"I just don't know how he/she manages to do it all!" If people are always saying this about you, you may be an overachiever.
But while the title of "overachiever" often has a positive connotation - think back to your elementary school days, when being an overachiever basically meant being the teacher's pet - it's not always all it's cracked up to be. Overachievers are more likely, for instance, to feel anxious. And their motivations for, well, over-achieving, often stem from the need to avoid negative judgment, explains Robert Arkin, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at The Ohio State University. Here are are signs you should look out for:
1. It's all about the outcome
And it better be a good one. Arkin explains that one of two hallmark traits of an overachiever is the staking of identity on outcomes. "They believe that people around them, and they themselves, judge their worthiness based upon how well they do," he says.
2. You live your life in a state of perpetual relief.
Overachievers are far more focused on avoiding failure than they are at achieving a good outcome -- a key differentiator between an overachiever and a high performer. But there is a downside to this: "When you avoid a bad outcome, your emotional life is experienced more as relief than it is experienced as joy, and that's just not as rewarding," Arkin says.
Source material from Huffington Post