HEYYA!
Growing up I wanted to be successful, and when I mean successful, I’m talking about outer success. The cars, money, lifestyle and flashy bling.
Because that’s how I defined success. I felt if I could help enough people, then I could fill my insatiable hunger driven from my small ego-self.
In 2012, I achieved that. Clearing my first six-figure per year income and experiencing incredible business success. However….
I had to put one of my top values on hold….connection.
After months and months of pushing hard, I felt inwardly depleted and outwardly fulfilled. I’d reached a place where my success was completely based upon my outward achievements.
And so to keep that fire burning, I had to continue focusing on staying busy taking more and more action, pushing myself further and further away from any inner connection.
The “Mask” of the Overachiever sums up how I lived my life for fourteen straight months. Until I reached a place, I was drained, off course and spiritually wiped out.
That’s when you have to “check yourself before you wreck yourself.”
The content below has made such an impact on both my life, and business. I’m in such a powerful place now to contribute back to others from my highest level while feeling the most connected I’ve ever felt in my entire life.
Without a doubt, this IS the best space I’ve ever been to build a business.
THE OVERACHIEVER
The Overachiever is the most driven person of the bunch. Although they are generally successful, they are continuously busy, overwhelmed, and almost always overcommitted. They pride themselves on how many projects they can handle at one time and how many boards and committees they can participate in.
They are the campions of the multitaskers. No matter how much they do, it is rarely enough to satisfy their insatiable hunger for success – which is food for their under appreciated wounded egos. Their feelings of unworthiness drive them to win at all costs, even if it means barreling over someone else. Achievements in the outer world are the yardstick by which they measure their inner worth.
Overachievers generally suffer from self-importance and ego-mania. A sure sign of their predatory nature. They are results-driven doers who won’t take no for an answer, from themselves or others.
They are perfectionists whose disdain for mediocrity has them micromanage every detail and become overly controlling. Unfortunately for those who fly with them, the Overachiever is often harsh, critical, impatient, and judgmental of all the regular folk who gather around them to feed off their success.
Few can withstand their high energy, and fewer still can keep up with the Overachievers frantic pace. Overachievers feel entitled to better service, better lifestyles, and better benefits from those whose businesses they patronize, and as a result they often have unrealistic expectations and a hard time understanding the lifestyle of common, everyday people.
Inwardly unfulfilled and insecure, these types find it hard to sit still for even a moment. At their best, they are creative geniuses with enormous vision. At their worst, they are power-hungry people who seek the next big win at any costs.
THE OVERACHIEVER’S SHAME
Worthless, less than, boring, average, useless, frightened
THE OVERACHIEVER’S CHALLENGE
The Overachiever’s challenge is to stop defining who they are by the measure of what they do. When the Overachiever begins to place more value on their quality of life than they do their achievements, they learn to stop and savour the fruits of their labours rather than insatiably going after more and more.
As soon as the Overachiever realizes that doing more is not an inoculation against being average, he or she is free to experience the moment, not as a measure of their value but as an opportunity to experience and enjoy life. They must find their inherent worth in just being who they are, without any of their ornaments of achievement.
#Debbie Ford
Are you starting to see it? We can go after success, but if we don’t do the inner work we’ll always relate our level of inner fulfilment on our outer success. And trust me when I say, it becomes a visous cycle.
Even if your business requires you to help people to succeed yourself, it may come off as you’re helping others but really you’re fuelling your own ego-driven needs.
BALANCE and prioritizing has helped me immensely. Figuring out what comes first, then fitting business around those top values. You can and will LOVE your business when you start to enjoy the process and take care of yourself FIRST, before the needs of other or all the outer success won’t mean anything without the inner fulfilment.
In Gratitude,
Ryan
