they happen because they are concerned about what is yet to come.
Poor Work-Life Balance
Never taking a vacation, a day off, or even a short break during the day are all common overachieving behaviors. These patterns may occur from time to time for anyone, particularly during busy periods when there’s a lot to get done. It’s when they are chronic or consistent that overachieving is a concern.
Overachievers regularly stay late at work, dedicate more time to their careers than to their personal lives, and skip out of self-care activities and hobbies to “get the job done.” This leads to poorwork-life balance, which is associated with lower life and job satisfaction levels, as well as increased rates of anxiety and depression.
How to Take a Break from Work (and Why You Need To)
Taking Dangerous Risks to Reach Goals
Overachievers have a tendency to set goals that are unrealistic. As a result, they may be willing to do almost anything to avoid failure. This can become dangerous when it leads to engaging in unethical orrisky behaviorsin an effort to reach their goals.
Unrealistic weight loss goals, for example, can lead to cutting too many calories to receive proper nutrition. Setting a goal to win a race can result in running too many miles each day to prepare, increasing one’s risk of an injury. At work, an overachiever may find themselves cutting corners or doing risky things to get ahead, putting their livelihood at risk.
Outbursts of Anger
The demand to achieve beyond the bounds of expectations can create a tremendous amount of stress. This stress can contribute to emotional outbursts when things don’t go according to plan.
Aloss of temperonce in a while is normal. But acting out inappropriately with little provocation can be a sign that we are putting too much pressure on ourselves to achieve the impossible.
Inability to Deal With Criticism
Critical evaluations of performance can be tough for anyone. For overachievers, they can be especially devastating.
To an overachiever, criticism implies failure, and failure is an overachiever’s greatest fear.If we find ourselves taking even the smallest critiques personally, it might be a sign that we need to step back.
Never Feeling Satisfied
Overachievers aren’t able to settle down and just enjoy the present. Even after accomplishing some important goal, they don’t take the time to reallycelebrate success. All that matters is what comesnext.
Moving from one goal to the next without ever stopping to relish one’s accomplishments is a sign of an overachiever.
Feeling Stretched Too Thin
In addition to working too hard in general, overachievers often become involved in many different projects. They aren’t satisfied with being skilled in just a few areas—they want to succeed ateverything.
In school, an overachiever is likely to become involved in every club, organization, or activity that they possibly can. At work, they volunteer for as many projects or tasks as they can become involved with.
Rather than becoming the master of many skills, an overachiever may end up being proficient at none.Feeling burnt outis also a likely outcome.
Many differentsources of motivationcan compel people to work toward their goals. Yet, overachievers are often motivated out of fear. They do what they do because they have a fear of failure, a fear of letting other people down, or a fear of looking weak or incompetent.
Ultimately, they are working hard to avoid a negative outcome (failure) rather than working to achieve a positive outcome (achieving a desired goal). This serves as a source of anxiety, often leading to distress, worry, and othernegative feelings, all of which can have a detrimental impact on one’s self-worth and confidence.
High Achievement vs. Overachieving
While overachievers are often referred to as high performers, these two terms are actually different. Both are interested in the pursuit of success, but overachievers are never satisfied with their achievements.Their focus is on the goal, and not what it takes to reach the goal.
High performers are focused on their goals, but they care much more about how well they perform. Their success doesn’t just mean finishing on time or ticking certain tasks off a list. Instead, it’s about the journey, how well the project turns out, and how much they learn along the way.
For high performers, the act of performing something is not simply to reach the end so they can say that it is finished—it’s about the performance itself. It’s about doing something, doing it well, making something better, andlearning something from the experience.
What to Do If You Feel Guilty About Success
There are steps that overachievers can take to help keep their need for success from hindering their physical health, emotional well-being, or social relationships.
Take a Step Back
When beginning to pursue a goal, take a moment to consider why it is so important. What’s behind the drive to reach that goal? What if the goal isn’t achieved? How would that feel? Does the goal have a realistic outcome?
Even though taking a step back may not alter the decision to pursue the goal, it can lead to more perspective or clarity as to what the goal represents. It also serves as a checkpoint formaking sure the goal is realistic and attainable.
Practice Self-Care
Even if we are working hard to reach our goals, it’s critical to take the time to care for ourselves. We mustn’t overlook our mental or physical well-being in the name of doing great things.
Self-care involves giving ourselves breaks, rewarding our efforts, and doing something each day that will benefit our health and wellness. Implementing these types of strategies can alsomake it easier to manage stress.
Connect With Others
Overachievers are known to let their relationships suffer in the pursuit of their goals. However, maintaininghealthy social connectionsis actually more likely to support long-term success.
Take the time to connect with others. Reach out to them, devote time to loved ones, and be willing to let others provide support along the way.
9 SourcesVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Denham Smith D.How to dial it back when you’re a chronic overachiever. Harvard Business Review.Guidry CM, Medina MS, Bennett KK, Schwier NC.The other side of “challenging learners”: Strategies for teaching and precepting the overachiever and high performer.Am J Health Syst Pharm. 2022;79(2):17-22. doi:10.1093/ajhp/zxab348Veas A, Gilar R, Miñano P, Castejón JL.Estimation of the Proportion of Underachieving Students in Compulsory Secondary Education in Spain: An Application of the Rasch Model.Front Psychol. 2016;7:303. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00303Shifrer D.Stigma of a label: Educational expectations for high school students labeled with learning disabilities.J Health Social Behav. 2013;54(4):462-480. doi:10.1177/022146513503356Luongo R, Moody D.Renewed partnerships: Where people come first and the business of research compliance follows.NCURA Magazine (Harvard). 2015;9(11):9-10.Eldad K.The superstar paradox—How overachievers miss the mark in life and at work.Psychology Res. 2019;9(8):339-43. doi:10.17265/2159-5542/2019.08.005Zhao Q, Wichman A.Incremental beliefs about ability ameliorate self-doubt effects.SAGE Open. 2015;5(4). doi:10.1177/2158244015622539Haar JM, Russo M, Suñe A, Ollier-Malaterre A.Outcomes of work-life balance on job satisfaction, life satisfaction and mental health: A study across seven cultures.J Vocation Behav. 2014;85(3):361-373. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2014.08.010Wang D, Uzzi B.Weak ties, failed tries, and success.Science. 2022;377(6612):1256-1258. doi:10.1126.science.add0692Additional ReadingKaufman B.Overachieving leaders: when an “A” is not good enough.Business Strategy Series. 2012;13(2):70-74. doi:10.1108/17515631211220896
9 Sources
Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Denham Smith D.How to dial it back when you’re a chronic overachiever. Harvard Business Review.Guidry CM, Medina MS, Bennett KK, Schwier NC.The other side of “challenging learners”: Strategies for teaching and precepting the overachiever and high performer.Am J Health Syst Pharm. 2022;79(2):17-22. doi:10.1093/ajhp/zxab348Veas A, Gilar R, Miñano P, Castejón JL.Estimation of the Proportion of Underachieving Students in Compulsory Secondary Education in Spain: An Application of the Rasch Model.Front Psychol. 2016;7:303. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00303Shifrer D.Stigma of a label: Educational expectations for high school students labeled with learning disabilities.J Health Social Behav. 2013;54(4):462-480. doi:10.1177/022146513503356Luongo R, Moody D.Renewed partnerships: Where people come first and the business of research compliance follows.NCURA Magazine (Harvard). 2015;9(11):9-10.Eldad K.The superstar paradox—How overachievers miss the mark in life and at work.Psychology Res. 2019;9(8):339-43. doi:10.17265/2159-5542/2019.08.005Zhao Q, Wichman A.Incremental beliefs about ability ameliorate self-doubt effects.SAGE Open. 2015;5(4). doi:10.1177/2158244015622539Haar JM, Russo M, Suñe A, Ollier-Malaterre A.Outcomes of work-life balance on job satisfaction, life satisfaction and mental health: A study across seven cultures.J Vocation Behav. 2014;85(3):361-373. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2014.08.010Wang D, Uzzi B.Weak ties, failed tries, and success.Science. 2022;377(6612):1256-1258. doi:10.1126.science.add0692Additional ReadingKaufman B.Overachieving leaders: when an “A” is not good enough.Business Strategy Series. 2012;13(2):70-74. doi:10.1108/17515631211220896
Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Denham Smith D.How to dial it back when you’re a chronic overachiever. Harvard Business Review.Guidry CM, Medina MS, Bennett KK, Schwier NC.The other side of “challenging learners”: Strategies for teaching and precepting the overachiever and high performer.Am J Health Syst Pharm. 2022;79(2):17-22. doi:10.1093/ajhp/zxab348Veas A, Gilar R, Miñano P, Castejón JL.Estimation of the Proportion of Underachieving Students in Compulsory Secondary Education in Spain: An Application of the Rasch Model.Front Psychol. 2016;7:303. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00303Shifrer D.Stigma of a label: Educational expectations for high school students labeled with learning disabilities.J Health Social Behav. 2013;54(4):462-480. doi:10.1177/022146513503356Luongo R, Moody D.Renewed partnerships: Where people come first and the business of research compliance follows.NCURA Magazine (Harvard). 2015;9(11):9-10.Eldad K.The superstar paradox—How overachievers miss the mark in life and at work.Psychology Res. 2019;9(8):339-43. doi:10.17265/2159-5542/2019.08.005Zhao Q, Wichman A.Incremental beliefs about ability ameliorate self-doubt effects.SAGE Open. 2015;5(4). doi:10.1177/2158244015622539Haar JM, Russo M, Suñe A, Ollier-Malaterre A.Outcomes of work-life balance on job satisfaction, life satisfaction and mental health: A study across seven cultures.J Vocation Behav. 2014;85(3):361-373. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2014.08.010Wang D, Uzzi B.Weak ties, failed tries, and success.Science. 2022;377(6612):1256-1258. doi:10.1126.science.add0692
Denham Smith D.How to dial it back when you’re a chronic overachiever. Harvard Business Review.
Guidry CM, Medina MS, Bennett KK, Schwier NC.The other side of “challenging learners”: Strategies for teaching and precepting the overachiever and high performer.Am J Health Syst Pharm. 2022;79(2):17-22. doi:10.1093/ajhp/zxab348
Veas A, Gilar R, Miñano P, Castejón JL.Estimation of the Proportion of Underachieving Students in Compulsory Secondary Education in Spain: An Application of the Rasch Model.Front Psychol. 2016;7:303. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00303
Shifrer D.Stigma of a label: Educational expectations for high school students labeled with learning disabilities.J Health Social Behav. 2013;54(4):462-480. doi:10.1177/022146513503356
Luongo R, Moody D.Renewed partnerships: Where people come first and the business of research compliance follows.NCURA Magazine (Harvard). 2015;9(11):9-10.
Eldad K.The superstar paradox—How overachievers miss the mark in life and at work.Psychology Res. 2019;9(8):339-43. doi:10.17265/2159-5542/2019.08.005
Zhao Q, Wichman A.Incremental beliefs about ability ameliorate self-doubt effects.SAGE Open. 2015;5(4). doi:10.1177/2158244015622539
Haar JM, Russo M, Suñe A, Ollier-Malaterre A.Outcomes of work-life balance on job satisfaction, life satisfaction and mental health: A study across seven cultures.J Vocation Behav. 2014;85(3):361-373. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2014.08.010
Wang D, Uzzi B.Weak ties, failed tries, and success.Science. 2022;377(6612):1256-1258. doi:10.1126.science.add0692
Kaufman B.Overachieving leaders: when an “A” is not good enough.Business Strategy Series. 2012;13(2):70-74. doi:10.1108/17515631211220896
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